Gulliver's Travels: Swift's Opinions Of The English Essay

Swift is suggesting that one can't escape their nature. Gulliver goes on to express his great gladness for being in Houyhnhnmland and not England, which at the same time allows Swift an oppurtunity to give one of his strongest censures of English society in an explosive rant (like Swift is noted for). I enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquility of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the inquiries of a secret or open enemy. I had no occasion of bribing…

(501) There are many instances in which the Houyhnhnms are depicted in a positive light, and one such case is Gulliver’s revelation that “The Houyhnhnms have no world in their language to express anything that is evil, except what they borrow from the deformities or ill qualities of the Yahoos” (Swift 2413). In addition, Gulliver reflects upon periods where he was in the company of conversing Houyhnhnms as he expresses: Nothing passed but what was useful, expressed in the fewest and most significant…

Ironically, Gulliver insists to refuse his status of yahoo, the procedure of Gulliver’s acceptation to the status of yahoo is under a depressed atmosphere. When Gulliver backs home, he is still struggling to be a rational creature in his mind which is Houyhnhnm or to be a corrupted creature which is yahoo. Swift’s sharp criticism makes the novel isn’t as fun as ‘Candide’. However, it makes reader think over the purpose of his criticism. On the contrary, Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ is full of black humor…

to entertain him if a spot is open in the court or in office. They would then jump as high as they could without falling. This ritual may seem a little ridiculous to the reader, but this is simply a more physical concept of what went on during Swift’s time, and what is going on now. Candidates running for office in today’s world follow a “survival of the fittest” type campaign in which they try to reach office in ways that don’t even deal with knowledge or experience. In today’s society voters…

Gulliver’s attitude towards the Lilliputians shows that he has respect for humanity, no matter how small, even though the respect is not returned. In contrast to the tiny, petty Lilliputians, the Brobdingnagians are huge and unexpectedly docile. Gulliver’s expectation when he sees the first Brobdingnagian is rather pessimistic: “ For, as human Creatures are observed to be more Savage and cruel in Proportion to their Bulk; what could I expect but to be a Morsel in the Mouth of the first among these…

confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully. When Gulliver reaches the land of Brobdinag, he finds himself in the exact opposite situation that he was in when in Lilliput…

Brobdingnag keep their citizens in order, disciplined, and happy. Like citizens of Utopia, Brobdingnagians do not possess negative qualities such as selfishness and pretentiousness that are found in Gulliver and the rest of his fellow English citizens. The King of Brobdingnag mocks this human pretension, as he does not see it in his own citizens. The church in England, like its followers, is pretentious in nature, and although the Brobdingnagians also have a church, it is not showy or…

Now –after the introduction- it is important to see how Swift “felt himself” in such “era”. Above all, he was unambiguously against abstraction. To be more exact, his hatred directed against the abstract man. The incorporations of this type in Swift’s age were existing and acting within semi-human or (to be stricter) dehumanised racial or professional groups. We can be sure, that –writing about the Laputians- Swift had Descartes in mind. That Descartes, who had forgotten that God created man…

The Lilliputians are supposed to symbolize the Whigs, and Swift thinks of them as stupid and power-hungry. He demonstrates this when they search Gulliver for weapons. In Swift’s time the Whigs searched the Tories for evidence of their connections with England. He also makes fun of the thinking at the time; the Lilliputians were discriminated against whether they wore either high heels or low heels, and the ones that tried to remain neutral worse one high heel and one low heel. At the end of the book…

"[reflected] upon the fair skins of [his] English ladies, who appear so beautiful... only because they are of [his] own size" (Norton,2088). In showing Gulliver's disgust at the sight of such prestigious and beautiful women of Brobdingnag, Swift again comments on English society through a graphic portrayal of the human body. Swift uses the Maids of Honor as a metaphor to comment on the women of England, whom, among eighteenth century English society, were believed to be the most beautiful…