Jonathan Swift's use of satire in Gulliver's Travels

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Jonathan Swift's use of satire in his story "Gulliver's Travels" is not only a useful employment of its best purposes but perhaps also the only way to craft this type of critical argument. Critical thought towards society and its class structure has always been art's most powerful trait. Swift's literature is used in this manner in his famous story. The purpose of this essay is to examine Swift's use of satire in his attempts to socially comment on his environment. This essay will give several examples of this approach in the story and relate these instances into the larger theme of the author's style and approach.

Example 1: Gulliver's First Discovery

Swift's 1726 story, Gulliver's Travels was written from the standpoint of a naval shipping surgeon or doctor named Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver is an eager and open minded middle class English gentlemen married without any children. The story begins as Gulliver takes a job on ship. The ship and crew is lost at sea and Gulliver's adventures begin.

This story explains of four of his journeys into remote and mostly fictional parts of the world. At the time Jonathan Swift wrote this story, the increase in exploration of all parts of the world and their accompanying stories of travels were very popular during this time in history. The travels Swift wrote about were obviously fictional and satirical, but were presented as if they were a factual account written by Gulliver himself.

Gulliver's first adventure begins when he is washed up on sea after his shipwreck. He had slept very well and this deep sleep begins to form Swift's satirical approach. The sleeping Gulliver represents the audience, unaware and asleep to the elites of society and their influence. The good doctor represents those in society who are good hearted people and maybe a little bit too naive.

The strange new environment Gulliver has washed upon is a land inhabited by people who are six inches tall. The name of this land is called Lilliput. The initial reaction of the little people of Lilliput demonstrates the futility of the elite trying to control the great beast, or the masses. This is clearly a satirical approach by Swift to demonstrate the diminished behavior of his targeted enemy.

Swift's description of the manner in which Gulliver is tied down also represents a symbolic and satirical meaning. The words and allusions are specific: "I felt above a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which, pricked me like so many needles; and besides, they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose, fell on my body, (though I felt them not), and some on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce." The author does not mince words when he is discussing the violent and war-torn status the Europe has been dealing with for most of recorded history.

Lilliput's rival kingdom, Blefuscu are very much at war throughout this story. The warring kingdoms are interchangeable and it is their manners themselves that Gulliver finds so remarkably similar. As Gulliver is noting their society, political and judicial systems, religious arguments and disputes, and violent conflicts of total war, it becomes obvious that European politicians and nobles share much of the irrationality of the Lilliputians.

The time comes when Gulliver is eventually forced to leave this land. When Gulliver is evacuate, it is because of trumped-up charges of treason fabricated by some of his newly found enemies. In response, Gulliver decides to go to the other side and allies himself with those in Lilliput's arch enemy's land Blefuscu. Gulliver transcends his situation by leaving there however as well. Swift uses Gulliver again to demonstrate the power of choice and the silliness of rigid social political structures.

Example 3: Gulliver and the Houyhnhnms

Gulliver's final voyage is to a land of intelligent horses called Houyhnhnms, and beastly human-like creatures called Yahoos. In this depiction of the Yahoos, and the parallels he draws between their brutish behavior and that of humans, Swift expands his satire to the evils of the entire human race.

The bulk of the satire in the Voyage to the Houyhnhnms is aimed at human nature itself. This trend to more particular targets earlier in the story is continued with slight, but increasingly direct blows to the subjects of war. Swift uses the social icons of valor and patriotism to illustrate his point. Lawyers, who Swift claimed are "social parasites who measure their worth by their excellence at deception and therefore, actually inhibit justice" contribute to this disparity. Money is also a target of this satire, the greed of a few is fed by the labor and poverty of the many, as well as the relative uselessness and corruption of these privileged few. additionally, Swift makes some very forceful observations on imperialism in the concluding chapter which point out the conceit and self deception of European nations when they claim to civilize, through cruelty and oppression, groups of native people who were often mild and harmless. Certainly, as Swift implies, the real goal of imperialism is greed. The most ironic point occurs when the author disclaims that this attack on imperialist countries does not include Britain, which history shows was equally as brutal as its European rivals and, in many cases, even more so, considering its empire became at one time the biggest of any European country.

The perfectly coherent and virtuous Houyhnhnms provided a sharp contrast to the undecipherable Yahoos. This is evident when Swift has Gulliver voice that "the Houyhnhnms have no letters, and consequently their knowledge is all traditional. But there happening few events of any moment among a people so well united, naturally disposed to every virtue, wholly governed by reason, and cut off from all commerce with other nations, the historical part is easily preserved without burdening their memories." This group of beings is held in high esteem for their simplicity and natural approach to life and society.

As the story progresses, Gulliver eventually becomes so ashamed of his humanity he almost begins to act like a horse. Gulliver tries to transcend his conditioning and vows to change his way. His eventual elimination of some of his bad tendencies through imitation of the Houyhnhnms cannot save him from his destiny. Gulliver is eventually exiled away from this land on the grounds that his combination of greater intelligence than Yahoos and lesser virtue than Houyhnhnms makes him dangerous and he should not be permitted to stay..

At the conclusion of the story, Gulliver is presented with an interesting challenge. Gulliver is awake and understands the error of his past ways. As a result of this awakening, he is now horrified by his fellow humans. His new habit of talking to horses and refusing to eat with his family suggests that this use of exaggeration is part of the satirical approach or that Gulliver has indeed gone insane. This is a deliberate parallel drawn by Swift however as we realize that Gulliver's dilemma is also humanity's. Developing greater virtue can lead to hating humanity's corrupt nature, but trying to escape one's own human nature because of its corruption is insanity.

Conclusions

Satire and irony can be very useful literary tools to assist the writer in presenting a problem without suffering some political repercussions. Swift's use of this tool helps not only describe his point, but artfully describes a genuinely interesting, although silly, story. The human condition is indeed absurd and its art no doubt reflects this aspect. The silliness and play with language in Gulliver's Travels is helpful however in revealing some of the more darker aspects of our collective personality. Swift may have been aware that this is one of the rare but effective methods of delivering this type of message.