The Life And Time Of Jonathan Swift — страница 2

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Century. England was a limited monarch, led by a king, queen, and parliament. The Lilliputians small size exemplifies their incredibly ridiculous quarrels, and their natural inferiority to something larger. The war between the big-endians and small-endians most likely depicts the tensions between France and England over religious differences. In addition, the two Lillipution parties clearly represent the two main English political parties, the Tories and the Whigs(Ross 467). In Book II of Gulliver?s Travels , Gulliver is left on a strange island full of giants. He is discovered by a harvester and placed in the care of his nine year old daughter. Eventually he becomes jester for the queen and is granted a luxurious box in which to stay. One day, by the shore, the box is carried

away by a great bird and dropped in the sea. Once ageing, he gets picked up by English sailors and brought back to England. Now Gulliver is smaller and ridiculous one and reduced to doing sideshows. He complains of the English government. ?They love, fight, dispute, cheat, and betray,? stated Gulliver. The Brobdingnagians, however, do not. In this book, Britain is inferior. This book represents Swift?s views on the corruption and dishonesty found in the British system. How can a government be fare and effective when it?s corrupt(Ross 468)? In the third book, Gulliver is taken onto the flying island of the Laputans and some of its colonies nearby. It is occupied by men preoccupied with science and math. They?re so trapped in thought that they miss out on life.Gulliver visits the

projectors at the Academy who study impractical ventures and have caused the destruction of many good lands. Next he visits Lagado where he meets many among the dead. And lastly, he visits Lugnagg, land of the immortals. He later learns that their beauty is only outer and they suffer all other pains of aging. The king gives Gulliver a letter to give to the Emperor of Japan. This letter will allow him passage onto a ship home to England. . This book first shows Swift?s view on reason. How to much reason can be unnatural and shadow the human inside of us. It also shows how to much theory and philosophy not only distorts reality but damages it as well. It develops Swift?s fear of old age(Case 474). In Part IV Gulliver floats to a strange island, the land of the Houyhnhnms. The

Houyhnhnms are horses governed totally by reason. They have created a society that is perfectly ordered, perfectly peaceful, and spared the torments of passion. The only exception is the Yahoos; humans on the outside but savage on the inside. Gulliver, as neither a Houyhnhnms or Yahoo fits no where on this island. Gulliver tries to best become a Houyhnhnms. He learns to talk like them, walk like them, tries to even think and act like them. However, he doesn?t succeed and realises this isn?t where he belongs. Back in England he goes mad. He can reconcile himself to other people, whom he considers Yahoos. Neither can he come to terms with the Yahoo part of himself. He can barely tolerate the presence of his own family and has as little to do with them as possible. He says his aim

in Gulliver?s Travels is to correct the Yahoos. Having been exposed to the Houyhnhnms, he feels it to be his duty to do so. In this book, Swift attacks man in general, and makes us aware of the faults of the human mind(Desfontaines 427). The Houthnhnms speak clearly, act justly ?and have simple laws. They do not argue because they all know what is right and they all know what is true. They do not suffer from uncertainties as does man but they are so reasonable that they lack emotion. Greed, politics, and lust play no part in their lives yet often seem to be the driving force in ours. However, some people believe that the Yahoos didn?t necessarily represent humans due to the description given by Swift. He describes them as creatures with claws who climbed tree as if they were

squirrels. This suggests that they were meant to represent the opposite of the Houyhnhnms but not the human race(Sheridan). Swift offers no solutions to the difficulties he makes Gulliver undergo.He traces the problems to the nature of man. His view of man are sensible. He views man as an animal capable of reasoning, but he is not a fully rational animal. He often looks at man as a deprived creature. Gulliver?s Travel could be considered an attack on human nature or simply an assessment of human strengths and weaknesses (Drapier 420).Regardless, It represents his views on all topics ranging from religion to politics to human nature. Jonathan Swift was a brilliant man of originality who stood up to thousands in a time when righting about such things was considered dangerous and