Satire In Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift’s standard satirical technique of irony is best exemplified with the use of vivid, nameless descriptions. In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift sets out describing something, neglecting to bestow a name on it, purposefully trying to create a vivid picture in your head. Once his description reaches its apex, and you truly believe you know what he is talking about, he names it something completely different. A perfect illustration of this is seen when the Yahoos are first being introduced in chapter 1. Swift writes, “Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair… they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the foreparts of their legs and feet….” His vivid description continues on, further cementing a picture in your head of a wild, repugnant animal. In a pure ironic fashion, he waits until the middle of chapter 2 to let you know that this detestable animal most resembles a human being. Another depiction of this technique can be found in chapter 12, when he writes about inhabitants of a land being massacred by groups of men looking for their gold and jewels. You are led to believe he is talking about ruthless men, pirates for example, but you soon find out he is describing the
The Houyhnhnms serve as an illustration of what happens to man when he is situated on the other end of the spectrum, lacking in emotion. The Houyhnhnms are rational horses whose actions are governed by total reason. Although it is hard to tell sometimes, Swift does not take these characters seriously; he uses them to satirize the vice man has with pride. The Houyhnhnms, whose name suggests the perfection of nature, have a simple government, their own language, and their two guiding virtues are friendship and benevolence. They live in a peaceful society, where they all act right, because being devoid of all emotion they can not act wrong. They know nothing of love, hate, jealously, or lying and false representation. They live in a utopian society, where every horse does not what is good for the individual, but what is good for the common good. Throughout his narrative, Swift is showing us that the Houyhnhnms are indeed smart, but instead of using that knowledge for the benefit of society, they use it for their own prideful glorification. With great effectiveness, Swift uses the Houyhnhnms to satirize the belief that a man of pure rationality is the only complete man. He shows you that this is an ideal gone wrong; a man who relies purely on reason becomes filled with pride, blinding him, and rendering him unable to accomplish what he wants to do. During the time when Swift uses the fantastic Yahoos and Houyhnhnms to satirize two incredulous extremes of mankind, he also employs the pawn, Gulliver, to ridicule the common man. Swift mocks the simplistic man, who is incapable of uncovering the double meaning of things, and Gulliver, being gullible and naïve himself, is a perfect illustration of this. Gulliver believes every
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Approximate Word count = 1168
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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