Department
of English
M.K
Bhavnagar University
Name:
Nagla Drashti P.
Roll
no: 15
Class:
M.A : Sem-1
Year:
2016-2018
Paper-2(The
Neo-Classical Literature)
Assignment
Topic: Political & Philosophical Background of Gulliver’s
Travels
E-mail
address: nagladrashti38@gmail.com
Submitted:
Smt S.B Gardy
Department
of English Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar
University,Bhavnagar.
Assignment
topic
Paper
no-2
Philosophical
& Political background of Gulliver’s Travels:
- Introduction about the book:
Swift has at least two aims in
Gulliver’s Travels besides merely telling a good adventure story by
emphasizing the six-inch height of the Lilliputians, he graphically
diminishes the stature of all human nature and in using the fire in
the Queen’s chambers the rope dancers, the bill of particulars
drawn against Gulliver, he presents a series of allusions that were
identifiable to his contemporaries as critical of Whig
politics.
- In his first book:
Why, one might ask, did Swift
have such a consuming contempt for the Whigs? This hatred began when
Swift entered politics as the representative of the Irish Church.
Representing the Irish bishops, Swift tried to get Queen Anne and the
Whigs to grant some financial aid to the Irish Church. They refused
and Swift turned against them even though he had considered the his
friends and had helped them while he worked for Sir William Temple.
Swift turned to the Tories for political allegiance and devoted his
propaganda talents to their services using certain political events
of 1714-18, he described in Gulliver’s Travels many things that
would remained his readers that Lilliputians folly was also English
folly and particularly, Whig folly. The method, for example-- which
Gulliver must used to swear his allegiance to the Lilliputians
Emperor parallels the absurd difficulty that the Whigs created
concerning the credentials of the Tory ambassadors who signed the
treaty of Utrecht.
Swift’s craftiness was
successful. His book was popular because it was a compelling
adventure tale and also a puzzle. His readers were eager to identify
the various characters and discuss their discoveries and as a result,
many of them saw politics and politicians from a new perspective.
Within the broad scheme of
Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver concerned with family and with his
job, yet he is confronted by the Pigmies that politics and political
theorizing make of people. Gulliver is utterly incapable of the
stupidity of the Lilliputian politicians, and we are always aware of
the difference between the imperfect moral life of Gulliver’s, and
the petty and stupid political life of emperors, prime ministers and
informers.
- In his second book:
In the second book of the
travels, Swift reverses the size relationships the he used in book
one. In Lilliput, Gulliver was a giant; in Brobdingnag, Gulliver is a
midget. Swift uses this difference to express a difference in
morality. Gulliver was an ordinary man compared to the amoral
political midget in Lilliput. Now, Gulliver remains an ordinary man,
but the Brobdingnagian are moral men, they are not perfect, but they
are consistently moral, only children and the deformed are
intentionally evil.
Gulliver is revealed to be a
very proud man and one who accepts the madness and malice of European
politics parties and society as natural. The Brobdingnagian King,
however, is not fooled by Gulliver the English, he says, are “odious
vermin”.
In book one and two, Swift
directs his satire mare toward individual targets than firing
broadside at abstract concepts. In book one, he is primarily
concerned with Whig politics and politicians rather than with the
abstract politicians. In book two, he elects to reprove immoral
Englishmen rather than abstract immorality. In book three, Swift’s
target is somewhat abstract - pride in reason - but he also singles
out and censures a group of his contemporaries whom he believed to be
particularly depraved in this exaltation of reason.
- In his third book:
In book three, Laputan
systematizing is exaggerated, but Swift’s point is clear and
concrete. Such systematizing is a manifestation of proud rationalism.
The Laputians think so abstractly that they have lost their hold on
common sense. They are so absorbed in their abstraction and musical
shapes. Everything is relegated to abstract thoughts, and the result
is mass delusion and chaos.
In a similar fashion, Swift
shows that philology and scholarship betray the best interests of the
Luggnaggians; pragmatic scientism fails in Balnibarbi; and
accumulated experience does not make the Struldbruggs either happy or
wise. In his topical political references, Swift demonstrates the
viciousness and cruelty, as well as the folly, that arise from
abstract political theory imposed by selfish politicians. He also
cites the folly of Laputan theories and the Laputan King by referring
to the immediate political blunders of the Georges.
- In the forth book:
In the last book of the Travels,
Swift shows us the folly of the people who advance such theories. In
his time, it was a popular notion that a reasonable gman was a
complete man. Here, Swift shows us a reason exalted. We must judge
whether it is possible or desirable for man. The Houyhnhnm are super
reasonable. They have all the virtues that the static and deists
advocated they speak clearly, they act justly and they have simple
laws. They do not quarrel or argue since each knows what is true and
right. They do not suffer from the uncertainties of reasoning that
afflict man, but they are so reasonable that they have no emotions.
They are untroubled by greed, politics or lust. They act from
undifferentiated behavior. They would never prefer the welfare of one
of their own children to the welfare of another Houyhnhnm simply on
the basis of kinship.
Very simply, the Houyhnhnm are
horse, they are not humans and this physical difference parallels the
abstract difference. They are fully rational, innocent and
undepraved. Man is capable of reason, but never wholly or
continuously - passionate, proud and depraved. In contrast to the
Houyhnhnm, Swift presents their precise opposite; the Yahoos,
creatures who exhibit the essence of sensual human sinfulness. The
Yahoos are not merely animals; they are animals who are naturally
vicious.
Midway between the poles of the
Houyhnhnm and the Yahoos, Swift places Gulliver. Gulliver is an
average man, expect that he was became irrational in his regard for
reason. Gulliver is so disgusted with the Yahoos and so admires the
Houyhnhnm that he tries to become a horse, when Gulliver reaches
home, Gulliver hates his family because they look and smell like
yahoos. He is still capable of seeing objects and surfaces
accurately, but he is incapable of grasping true depths of meaning.
Swift uses the technique of
marking abstractions concrete to show us that super-reasonable horses
are impossible and useless models for humans. They have never fallen
and therefore have never been redeemed. They are incapable of the
christian virtues that unite passion and reasons. Neither they nor
the Yahoos are touched by grace or charity. The Brobdingnagian are
possible to humans. These virtues are the results of grace and
redemption. Swift does not press this theological point, however.
- Conclusion:
In
Gulliver’s travels we see that there are many example of political
and philosophycal background.in Swift’s four books we see that he
give us many example about the political and philosophical background
in his first book he compaire Lilliputians with the Gulliver,and in
the second book he compaire Gulliver with the Brobdingnagians,in the
third book he compaire Gulliver with Laputans,and his last book he
compaire Gulliver with the Houyhnhnms.
We can see that in Swift’s
Gulliver’s travels that in his four voyages Gulliver learn about
more realities about life. He learn truth about life and how another
people different from him. To know about this such kind of people he
hate her family and family members.when he come at his home after
some years he can’t adjust in his family and he feels that he live
in between the animals.there is not any smart and intelligent
people,in his forth voyage he meet with very strange animals,who is
Houyhnhnms,who is hourses. To meet with them Gulliver think that this
animals are more than smarter than the humans. So in four voyages
Gulliver face many political and philosophycal crises.
Work cited:
- Cliffs notes.com
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