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Jonathan SwiftGulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1726A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Corruption and the Greed of the Elite
Gulliver’s Travels offers a scathing attack on power structures. It is a rebuke of the injustices propagated by the wealthy on the poor. Early in the text, Gulliver clearly positions himself in opposition to those he later attacks in the book’s final part. Gulliver does not suggest that his youth was impoverished; however, he clearly does not come from an elite lineage. He says that his father “had a small estate in Nottinghamshire” and that the cost of raising him was “too great for a narrow fortune” (7). Gulliver’s modest upbringing allows him to exist outside of the elite circles which he rebukes later in the book.
Gulliver is initially quick to show favor to those of the nobility, as he sees this social deference as part of his duty as a lower-ranking member of society. He even shows respect to the emperor of Lilliput, who is so driven by his lust for power that even Gulliver is ultimately repelled by him, calling his ambition unmeasurable. The emperor of Lilliput is an example of lust for power run to the extreme, while those in his inner circle, such as the treasurer Flimnap, are even more vicious than the emperor himself. They conspire against Gulliver primarily because they see him as an outsider and feel especially threatened by his single-handed victory over the Blefuscan navy. They do not perceive his presence as a threat to the kingdom; instead, they see Gulliver as a threat to their own standing within the elite circles of Lilliput. Their willingness to inflict a terrible punishment on him just to preserve their own status and influence reveals the self-serving behavior of many of those in power.
The actions of the Lilliputians align entirely with Gulliver’s diatribe against the evils of humankind that he discusses later in the book. Gulliver points out that while he is in the land of the Houyhnhnms, he feels at peace, and that this is due in large part to the absence of immorality: “Here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune […] no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merits of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues” (163). The Houyhnhnms’ commitment to reason, social harmony, and virtue forms a stark contrast with the lawless violence of the Yahoos, leaving Gulliver disgusted with the social and political structures in England that he once so vigorously defended.
Empty Intellectualism Versus Practical Knowledge
The theme of empty intellectualism versus practical knowledge is explored when Gulliver visits Laputa. While there, he observes the peculiarities of the inhabitants and concludes that while they seem intelligent, they lack all common sense. They know math and how to study the cosmos but fail to figure out how to build houses that are sturdy and square. The Laputans represent what happens when complete devotion to the acquisition of knowledge becomes an obsession at the expense of perspective and common sense.
The Laputans have become myopic, with “the whole compass of their thoughts and mind” focused upon math, music, astronomy, and nothing else. They are unable to pay attention to people speaking; they have their heads permanently titled, with one of their eyes pointing up at the sky. They have no interest whatsoever in any subject unrelated to their chosen topics: Gulliver claims, “His majesty discovered not the least curiosity to inquire into the laws, government, history, religion, or manners of the countries where I had been” (97), which reveals the utter lack of genuine curiosity in Laputa. When Gulliver visits their academies, absurd experiments run amok. He witnesses one professor attempting to turn excrement back into its original food source, while in another, a machine randomly reveals phrases. The professor then transcribes the phrases into a text that he believes will solve life’s greatest mysteries. The academy epitomizes the quest for esoteric and irrelevant academic achievements at the expense of practical knowledge and a broader perspective.
The Laputan tendency towards empty intellectualism also leads some people to hypothesize on the existential threats posed by comets. Once again, perspective is absent. Instead, the Laputans become convinced that doomsday is approaching because of what they have learned about comets. The episode of Laputa suggests that while knowledge is good, a single-minded pursuit of it can lead one to counterproductive behaviors that sacrifice common sense and pragmatism. Balancing the pursuit of knowledge with common sense is true wisdom—something the people of Laputa entirely lack.
The Worth of Virtue
Gulliver’s experiences with the Houyhnhnms enable him to experience a society that is—unlike his own and those he has previously discovered—honest, reasonable, and harmonious. The Houyhnhnms are used as a humorous foil to human vices, embodying the theme of the worth of virtue in place of corruption and violence.
Gulliver describes the Houyhnhnms as “endowed by nature with a general disposition to all virtues” with “no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational creature” (157). The Houyhnhnms lead a simple existence, without vice. They have no word for lying, shun greed in favor of creating a just society for all, and avoid acts of violence. They create an important contrast to the Yahoos, whose excessive greed and violence against one another parodies the workings of human society. In behaving with dignity and in strict accordance with reason, the Houyhnhnms embody an ideal to which humanity aspires but often falls short.
Even Gulliver’s physical and mental health improves while living amongst the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver escapes the diseases and stresses that he claims are the results of vice: “I enjoyed perfect health of body and tranquility of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy” (163, emphasis added). He then follows his praise for the Houyhnhnms’ society with a scathing indictment of contemporary British life, which he represents as infested by dishonesty, corruption, violence, and all manner of vice. In contrasting the Houyhnhnms’ peaceful existence with the failings of human society, Gulliver’s Travels suggests that the key to a truly accomplished and harmonious society rests in cultivating true virtue.
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By Jonathan Swift
