Gullivers Travels Investigating Satire
Satire produces difficulties, not certainties. When used in prose form, it transforms an idea that seems preposterous into a believable concept that is to be accepted by the reader. In Gulliver's Travels, author Jonathan Swift uses satire to do just that. He takes a fairy-tale like setting and makes it acceptable to the audience, only to leave them with questions about their own doings. Through Gulliver's eyes, he illustrates a society that does not conform to the normal ideas of the human race. Gulliver is left by his shipmates on a far off island and discovers a culture most likely unknown to the rest of the world. It is run by Houyhnhnms, governing horses on the island that practice the true ideas of reason. Also inhabiting this island are Yahoos, formidable, deformed animals who exhibit the worst aspects of the human race. Swift uses these two character types to do two things. Firstly, he uses the truly vile characteristics of humanity, both physically and internally, and expresses them in an exaggerated way trough the actions of the Yahoos. Secondly, he depicts the Houyhnhnms as characters of true reason. As this satire was written during the Enlightenment Period, many people of the time strived to be truly enlig
htened, which meant acting solely from a reason-based logic. Thus, these characters represent a superior way of life to Gulliver. Swift uses these human like characteristics to allow the audience to easily connect themselves to both character types: the vile aspects of humanity that everyone posses, and the feelings of the Enlightenment that everyone strived to uphold. Swift however, does not use these characters to educate the readers, or leave them with a moral. His purpose here is solely to create questions, to leave the audience wondering not only about the story, but themselves and their society as well. Living along side of the Yahoos, are the governing horses of the island, the Houyhnhnms. Swift uses the Houyhnhnms to represent the reason-based society that was strongly growing in Europe at the time. One of the most apparent aspects of their practice of true-reason is their language. There is no lying, deception or doubt among their speech. Gulliver's "master," a member of the Houyhnhnm society explains that: Swift uses the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos to play with the minds controlled by Enlightenment thinking. In addition to the ideas of true reason, one of the most important aspects of the Enlightenment was that there are answers to every question, everything exists for a reason, and questioning logic is wrong and pointless. Playing with the idea that everything is "knowable," Swift presents questions and situations which imply that NOTHING is knowable. His satirical writing style presents everything, from human nature, to what humans strive to accomplish, in a manner never seen before. Perhaps not an enlightened thinker himself, Swift introduces questions on larger issues because they have no answers. There is no black and white when dealing with issues of humanity. There is no right and wrong when answers are based on opinion and emotion. Similarly, no one question can be answered without considering both the logical and emotion
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Approximate Word count = 1329
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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