In Jonathan Swift's, "Gulliver's Travels," The main character, Gulliver comments on the nature of man and his flaws. The characters that Gulliver reacts with reveal the authors stance on many moral and ethical issues. One of these issues is sin. The author constantly depicts characters as satires upon their real counterparts and often focusing on expressing one sin in particular. The author in particular is extremely critical of one's pride, and chooses to express this flaw in man most often. He begins by showing the absurdity of possessing too much pride with examples from the Lilliputians. The pride that the emperor takes in his name demonstrates the undirected nature of pride. The emperor is called, "Golbasto Molmaren Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue." This is an obvious satire on the long names that many members of the hi
gher rank carried in the 17th century to distinguish themselves. Both the length and the style of this name mean to show the error in overdoing the pride in one's name. With equal absurdity, pride is found as the basis for the hostility between the Lilliputians and the Blefescuns. It is entirely based on the pride with which they break their eggs. Although still absurd, this time the consequence of pride has a serious undertone, as it is stated "that 11,000 persons have, at several times, suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end." The authoralthough, not yet in an all at attack upon sin, is already suggesting that those guilty of pride deserve to die. His tirade of pride begins in the land of he Houynhnhmns. He tells his master in the excessiveness and wastefulness of pride. He explains that the inc
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