Swift's "Gulliver's Travels": A social satire

“Gulliver’s Travels” is a great work of social satire. Swift’s age was an age of
smug complacency. Corruption was rampant and the people were still
satisfied. Thus, Jonathan Swift tears the veil of smug complacency off which
had blinded the people to realities. In “Gulliver’s Travels”, there is a satire
on politics, human physiognomy, intellect, manners and morality.

In the first voyage to Lilliput, Swift satirizes on politics and political tactics
practiced in England through Lilliputians, the dwarfs of six inches height. He
satirizes the manner in which political offices were awarded by English King
in his time. Flimnap, the Treasurer, represents Sir Robert Walpole who was
the Prime Minister of England. Dancing on tight ropes symbolizes Walpole's
skill in parliamentary tactics and political intrigues. The ancient temple, in
which Gulliver is housed in Lilliput, refers to Westminster Hall in which
Charles I was condemned to death. The three fine silk threads awarded as
prizes to the winners refer to the various distinctions conferred by English
King to his favourites. The Lilliputians were highly superstitious:

“They bury their dead with their head directly downwards because
they hold an opinion that after eleven thousand moons they are all to
rise again.”

Gulliver’s account of the annoyance of the Empress of Lilliput on

extinguishing fire in her apartment is Swift’s satirical way of describing
Queen Anne’s annoyance with him on writing “A Tale of a Tub”. Swift’s satire
becomes amusing when Gulliver speaks of the conflict between the Big
Endians and the Little Endians. In this account Swift is ridiculing the conflicts
between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. High Heel and Low Heel
represent Whig and Tory – two political parties in England.

In the second voyage to Brobdingnag, there is a general satire on human

body, human talents and human limitations. Gulliver gives us his reaction to
the coarseness and ugliness of human body. When Gulliver gives an
account, to the King of Brobdingnag, of the life in his own country, the trade,
the wars, the conflicts in religion, the political parties, the king remarks that
the history of Gulliver's country seems to be a series of conspiracies,
rebellions, murders, revolutions and banishments etc. Kind condemns the
fatal use of gunpowder and the books written on the act of governing. King
mocks at the human race of which Gulliver is the agent.
“The most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever
suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”

Swift here ridicules human pride and pretension. The sight is, indeed,
horrible and disgusting. Among the beggars is a woman with a cancer in her
breast.

“It stood prominent six feet, and could not be less than sixteen in
circumference … spots and pimples that nothing could appear more
nauseous.”

There is a man with a huge tumor in his neck; another beggar has wooden
legs. But the most hateful sight is that of the lice crawling on their clothes.
This description reinforces Swift views of the ugliness and foulness of the
human body.

In the third voyage to Laputa, there is a satire on human intellect, human

mind and on science, philosophy and mathematics. However, his satire is not
very bitter. We are greatly amused by the useless experiments and
researches, which are going on at the academy of Projectors in Lugado. Here
scientists wants to extract sunbeams out of cucumbers, to convert human
excrement into its original food, to build house from the roof downward to
the foundation, to obtain silk from cobwebs and to produce books on various
subjects by the use of machine without having to exert one’s brain.

“Their heads were inclined either to the right or to the left, one of their
eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to Zenith.”

Swift amuses us by making a fun of the people whose sole interests are
music and geometry.

“They made a lot of theories but practically nill.”

Swift here ridicules scientists, academics, planers, intellectual, in fact, all

people who proceed, only according to theory which are useless when they
come to actual practice. He satirizes historian and literary critics though
Gulliver’s interviews with the ghosts of famous dead. The point f satire is
that historian often distorts facts and literary critics often misinterpret great
authors like Homer and Aristotle.
In the fourth voyage to Houyhnhnms, there is a bitter poignant satire on
human moral shortcomings. Voyage contains some of the most corrosive
and offensive satire on mankind. The description of the Yahoos given to us
by Gulliver is regrettable.

“Yet I confess I never say any sensitive being so detestable on all

accounts; and the more I came near them, the more hateful they
grew.”

By contrast, the Houyhnhnms are noble and benevolent horses who are
governed by reason and lead an ordered life. It is, indeed, a bitter criticism
on the human race to be compared by the Houyhnhnms. The satire deepens
when Gulliver gives an account, to the master Houyhnhnms, of the events in
his country. He tells him that war in European countries was sometimes due
to the ambition of kings and sometimes due to the corruption of the
ministers. He speaks of the numerous deadly weapons, employed by
European nations for destructive purposes. Many people in his country ruin
themselves by drinking, gambling and debauchery and many are guilty of
murders, theft, robbery, forgery and rape. The master speaks of the Yahoo’s
love of shinning stones, their gluttony and their weakness for liquor. The
master also speaks of the lascivious behaviour of the female Yahoos. By
contrast, the Houyhnhnms are excellent beings.

“Here was neither physician to destroy my body not lawyer to ruin

my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions … here were
no … backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, house-breakers …
politicians, wits … murderers, robbers … no cheating shop-keeper or
mechanics, no pride, vanity or affectation.”

They hold meetings at which the difficulties of their population are discussed
and solved. They regulate their population and do not indulge in sexual
intercourse merely for pleasure.

“Everything is calculated as the Plato’s Utopian land ‘The

Republican’.”

Swift’s purpose here is to attribute to horses certain qualities which would

normally be expected in human beings but which are actually lacking in
them. Gulliver’s reaction o Houyhnhnms fills him so much admiration for
them and with so much hatred and disgust for human beings that he has no
desire even to return to his family.
Thus we see that “Gulliver’s Travels” is a great piece of art containing social
satire in it. Every satirist is at heart a reformist. Swift, also, wants to reform
the society by pinpointing the vices and shortcoming in it. And he very
successfully satirizes on political tactics, physical awkwardness, intellectual
fallacies and moral shortcomings.