《格列佛游记 》的批判性分析

Travels

A CriticalAnalysis of Gulliver’s

Abstract: BasedonGulliver’s fourvoyages inJonathan Swift’sGulliver’s Travels this paperana2 lyzes theauthor’s satirical viewof the state of European government and religions, and inquiry into the corruptionofmen, and his desire to establisha harmoniousanddemocratic Houyhnhm - like society.

Key words: satirical; Houyhnhm - like society; Gulliver’s Travels

The name of Jonathan Swift is one of the very greatestnames in English literature, andTheTaleof a Tub and Gulliver’s Travels are twoof the greatest satires in the English language.

Jonathan Swift was born of English parents in Dublin in 1667 and became a product of Irish cul2 ture and learning. Hewas educated at the Kilkenny School and Trinity College inDublin, and became an assistant to authoranddiplomat SirWilliam Tem2 ple. He left thisposition after Temple died in1699 to earn his priest’s ordination. He worked as a clergyman in Ireland, traveling throughout theUnit2 ed Kingdom, and exploring his frustrationswith so2 ciety throughhiswritings. Hewrote about thepover2 ty he saw amongthepeople, the typical daily lifeof cityfolkand the problems hewitnessed in the social order. It is thiswriting that makes Swift one of the most renowned satiristsofEnglish societyandBritish history. He believed that social conventions were outdated and must be changed, and qualities of mind (and notphysical beauty) should be the foun2 dations of love. He also found a heavy interest in politics, takingupweight in the Torypartyof Eng2 land’s governmental party system. From such ob2 servations in government and religion, and love and gender inequality, Swiftproducedanenormous body ofwork. Hiswritingsfall into several categories, in2 cludingpoetry, short stories, political essays, and novels. In1742, hewas declaredofunsoundmind, and died in 1745 inDublin.

Gulliver’s Travels is the immortal work ofJon2

athanSwift. The bookbecame tremendouslypopular as soon as it was published in 1726, and can be justly ranked among the best novels of theworld lit2 erature and has not lost its significance even to the current society. It is a classicwhich always arouses the interestof every child to share Gulliver’s ad2 ventures into fantastic lands, andmakes everyma2 ture reader broodover hisbitter satire on the human race. In it, Swiftexploresgenderdifferences, poli2 tics, class, money, race, science, education, exploration, love, physical strength, physical beauty, and then satirize on them bitingly. Through depicting the experiences of his four voyages to dif2 ferent lands, Gulliver intensely satirizes the hypo2 critical, greedy, deceptive and aggressive nature of the human society. He alsomocks the corrupt reli2 gious and political systems in his homeland, Eng2 land, which is caught in constant wars and vio2 lence. He hopefully desires to establish a harmoni2 ous and democratic Houyhnhm - like societywhich is based on reason andwisdom. When he can not reach his ideal society before the cruel reality, he turns topayingattention tohisownmoral upliftwith2 out caring forothers, and becomes a complete pes2 simistwho tries to escape from the realworld.

Gullivermakes fourdeep - sea voyages, which are described in the four parts of the book. In Part One, “A Voyage toLilliput”, Gulliver finds him2 self tied down by a race of dwarfswho are onlyone

①作者简介: 李 江 , 云南大学大学外语教学部讲师 (云南 昆明 , 650091)。

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思想战线 20xx年人文社会科学专辑 第 35卷 №12009 Vol135

- twelfth the size of his own. This is his

first travel, in

which he visitsLilliput Gulliver is

facedwith the m

inute people, called Lilliputians. He judges the country’s inhabitants he

meets to be as perfect

and innocent as their

appearances. He refers to theLilli2 putian emperor as

“His Imperial Majesty”

and blindly agrees to

perform any demanded service, e2 ven though he could easily overpower the tiny na2 tion. Gulliver is used as the Emperor’s absolute weapon to conquer his world of two islands. It is

on2 ly after his services have been exploited, Gullive

r

realizes how cruel and deceitful the

Lilliputians truly are and his personality begins to transform. Swift

al2

so criticizes the religious beliefs of the

Lilliputians. InLilliput, M inisters

are chosen strictlyon tightrope walking

or stick jumping. If they do well, they are able to maintain their positions as ministers. Sw

ift

also criticizes the English political parties. His use of the terms High Heels and

Low Heels to compare the meaningless battles of the

Whigs and Tories is quite ironic. He alsomocks the religionwar thatwas goingon in England, through the use of the

war

be2 tweenLilliput, and its nearest neighbor, B

lefuscu. (Zhu, 74)

In Part Two, “A Voyage to Brobdingnag”, Gulliver

faces a world with everything being twelve times its normal size. Because of his unfavorable

ex2 periences

onLilliput, Gulliver approaches the

Brob2 dingnagianswith suspicion and contempt. A

lthough

this race is far more benevolent and trustworthy, Gulliver gives it more criticism and disrespect I

t

becomes obvious that his dissatisfaction relates di

2

rectly to his inferiority among these huge beings. Gulliver

himself

admits:

This made me

reflect how vain an attem pt it i

s

for a m an

to endeavor doing himself honour among

thosewho are out of all degree of equality or com pari2 son with him. And yet I have seen the m oral of m y own behavior very frequent in England since m y re2

turn, where a little contem ptible varlet, without the least title to birth, person, w it or comm on sense,

shall presume to look with importance, and put him 2

self upon a footw ith the greatest persons of

the king2 dom. (Swift, 110)

Gulliver is beginning to get involved in the

mor2 al controversies he observes, and then satirize the social and political conditions he

observed. Even the

using destructive weapons. ( Lu, 70 ) His second voyage shows us the filthymental and

physical char2 acteristics of

man. Gulliver’s first owner in

Brob2 dingnag represents the selfishness of

man. Gulliver is constantly displayed in public, abused for the profit

of the owne. When his owner finds out that Gulliver

isweakening, he sells

him immediately, at a high price in order to

milk every last penny out

of Gulliver.

In Part Three, “A Voyage to Laputa ”, Gul2 liver is pulled up to a flying

floating island that

hov2

ers above ground. On the floating island of

Laputa, Gulliver meets the Laputans who run their world

through mathematics and science, and allow their land to be dictated by

a giant lodestone at the center of the island. Eventually, Gulliver grows weary of these people, for they cannot communicate

without

the help

of a flapper. So, he journeys to the islands below andmeets different races of

people. Gulliver’ s third voyage, to the floating island of Laputa is one of the

most satirical of the whole book. In this voyage Swift criticizes the Royal Society of

England, in which he says is composed of useless philoso2 phers, inventors, and scientists. In the view of Gulliver, he regarded the science

ofLaputa

aspseu2 doscience, which is distorted and abused by

Lapu2 tans. (Sun, 100

- 101)

In Part Four, “A Voyage to the Houyhnhn - m

s”, Gulliver becomes trapped in a world where

horses represent civilization and reason, while hu2 mans, referred to as Yahoos, turn out to be wild,

savage and ignorant. After the horses, called

Houyhnhnm

s, make him realize how corrupt human beings is, Gulliver

begins to love their

virtuous soci2 ety. At the end

of his story, he says:

B ut the Houyhnhm s,

who live under the govern2

m ent of Reason, are nom ore proud of the good qual2 ities they posses, than I should be for not wanting a leg or an arm, which no m an in this wits would

boast of, although he m ust be m iserable w ithout them. I dwell the longer upon this subject from the de2

sire I have to make the society of an English Yahoo by any m eans not insupportable, and therefore I here entreat those who have any tincture of this absurd

vice, that they will not presum e to appear in m y sight (Swift, 305)

The Houyhnhnm s

compare Gulliver

and the Ya2

King criticizes the crueltyofhumanmass- killingby hoos and find many similarities between the two. ?92?

The only difference is that Gulliver, and

mankind, has learned the benefits of clothing, and he now

and again could be a rational creature. That comparison deeply shocks Gulliver because he himrealizes

self

that he is so si ilar to those savage creatures. So he tries his best to hide his body from the view of the Houyhnhnm

s under the guise of already ragge

d

clothing, and he argues:

I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression;

here was neither physician to destroy m y body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch m y

words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire; herewere no gibers, censurers, backbiters

,

pickpockets, highwaym en, housebreakers, attor2 neys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians,

wits, splenetic, tedious talkers, controvertists, rav2 ishers, m urders, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders or followers of party and faction, no encouragers t

o

vice, by seducem ent or exam ples: no dungeon, ax2

es, gibbets, whipping posts, or pillories; no cheat2 ing shopkeepers or m echanics: no pride, vanity, or affectation: no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling

whores, or poxes: no ranting, lewd, expensive wives: no stupid proud pendants: no im portunate, overbearing, quarrelsom e, noisy, roaring, em pty, conceited, swearing com panions:

no scoundrels,

raised from the dust upon them erit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues:

no

Lords, fiddlers, Judges or dancing - m asters. ” (Swift, 279)

When Gulliver is expelled from the island b

y the Houyhnhnm

s, he returns to England altered.

W

hen he finally returns home after his voyages,

he

discovers that he cannot endure the companyofother humans, including his wife, and he

even faint2

swhen his wife kisses hi .

He gets worse and

worse, and cannot even bear to look at his own re2

flection because he knows what degeneration it re2

presents. He no longer cares to look upon his fami2 ly, and spends all his ti e with the two horses he buys to keep in his nearby stable. Before he returns home, he even i

agines:

M y D

esign was, if

possible, to discover some

《格列佛游记 》的批判性分析★

李 江★

small island uninhabited, yet sufficient by m yLabour to furnish m ewith Necessaries of Life, which Iwould have thought a greaterHappiness than to be firstm in2 ister in the politest Court of Europe; so horrible was

the Idea I conceived of returning to live in the society and under the Governm ent of Yahoos. For in such a Solitude as I desired, I could at least enjoy my own

Thoughts, and reflect w ith Delight on the V irtues of those inim itable Houyhnhnm s, without any O pportu2 nities of m y own Species. (Sw ift, 291)

The tragic hero returns home in exile. His homecoming is the most

alienating experience of

all “Gulliver is an odysseus gone sour, a homecomer

who, in a satiric version of narrative rest, is de2 pressed and drained by his very resources as a hu2

man” ( R iche tti, 75 - )

being. 76 Gulliver devel2 ops a satirical view of the state of European govern2 ment and religions, and an inquiry into the corrup2

tion

ofmen. He hopefully desires to establish

a har2 monious and democratic Houyhnhm - like society. But because he can not find a

wayout

of the real so2 ciety to embrace his Houyhnhm

ian ideal, he choo2 ses to retire into his

own innerworld and becomes a complete pessimistwho tries to escape from the real world. That’s Gulliver’s individual tragedy, and the tragedy of the

whole human society aswell.

Reference: [1

] Swift Jonathan:

Gulliver’ s Travels,

Beijing: Foreign Lan2

guages teaching and Research Press, 1996.

[ 2 ]

Richetti, John, ed: The Cambridge Companion to the

Eighteenth

Century

Novel1London:

Cambridge University

Press, 1998.

[3] Zhu, Yanmei:“TheArt of Irony in Sw ift’sLilliput”.

Beauty

& Ti es, Vol. 3 (2005): pp173～74.

[4] Zhu, Yanmei:“A Comment on theCriticism of the Eighteenth

CenturyLife in England in Sw ift’s Gulliver’s Travels”.

Jour2

nal of Adult Education in Hebei University, Vol. 5 No. 2

(2003) pp169～71.

[5] Sun, Shaoxian. “On theScienceSubject in Gulliver’s Travels”

Foreign Literature Studies, Vol.

4 (2002) : pp199～102.

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)

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