Jonathan Swift Ideals Essay, Research Paper

The tale of Gulliver?s Travels can be described as a written criticism of the

society in which Swift lived. In each of the worlds Gulliver encountered the

problems he saw with the civilizations were actually the political and social

aspects Jonathan Swift disliked about his own world. He also accomplishes this

by giving the inhabitants of these worlds superior traits and attitudes in order

to compare them to and belittle the culture that surrounded Swift. An example of

this could be the intellectual and proper race of houyhnhnms. One of the most

interesting questions about Gulliver?s Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms

represent his ideal of rationality or whether they are also part of Swift’s

satire. In Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend

for us to take them seriously. If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms

act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to

show the dangers of pride. First we have to see that Swift does not even take

Gulliver seriously. For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which

suggests that he will believe anything indicating that his perceptions of what

is good and bad may not be accurate making the teller of the story bias. Also,

when he first sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by

doing the same in return until they run away. Even though as a human he is

suppose to be the most rational being there is, according to our beliefs. This

here is a perfect example of the way Swift shows the weakness of the human race

and how we can easily be influenced to behave immaturely and uncivilized even

though we see ourselves as the height of the living world. Lemule Gulliver is

clearly satirized as a human, but does that make the Houyhnhnms Swifts ideal

society? They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people.

As Gulliver says, "It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed

these creatures playing the flute and dancing a Viennese waltz. To my mind, they

seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dexterous than the

Lord Edmund Burke" As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly

impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because of their

intense pride. For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has

read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can single handily recite the

names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II. Swift subtly shows

that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual

competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeth?s husband. If he intended

for the Houyhnhnms to be the medium in which his satire was to be based he would

not show them to be capable of error. Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out

in other ways as well. One of the most memorable scenes is when the mare

attempts to woo the horse. First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the

bewildered horse. But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets

another idea: "As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a

tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was

yet more monstrous than Mr. Pope being fitted by a clothier. She dropped this

creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice. My horse sniffed the

creature and turned away." It might seem that we should take this scene

seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see

the gray mares attempt as just a failure. But it makes more sense if we see that

Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move,

which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England. Is this Swifts way

of expressing his views on women?s liberation by making their society out to

be more equal and therefore more advanced? Or is he trying to put them down by

focusing on the mares foolishness for "hitting on a horse not capable of

the level of though in which she is? More likely than not he Swift was not

concerned with the sex equality aspect and used this scene to hurt the pride of

the mare which shows more imperfection in the Houyhnhnms. A final indication

that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously and are not Swifts model

for the ideal in which his satire derives occurs when the leader of the

Houyhnhnms? visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society. He goes

into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water. The

scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without

success, when the Houyhnhnm arrives, "The creature no sooner stepped

through the doorway than he struck upon a plan. Slurping up all the wine in

sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door". He has

accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his

livelihood has now been destroyed. Swifts clear implication is that even though

the Houyhnhnms? are smart, they do not know how to use that knowledge for the

benefit of society, only for their own individual accomplishments. Throughout

Gulliver?s Travels, the Houyhnhnms are shown to be an ideal gone wrong. Though

their intent might have been good, they don?t know how to do what they want to

do because they are filled with pride. They mislead Gulliver and they even

mislead themselves. So what is the ideal against which Swift seems to be judging

people and society? In fact none of the civilizations in the story are entirely

ideal. Each have their good and bad traits which in it self could be a message

Jonathan Swift intended to get across to the reader, "nobody is

perfect". The Ideals of Jonathan Swift The tale of Gulliver?s Travels can

be described as a written criticism of the society in which Swift lived. In each

of the worlds Gulliver encountered the problems he saw with the civilizations

were actually the political and social aspects Jonathan Swift disliked about his

own world. He also accomplishes this by giving the inhabitants of these worlds

superior traits and attitudes in order to compare them to and belittle the

culture that surrounded Swift. An example of this could be the intellectual and

proper race of houyhnhnms. One of the most interesting questions about

Gulliver?s Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent his ideal of

rationality or whether they are also part of Swift’s satire. In Book IV, is

Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them

seriously. If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see

that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the

dangers of pride. First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gulliver

seriously. For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that

he will believe anything indicating that his perceptions of what is good and bad

may not be accurate making the teller of the story bias. Also, when he first

sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same

in return until they run away. Even though as a human he is suppose to be the

most rational being there is, according to our beliefs. This here is a perfect

example of the way Swift shows the weakness of the human race and how we can

easily be influenced to behave immaturely and uncivilized even though we see

ourselves as the height of the living world. Lemule Gulliver is clearly

satirized as a human, but does that make the Houyhnhnms Swifts ideal society?

They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people. As

Gulliver says, "It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these

creatures playing the flute and dancing a Viennese waltz. To my mind, they

seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dexterous than the

Lord Edmund Burke" As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly

impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because of their

intense pride. For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has

read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can single handily recite the

names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II. Swift subtly shows

that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual

competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeth?s husband. If he intended

for the Houyhnhnms to be the medium in which his satire was to be based he would

not show them to be capable of error. Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out

in other ways as well. One of the most memorable scenes is when the mare

attempts to woo the horse. First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the

bewildered horse. But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets

another idea: "As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a

tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was

yet more monstrous than Mr. Pope being fitted by a clothier. She dropped this

creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice. My horse sniffed the

creature and turned away." It might seem that we should take this scene

seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see

the gray mares attempt as just a failure. But it makes more sense if we see that

Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move,

which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England. Is this Swifts way

of expressing his views on women?s liberation by making their society out to

be more equal and therefore more advanced? Or is he trying to put them down by

focusing on the mares foolishness for "hitting on a horse not capable of

the level of though in which she is? More likely than not he Swift was not

concerned with the sex equality aspect and used this scene to hurt the pride of

the mare which shows more imperfection in the Houyhnhnms. A final indication

that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously and are not Swifts model

for the ideal in which his satire derives occurs when the leader of the

Houyhnhnms? visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society. He goes

into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water. The

scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without

success, when the Houyhnhnm arrives, "The creature no sooner stepped

through the doorway than he struck upon a plan. Slurping up all the wine in

sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door". He has

accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his

livelihood has now been destroyed. Swifts clear implication is that even though

the Houyhnhnms? are smart, they do not know how to use that knowledge for the

benefit of society, only for their own individual accomplishments. Throughout

Gulliver?s Travels, the Houyhnhnms are shown to be an ideal gone wrong. Though

their intent might have been good, they don?t know how to do what they want to

do because they are filled with pride. They mislead Gulliver and they even

mislead themselves. So what is the ideal against which Swift seems to be judging

people and society? In fact none of the civilizations in the story are entirely

ideal. Each have their good and bad traits which in it self could be a message

Jonathan Swift intended to get across to the reader, "nobody is

perfect". The Ideals of Jonathan Swift The tale of Gulliver?s Travels can

be described as a written criticism of the society in which Swift lived. In each

of the worlds Gulliver encountered the problems he saw with the civilizations

were actually the political and social aspects Jonathan Swift disliked about his

own world. He also accomplishes this by giving the inhabitants of these worlds

superior traits and attitudes in order to compare them to and belittle the

culture that surrounded Swift. An example of this could be the intellectual and

proper race of houyhnhnms. One of the most interesting questions about

Gulliver?s Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent his ideal of

rationality or whether they are also part of Swift’s satire. In Book IV, is

Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them

seriously. If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see

that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the

dangers of pride. First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gulliver

seriously. For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that

he will believe anything indicating that his perceptions of what is good and bad

may not be accurate making the teller of the story bias. Also, when he first

sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same

in return until they run away. Even though as a human he is suppose to be the

most rational being there is, according to our beliefs. This here is a perfect

example of the way Swift shows the weakness of the human race and how we can

easily be influenced to behave immaturely and uncivilized even though we see

ourselves as the height of the living world. Lemule Gulliver is clearly

satirized as a human, but does that make the Houyhnhnms Swifts ideal society?

They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people. As

Gulliver says, "It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these

creatures playing the flute and dancing a Viennese waltz. To my mind, they

seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dexterous than the

Lord Edmund Burke" As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly

impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because of their

intense pride. For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has

read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can single handily recite the

names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II. Swift subtly shows

that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual

competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeth?s husband. If he intended

for the Houyhnhnms to be the medium in which his satire was to be based he would

not show them to be capable of error. Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out

in other ways as well. One of the most memorable scenes is when the mare

attempts to woo the horse. First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the

bewildered horse. But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets

another idea: "As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a

tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was

yet more monstrous than Mr. Pope being fitted by a clothier. She dropped this

creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice. My horse sniffed the

creature and turned away." It might seem that we should take this scene

seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see

the gray mares attempt as just a failure. But it makes more sense if we see that

Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move,

which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England. Is this Swifts way

of expressing his views on women?s liberation by making their society out to

be more equal and therefore more advanced? Or is he trying to put them down by

focusing on the mares foolishness for "hitting on a horse not capable of

the level of though in which she is? More likely than not he Swift was not

concerned with the sex equality aspect and used this scene to hurt the pride of

the mare which shows more imperfection in the Houyhnhnms. A final indication

that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously and are not Swifts model

for the ideal in which his satire derives occurs when the leader of the

Houyhnhnms? visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society. He goes

into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water. The

scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without

success, when the Houyhnhnm arrives, "The creature no sooner stepped

through the doorway than he struck upon a plan. Slurping up all the wine in

sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door". He has

accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his

livelihood has now been destroyed. Swifts clear implication is that even though

the Houyhnhnms? are smart, they do not know how to use that knowledge for the

benefit of society, only for their own individual accomplishments. Throughout

Gulliver?s Travels, the Houyhnhnms are shown to be an ideal gone wrong. Though

their intent might have been good, they don?t know how to do what they want to

do because they are filled with pride. They mislead Gulliver and they even

mislead themselves. So what is the ideal against which Swift seems to be judging

people and society? In fact none of the civilizations in the story are entirely

ideal. Each have their good and bad traits which in it self could be a message

Jonathan Swift intended to get across to the reader, "nobody is

perfect".