. . .

among people of quality a wife should be always a reasonable

and agreeable companion, because she cannot always be young.

Gullivers Travels (59)

Critics and scholars state that the misogynistic attitudes are evident and obvious in Gullivers Travels and
in addition to the whole work of Jonathan Swift. As a matter of fact, Swift by means of Gulliver writes
that I see myself accused of . . . degrading human nature . . . and of abusing the female sex (3).
However, did these words belong only to the authors own convictions?, Were the words shared with
his contemporaries?. Did Swift only write against the woman or instead of misogyny it would be better
talking about misanthropy?.

Swift was a man in his time and the perception about the woman in the 18th century was not very
different from the role that women play in Gullivers Travels. Moreover, if Swift parodies travel
literature in his work, it stands to reason that the way in which he will show us women in the story will
also be a caricatured way.

In other words, as Jacques Lacan wrote in Ecrits, "A word is not a word except in so far as someone
believes in it" (264). And Swift makes use of the words in order to change the perception of the reality.
Satire is a question of points of view and Swift was above all a satirist writer, a writer from the 18th
century where the female role had nothing to do with the role of women in our time.

In 1782 a British judge, Sir Francis Buller declared that it was Perfectly legal for a man to beat his wife,
as long as he used a stick no thicker tan his thumb. This sentence was passed in an English court 37
years after Swifts death. Taking a look at English mens behaviour in the century we are dealing with,
we will realize that the female role in Swift age is very close to the female role in Gullivers Travels. In
this way, the following quotation can be considered as a general opinion about the lack of influence of
the woman in England and not as a personal opinion of Swift, But my wife protested I should never go
to sea any more, although my evil destiny so ordered that she had not power to hinder me (161).

Moreover, an English tory, John Shebbeare states in 1758 that The woman was the companion in the
hours of reason and conversation in France, but in England she was only the momentary toy of passion.
According to this statement, it could be posible to consider that the Swifts thoughts are quite justified
when he writes A wife should be always a reasonable and agreeable companion, because she cannot
always be Young (59).
 However, the English society was not only the civil society. Swift was a cleric and became Dean of St.
Patrick in Dublin. In other words, he belonged to the Church of England with an important office. And
the role of the woman in the Anglican Church was not different from the role in the society. Women
could not speak in terms of Theology and they were considered as the beginning of the sin. The Anglican
Church did not considerer the woman capable of having virtues and in this way it is possible to
understand something wrote by a cleric like Swift The women were proposed to be taxed according to
their beauty and skill in dressing . . . but constance, chastity, good sense and good nature were not
rated, because they would not bear the charge of collecting (208).

In this context, it is important to point out that one of the most important moments in the Swifts career
as a clergyman was performed by a woman, the Queen Mary II in her role of head of the Anglican
Church did not allow the presence of Swift in an English parish and he was appointed to a little church
near Belfast. However, he do not argue against the Queen, but he writes in Gullivers Travels Her
Majesty the late Queen Anne, of most pious and glorious memory (1).

Swift did not know his father and his mother did not educate him. The first images of a woman are
related with his nanny. In his adult life, it is thought that the woman he loved did not correspond him. In
addition we have seen the episode with the Queen. Nevertheless, his thoughts about women were not
negatives at all. Specially, in terms of education he was a follower of giving the same education to men
and women and this position was not very common in his time. In this way, the episode of the Project
for abolishing all words could be regarded with the Swifts irony And this invention would certainly
have taken place . . . if the women, in conjunction with the vulgar and illiterate, had not threatened to
raise a rebellion (203).

It is important to insist on the concept on satire while we are dealing with Gullivers Travels, because it
could be possible that the thoughts Swift had about women were close to the thoughts he stated about
kings, politician, scientists and so on. Taking this fact into account, we can speak about misanthropy
instead of misogyny as he recognized at the very beginning of his work I see myself accused . . . of
degrading human nature (3).

Gulliver is a satire. A satire where is deformed the reality of both, women and men. The woman in
Gullivers Travels is satirized as bitterly as other characters in his whole work.
 A deeper reading of Gullivers Travels can bring us a different visin of Swift and the woman. If the
reader comes near the age in which Swift lived and worked, it will possible to understand some clues for
thinking in Swift not only as in a misogynistic but in a person who lived in his time.