Swift as a misanthrope

Swift is not misanthrope rather he is a philanthrope .It is the

misconception of those who think swift as a misanthrope . Gulliver’s travels
is an anatomy of human nature , a sardonic looking-glass ,often criticized for
its apparent misanthropy. It was an indictment ,and it was most popular
among those who were indicted.
On the subject of misanthropy Swift famously said ,” Principally I
hate and detest that animal called man “
In a letter to Alexander Pope Swift wrote :
I have ever hated all Nations professions and communities and all my is
towards individual .
He admits that the Chief end of all his labour is “to vex the world rather
than divert it” .
Swift so violently ‘vexed’ the world that different critics from
his own time to this day have bitterly criticized him.Thackeray attacked his
book claiming it to be “filthy in word,filthy in thought ,furious ,raging,
obscene”.Walter Scott condemns Swift’s attack on mankind as severe,
unjust and degrading “.
William Hazlitt however defends Swift against these charges :
What a libel is this upon mankind ! What a convincing proof of
misanthropy !What presumption and what malice prepense, to shew men
what they are , and to teach them what they ought to be ! “
Gulliver’s travels as a magnifying mirror to show us our
faults so that we can see how far we have strayed from reasonable behavior
.
 Paul Turner writes of Gulliver’sfour voyages .” The four pictures
form a series ,in which the view grows gradually darker ,that is, they
represent stages in Gulliver’s disillusionment “.
In the first part of the book , Swift takes us to the land of midgets,
the “ human nature creatures not more than six inches high . Lilliput is a
miniature empire with a little monarch who entitled himself as * delight
and terror of the .universe “.

In Liliput ,which is ,quite literally, a microcosm ,the vices and follies

not merely of England but of all mankind are epitomized . The human race
viewed in miniature ,at first seems rather charming, malicious, treacherous
and revengeful .They are ready to sacrifice all human feeling ,whether
towards Gulliver or the Blefuscudians ,to their own poetry ambitions

In Brobdingnag, however ,it is as we are looking at humanity

through a magnifying glass Gulliver is often repulsed by both the size and
coarseness of physical bodies of the Brobdingnagians . But Swift throws in a
nice twist with the first two parts of Gulliver’s Travels . Through the
Brobdingnagians are more repulsive physically because of their size , they
are categorized by Gulliver as “the least corrupted “.

When Gulliver gives brief description of the political and legal

institutions of England to Brobdingnagian king, the king dismissively
concludes “the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little
odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the
earth. “
Swift was certainly not one of the optimistis typical of his century. He
did not believe that the age of science was a triumph . Science and reason
needed limits, and they did not require absolute devotion . In order to
satirize mankind in general and science in particular ,Swift takes us to an

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imagery floating island where the inhabitants were wholly engrossed in their
fruitless meditation.
Swift's alleged misanthropy reaches its crescendo in the fourth voyage of
Gulliver. As Gulliver reaches land governd by philosophical horses
Houyhnhnms ,he is instantly confronted with a pack of Yahoos which give
him such an obnoxious and disgusting treatment that he develops an
intense hatred for them ,owing to their vile physical appearance and their
filthy and mischievous way of life Gulliver highlights “ Upon the whole , I
never behold in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, nor one against
which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy “.
The Houhnhnms ,on the other hand ,are edued with a
proportionable degree of reason and oderly and rational, acute and
judicious “ .They know neither love nor grief nor lust nor ambition for they
face each of these phenomena with stoical calm .Their cardinal virtues are
friendship and benevolence . The Houyhnhnms are the perfection of
nature while the Yahoos …..were observed to be the most unteachable of
all brutes.
Gulliver’s epiphany occurs he identifies himself With the detestable
Yahoos
My horror and astonishment are not to be described , when I observed in
this abominable animal a perfect human figure.
The theme of Gulliver’s hatred of mankind is climaxed when he told
he must leave Houyhnhnmland . He exclaims “that the certain prospect of
an unnatural death was the least of my evils, for …….how could I think
with temper of passing my days among Yahoos .” Thus Gulliver would die
than live among his own race of Yahoo
That is the reason we don’t identify Gulliver with swift and ,inspite of
Gulliver’s misanthropy, we call swift a great philanthropist. As he himself
says :
I write for the noblest end , to inform and instruct mankind “

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Title;
Swift as an misanthrope
Subject;
Prose
Submitted to
Sir Imran shahid
Submitted by
Zakia Rahman
Roll No
3029

M.A English eve

Section #A
University of Okara