The Enlightenment In Gullivers Travels

Jonathan Swift’s novel, Gulliver’s Travels outlines a very odd sequence of

events that are experienced by a sailor named Lemuel Gulliver. Throughout these
adventures, Gulliver finds himself, on four different occasions, accidently coming
across different races of peoples and creatures. These races teach him new
languages, customs, lessons, and general knowledge of their own individual
societies. These descriptions are many times believed to be Jonathan Swift’s way
of critiquing The Enlightenment that occurred during the eighteenth-century all
over the world. This critique brings a satirical look at religion, morality, equality,
and the ability to adapt to other societies.

In Gulliver’s first adventure, he comes across the land of Lilliput. In this

land, there are two groups of people, the Lilliputans and the Belfescuans. These
two groups of people used to be one society until there was a disagreement over
how the people were to crack their eggs. The disagreement was whether they
should crack their eggs from the large end or the small end of the egg. Because of
this disagreement, there was a war and many people died and the Belfescuans
decided to move to the other side of the island and start their own society (Swift,
25). This disagreement of cracking eggs is a comparison to the religious
differences occurring in Europe just before the Enlightenment. Although the
Lilliputan’s disagreement over cracking eggs is a much more minuscule and quite
elementary disagreement than those of religions during the Reformation, there are
still some comparisons. The religious reformations began when Martin Luther
decided that there were several things about the Catholic Church that he disagreed
with. When Martin Luther went to the church to complain about these issues, such
as the ability to “buy” indulgences from priests, the church ignored these ideas.
Therefore, after posting the 95 Theses on his thoughts for change and spreading his
ideas, Luther decided it was time to branch away from the Church. Although
Luther was one of the beginning revolutionists to go against Catholicism, there was
hundreds of others who followed in his footsteps to create societies that would act
in ways that they thought were just. Similarly, the Belfescuans were formed when
the then-emperor cut his hand breaking an egg large-end first and decided eggs
should in fact be broken small-end first. After this declaration, there was a split
among the society and the two societies were formed to break eggs as they pleased
(Swift, 25-26).

On Gulliver’s second accidental journey, he comes upon a land of giants in

Brobdingnag who are a very simple people, it seems. Unaware of the invention of
gunpowder, Gulliver demonstrates the purpose of gunpowder to the king of
Brobdingnag. The king becomes very frightened and decides that he does not want
to have anything to do with the gunpowder, thinking of what kind of physical and
moral destruction this could cause to his empire (Swift, 94). This is similar to the
ideas of many Enlightenment thinkers, like Cesare Beccaria, who believed that
humans should begin taking a more moral and rational approach at punishing
criminals. With the absence of gunpowder, Brobdingnag has been able to keep
crime rates low and overall morality high, it seems. Swift alludes that the
introduction of such a weapon could lead to inhumane practices, such as the unfair
punishments that were handed out before the Enlightenment (Coffin, 457). These
unfair punishments, however were criticized by many philosophers of the
Enlightenment, which sparked more humane practices for punishing criminals.

Slavery is also a big issue during Gulliver’s travels. Whether it be when

Gulliver was first captured outside of Lilliput, or whether it was during the time he
was captured in Brobdingnag. Swift compares Gulliver to a slave during the
Enlightenment. Many Enlightenment thinkers were too afraid to abolish slavery in
fear of any revolts that might arise. “Slavery corrupted its victims, destroyed their
natural virtue, and crushed their natural love of liberty. Enslaved people, by this
logic, were not ready for freedom” (Coffin, 461). This is how the Lilliputans felt
with Gulliver. They were afraid that if they let Gulliver be free all together, that he
would be furious and destroy their buildings and kill their citizens. This is why
they only allowed Gulliver small freedoms over long periods of time, so they could
make sure that he was not a threat to society. With this gradual sense of freedom,
Gulliver proved to have adapted to the Lilliputan’s society and turned out to be
very useful in the community. The Enlightenment thinkers also believed that
giving slaves small amounts of freedom would make for an easier transition into
society (Coffin, 461).

In addition to the equality of slaves, another main theme throughout Swift’s

novel is the idea of equality for all persons. During The Enlightenment, there were
social, economical, sexual and many other inequalities among different types of
people. Swift incorporates this thought when Gulliver is in the land of the
Houyhnhnms. In this land, there are Houyhnhnms, who are in essence a group of
intelligent horses. Also, there are Yahoos who are a strange animals that are
comparable to a human (Swift, 165). The Houyhnhms are much more superior and
intellectually advanced than the Yahoos. Although it seems ironical that horses are
superior to a human-like being, this is a way of showing how, for example, some
thought that men were superior to women. Jean-Jacques Rousseau fought for many
rights for people and the idea that people should not be ruled by a government
unless they chose to. However, he still believed that men should be superior to
women in almost all aspects. This is comparable to the Houyhnhms being superior
to all Yahoos, without any regard for advancing the intelligence or social standing
of the Yahoos. During the Enlightenment, women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft,
began to make strides towards equality with men. Just as Rousseau compared the
inequalities of men and women to limiting women’s duties to “being a mother and
wife” (Coffin, 463), Swift shows that the inequalities of the Houyhnhms and the
Yahoos as being very large and that the Yahoos were not to be used for much
except labor (Swift, 172).

Not only does Swift discuss the ruling of individual groups of people, but he
also discussed the point of societies falling under strict rule. In Gulliver’s
adventure to Laputa, he is told the many ways that the island as a whole is used to
rule over the cities on the ground. They rule by using the ultimate power of being
able to control weather and cause severe destruction to cities (Swift, 124). Swift is
alluding that the island of Laputa is similar to that of absolutist rulers in England.
Absolutist rulers have almost all powers to do almost anything they wish to those
that they rule. However, similar to the city that successfully rebelled against the
floating island of Laputa, such philosophers as David Hume and Immanuel Kant
taught people that they should only be ruled if and by whom they want to be ruled.
In the case in Gulliver’s Travels, the city below the island did not want to be ruled
by the floating island, so they took action and were able to set up their own
government to live by their own society’s standards (Swift, 126).

Throughout all four islands that Gulliver comes across, he learns a new,
totally different, way of living at each island. Whether if this involves a new
language at each island, new types of food, or different ways to govern, Gulliver
adapts to each and finds strengths in each society’s rules and realizes that their
rules are well-suited for their specified needs. This ability for Gulliver to adapt
relates to the ability of societies across the world to learn and accept new cultures
and ideas from each other during the Enlightenment. This spread of cultures has
allowed societies to adapt ideas that allow for the betterment of their society.
Although Swift takes a very comical view of this using examples such as the fact
that the peoples of Laputa must be hit with “flappers” in order to talk or to listen,
this still shows that some societies act differently and Gulliver had to adapt also by
being hit several times on the ears and mouth while in conversation with the
Laputans (Swift, 114).

 Throughout Jonathan Swift’s novel, Gulliver’s Travels, there are many

satirical relationships between Swift’s adventures and the events of The
Enlightenment of the eighteenth-century. These relationships are usually very
extreme, but do provide parallels, sometimes criticizing, main themes of events
during the Enlightenment. Throughout his travels, Gulliver becomes a better-
rounded person from interaction with creatures of all sorts. Similarly to Gulliver,
the Enlightenment period put the world as a whole under massive changes in
technology, culture and religion. These changes have allowed for the successes and
downfalls of today’s society as we know it.
Yahoos are the human-like creatures that Gulliver first encounters in the Country
of the Houyhnhnms. Not recognizing their link with humanity, Gulliver describes
the Yahoos as animals: " . . . deformed . . . . Their heads and breasts were covered
with thick hair . . . but the rest of their bodies were bare . . . . They had no tails and
often stood on their hind feet . . . ." He concludes with, "I never beheld in all my
travels so disagreeable an animal."

Although they are human in form and feature, the Yahoos are, indeed, animals.
They are filthy and they stink. They are omnivorous but seem to prefer meat and
garbage. (Significantly, they eat nearly everything prohibited by the biblical and
Levitical food codes.) They are "the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals
which nature ever produced . . . " and they are "restive and indocible, mischievous
and malicious."

The Yahoos, however, are not merely animals; they are animals who are naturally
vicious and represent Mankind depraved. Swift describes them in deliberately
filthy and disgusting terms, often using metaphors drawn from dung. In terms of
their evolution, the words used to describe the Yahoos are "degenerating by
degrees."

Swift positions Gulliver midway — figuratively and literally — between the super-
rational, innocent horses (the Houyhnhnms) and the filthy, depraved Yahoos.
Gulliver, however, reacts to the Yahoos with immediate and overpowering
detestation and is horrified by the Yahoos' similarity to him. He lacks the humility
to see himself as a sort of Yahoo. Rather, his pride leads him to try to become a
horse. Gulliver will try with admirable determination to improve himself; he will
try to change himself into a more horse-like state, but he will fail. He is, simply,
more of a Yahoo than a Houyhnhnm.

Gulliver's description of the horses, the Houyhnhnms, is almost idyllic: "The

behaviour of these animals was . . . orderly and rational . . . acute and judicious."
Indeed, it is a horse that rescues him from the Yahoos — not by any overt, physical
action, but by simply appearing on the road — no physical action being necessary.

Houyhnhnms live simple lives wholly devoted to reason. They speak clearly, they
act justly, and they have simple laws. Each Houyhnhnm knows what is right and
acts accordingly. They are untroubled by greed, politics, or lust. They live a life of
cleanliness and exist in peace and serenity. They live by the grand maxim:
Cultivate Reason and be totally governed by it. So perfect is their society, in fact,
that they have no concept of a lie, and therefore no word to express it. The only
word for evil is "Yahoo."

Swift defines Houyhnhnm as meaning "perfection of nature." This definition

establishes an important distinction. The horses are uncorrupted by passion —
either base or noble. They are devoid, for example, of charity. Also, they are not
subject to temptation. Swift, however, never suggests that the Houyhnhnms stand
for perfected human nature; on the contrary, they manifest innocent human nature.
What they do — and what they say and think — is akin to human nature, but the
character of the Houyhnhnms is far from Gulliver's. They are ignorant of many
things which most people would consider venial. They cannot, for example,
understand lying — or even the necessity for lying.

Swift thus establishes a range, or spectrum, of existence. The horses are literally
innocent, having never (in theological terms) "fallen"; the Yahoos are super-
sensual and seem depraved. The Houyhnhnms are ice-cold reason; the Yahoos are
fiery sensuality. In between these extremes is Gulliver.