HELP

Running Head: CHARACTERIZING SWIFT AS A MISANTHROPE 1

CHARACTERIZING SWIFT AS A MISANTHROPE 6

Characterizing Swift as a misanthrope

Name:

Institution Affiliation:

Instructor:

Date:

Abstract

Misanthropy is a general feeling of hatred of human beings and humanity as a whole. One feels contemptuous and have a distrust of fellow humans. A misanthrope is that kind of person. In this essay, we will look at whether Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels, is a cynic based on his attitude towards his characters in the story. Gulliver’s Travels is a book based on human nature’s anatomy and was very popular way back in history. The indicted loved this literary work very much.

Misanthropy

About misanthropy, Jonathan Swift said that he detests and hate human beings. He termed man as an animal that can be reasonable but many of them choose not to be so (Swift p 27). This author is undisputedly a prolific writer. He criticized man as being brutal but used a mask of humanism for them not to be seen as brutal.

During Gulliver’s days, corruption and other vices were rampant, but surprisingly, no one was dissatisfied. In his last voyage, the satire used advances to bitterness especially when he sees horses as being more intelligent and reasonable than man. Jonathan Swift is seen as a misanthropist in the last pages of his book. Book critics attribute the blunders done by Gulliver to the author, Swift. He writes to Alexander Pope saying that greatest end of all his work is vexing the whole world instead of diverting it and declares that he hated all people and their professions (Swift p 260)

Swift says that he loves the man but hates people. He dislikes the immoralities done by the man that resembles animal behavior, not the behavior of the greatest creation of the Supreme Being. He gets shocked by the terrible and unreasonable actions done by his age-mates. What he wrote to Pope tells the opposite of what we think: That he hates human beings. He is only angry that people are unreasonable, according to what they do and like doing. Jonathan Swift tries to show us that he is not a misanthropist.

When we look at the pages of this book, there’s extreme criticism of customs and values of humanity. It’s important to note that the writer only hates values and traditions of human beings and not humanity in general. Swift, therefore, is a reformist and not a misanthropist.

The novel, Gulliver’s Travels is Swift’s one of the best works of art, a masterpiece! Here, he talks about Gulliver’s voyages of many different countries like Lilliput. At Lilliput, Gulliver meets dwarfs. He also meets two groups in his last trip where he was seen as a misanthrope. Yahoos were the servants of the Houyhnhnms, and both of the two groups were horses. Human beings are represented by the Yahoos according to Gulliver. The word “Yahoo” is used by the character to mean primitive, brutal and unreasonable people.

The character in Swift’s book, Gulliver becomes a misanthropist in his last voyage, and this phenomenon is undeniable. Gulliver enters a country of animals with their rules as explained in his fourth tour. The two categories of habitats in that nation were Houyhnhnms who were a bit rational and intelligent compared to the second group, the Yahoos who were very brutal. Gulliver started hating the brutes (Yahoos) because they were kind of nasty and trouble makers. He, however, liked the other group (Houyhnhnms) and had an excellent experience with them. The smart team protected him against the Yahoos and accorded him hospitality. Gulliver grew to love them and their way of living and saw nothing wrong with the hospitable Houyhnms until he started showing characteristics of a misanthrope. He got so fond of the Houyhnms that he began hating human beings as he equated the brutal Yahoos with men. He started hating all men and the way he dismissed the captain, and his whole family depicted the height of misanthropy in him (Swift p 265).

The biggest mistake Gulliver did was putting all his trust on the Houyhnhnms because he got tired of the vices committed by a man like corruption and brutality. He depicted the Yahoos as full of themselves, are sentimental and are stupidly emotional. He thought that the Houyhnhnms were better paced than their counterparts, the Yahoos. The former were not corrupt and were not slaves of emotions. Gulliver felt that the only solution for men to be better beings was to get rid of their feelings and be more intelligent and less corrupt. When he was forced to flee to his country, he started hating his fellow men naturally. Gulliver finally began to change his attitude and reconcile with the world after finding no better option. A similar character in Shakespeare’s works of art “King Lear” did the same after he saw no alternative after hating fellow human beings, especially after being nursed by his daughter.

The same way we should not see Shakespeare as a misanthropist is how we should treat Jonathan Swift. Gulliver changing during the storyline and becoming a misanthropist at the end doesn’t mean that the author, Swift has the same characteristic. The most miscomprehended part is Chapter 4. People saw Swift in the person of Gulliver after the latter started hating on the Yahoos. I think this is because chapter 4 is full of satire and it’s true that Gulliver became a misanthropist. But why should we relate Gulliver’s misanthropy to Swift?

Gulliver might only resemble Swift in the previous voyages and not in the fourth one, where the former’s selfishness is clearly seen. Gulliver demonstrates Swift’s ideas in the first three trips but later speaks for himself as the story advances to the last part. Gulliver even becomes a victim of Swift’s satire. It should have been good if Gulliver could have rejected both the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms because they were not men. He distanced himself from people the moment he started liking the wise and hospitable Houyhnhnms. Swift uses irony to condemn Gulliver’s choice and gives him a psychological torture searching for options after hating on men as a punishment. Gulliver is portrayed as degrading himself from the level of being a human being because of his pride.

Summary

In conclusion, Swift tries to tell us that we need to have a balance of sensuality and rationality and not degrade ourselves to choose between the two groups. When we choose either to be the Yahoos or the Houyhnhnms, we choose not to be human beings but animals. We should not directly compare a character in one’s literary work to the author. Swift, therefore, is not a misanthrope but a reformist.

Work Cited

Swift, Jonathan. "Gulliver’s travels." Gulliver’s Travels. Palgrave Macmillan US, 1995. 27-266.