Gulliver as a misanthropic character

Gulliver’s Travels is perhaps the most famous literary work of Jonathan Swift. Published in 1726, it has become popular among readers as a satirical novel and perhaps one of the best satirical novels in English literature. By writing this novel, the writer has strongly criticized everything in England and English society. This book, which is divided into four different sections, shows Gulliver’s travel to four different parts of the world. Portraying the badness of human beings equally present in each section, Jonathan Swift actually satirizes people of his time. Even the governments and the judicial system have not been spared from his criticism. In some parts of this novel, his disliking for humankind and avoiding human society are in extreme level. So, Gulliver is a misanthropic character. 

In book 1 of Gulliver’s Travels, we can find that Gulliver goes to Lilliput. Lilliput is a place in which the human beings are not only small in size but also narrow in mentality. The tiny creatures soon turn out to be treacherous and cruel. They love to fight for nothing and they are greedy for power and want to destroy anyone who disagrees with them. The king and his ministers have no respect for the citizens. They think that they are like God and citizens must obey them without asking any question. Today they are grateful to Gulliver for helping them to defeat Blefuscu. Tomorrow they are unhappy with Gulliver and want to kill him. Thus, they do not have any goodness in them. 

In book 3, Gulliver goes to Laputa. There, Gulliver goes to science academy and he finds that scientists are busy with all kinds of inventions except anything that would help humanity. The government general secretary distributes fund for this kind of useless research. The people there have no interest to do anything good. 

The worst attack against human beings comes in book 4. Here, Gulliver travels to Houyhnhnms. Here, we can find that Yahoos who are similar to monkeys are presented as human beings. The Yahoos have no quality and even they look ugly. They are inferior to Horses in every possible way- physically and mentally. To show hatred towards mankind, Gulliver frankly says, “I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the appellation of Yahoo, an odious animal, for which I had so utter a hatred and contempt.” 

The more time Gulliver spends with the Houyhnhnms, the more hatred for Yahoos grows in his heart. His abhorrence of the Yahoo race first comes to the notice when, on one occasion, he catches a Yahoo child and describes it as an “odious vermin”. He is also seen using Yahoo skins as clothing, which actually represents his slight value for human life. Even when a discussion about killing the Yahoo race was made at the general assembly of the Houyhnhnm, he does not oppose it. Gulliver’s hatred for humans reaches its peak when he says that he must leave the Houyhnhnm land that he has grown to love so much. He exclaims: “that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the least of my evils, for supposing I should escape with life by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days among Yahoos”. Hence, Gulliver prefers death to living among his own people in civilization again; for him, they are corrupted, Yahoos too. 

His abhorrence towards Yahoos, who represent human beings, is increased after a female Yahoo attacked him being aroused by sexual urge. The association with the Houyhnhnms makes Gulliver loathing normal sexual intercourse. Such disgust keeps on troubling him, even when he returns to England, and with horror he apprehends that by copulating with his wife, a species of Yahoo, he has produced so many Yahoos. 

The way he treats his family members after returning home again show his hatred for mankind. He denies eating and talking with them. The very smell of them makes him ill. Instead, he would spend time conversing with his two new horses for “at least four hours a day”. He said,

“I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me…. Yet the smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I always keep my nose stopped with rue, lavender, or tobacco leaves.” 

Thus, we can perhaps conclude that Jonathan Swift did not have any high idea about human beings. He created Gulliver as a misanthropic character. Gulliver could not find any good quality among people of any of the countries he traveled. However, we have to understand one thing that Jonathon Swift only criticized the people of his own time and own country. Naturally, he was frustrated because there was no democracy in England. The King and his ministers and rich land lords used to control everything. The aristocratic people had all the facilities and the ordinary people could not even get three decent meals a day. When there is no good governance, the discipline of a country suffers. As a result, people lose their goodness. 

Jonathon Swift was a humanitarian person and he dreamt of a world in which there would be no oppression and corruption. But two things were main obstacles for each. First of all, there was no good governance and when people did any good thing there was no system of reward. The second obstacle was that the ordinary people did not have high value for education and other good qualities. They did not want to welcome new ideas. Jonathon Swift dreamt of a world in which people will try to become better. They will value goodness and will respect each other. 

Jonathon Swift was unlucky that he was ahead of his time. He was a visionary and his ideas were modern. The people of his time could not understand it. So, they thought that Gulliver was a misanthropic character. However, in our own time we can understand that Gulliver was not a misanthropic character but he criticized the bad qualities of human being in the right way.