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Lamuel Gulliver Essays

Decent Essays

Lamuel Gulliver
Jonathan Swift is one of the best known satirists in the history of literature. When one reads his works, especially something like Gulliver’s Travels, it is easy for one to spot the misanthropic themes, which emerge within his characterization. Lamuel Gulliver is an excellent protagonist: a keen observer, and a good representative of his native England, but one who loses faith in mankind as his story progresses. He ends up in remote areas of the world all by accidents in his voyages. In each trip, he is shipwrecked and mysteriously arrives to lands never before seen by men. This forms an interesting rhythm in the novel: as Gulliver is given more and more responsibility, he tends to be less …show more content…

Gulliver is a good representative of England, but one who loses faith in mankind as the story progresses. The visit to Brobdingnag accounts for most of this misery, where he attempts to preserve his dignity as an English man. Gulliver becomes exactly the controversial figure of what he was in Lilliput. In this case, the Brobdingnagians remain peaceful with him, yet he is prideful. The flag of Gulliver’s homeland, England, on the coat of arms illustrates pride.
Yet due to his pride for his native England, in the country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is gradually driven mad by his realization that he can never hope to achieve the state of existence of the supremely rational, noble Houyhnhnms. Even though the Houyhnhnms consider Gulliver to be noble, Gulliver is constantly offended when he sees a disturbing resemblance between himself and the barbaric Yahoos. He falls to the same sin of pride that he condemned in the others in previous voyages. He is disgusted that the members of his own human race are living a filthy lifestyle such as the animals of England, and this makes him eager to return to home, where he thinks things are normal. Therefore, a rat ready to enter its hole represents Gulliver forced to return to England because of his fear that he will eventually turn barbaric.
The essential rhythm the author has interwoven in all the four of Gulliver’s

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