Gulliver’s Travels Themes

Perspective

A novel replete with cultural references, albeit fictional, is populated with myriad perspectives on most things ranging from logistical matters like governance to quirky belief systems. With each journey, Gulliver learns that different cultures can only be compared in abstraction, that even this comparison is also inevitably limited by one’s biases and predispositions. His experiences with the diminutive people of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdingnag show him that there is no such thing as an absolute, whether it be in terms of height, or other grander questions, such as truth and knowledge. Only comparison, he believes, lays the basis categories such as strong and weak. It is also interesting to note that while Gulliver finds almost all newly discovered places strange, he goes on to learn their languages, familiarize himself with their culture, and shares his thoughts on the ways of European nations with them.

In the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver believes he has found the perfect creatures and the perfect society. Also notable is the fact that he leaves their island only because he is forced to, whereas earlier he’d always been able to find some reason to return home. His experience on this island changes him so profoundly that he has no desire to return home. Even back home, Gulliver dotes on his two horses, whereas he is unable to stand the smell, the sight, or the physical proximity of his wife and children.

Intellectual, Moral, and Physical Strength

There are many situations in the novel where Gulliver finds himself intellectually and physically challenged. His typical approach to dealing with difficult and possibly hostile situations involves submitting himself to the power of other rulers, to be at their service. From the time he first encounters Lilliputians, he chooses to use his virtues of empathy, patience, and willingness to converse rather than brute force to overpower them. As fate would have it, the same privilege is afforded him by many of the Brobdingnagians who could have easily killed him. This difference is also in stark contrast with Europe’s fascination with wars, bloodshed, and development of fatal weapons.

On the other hand, he witnesses detached abstraction, entirely removed from immediate concerns, in Lagado. The Projectors here are continuously engaged in whimsical intellectual explorations. His journeys to these lands challenge his ideas of “good” and “bad.” The novel seems to suggest that the moral, rational mind is superior to a corrupt, selfish mind.

Governance and the State

Throughout the novel, Gulliver is keen to observe and compare the different ways of life and governance he encounters on his journeys. He also compares them with English and European ways of life and governance. Gulliver values and seeks to cultivate the laudable qualities he witnesses on the many strange lands: for instance, the Houyhnhnms’ tenacious application of rationality, the non-violent nature of Brobdingnagians, and the initial warmth and hospitality of the Lilliputians. However, he also illuminates the downside of these societies: the Houyhnhnms do not value emotions, whereas the Laputians disregard the practical aspect of things.

At all points, Swift takes Gulliver’s ironic tone to satirize English governance and society. Gulliver thus talks candidly about greedy lawyers and corrupt rulers. His stories about the invention of gunpowder and deadly weaponry shock most of his hosts. Societal flaws are examined deeply, yet these examinations are playful at times and scathingly serious in other instances. Gulliver’s sustained examination of the sociocultural eventually leads to his isolation from humans. Toward the end, he becomes rather misanthropic.