Gulliver's Madness in the Travelling - Literature review Example

Gulliver’s Madness The Jonathan Swift is well known for his satire and nothing illustrates his ability better than his novel Gulliver’s travel. In this book, Gulliver undergoes many things on his journey and is driven to madness in the final section of his adventure. Gulliver madness originates from the fact that he cannot accept himself for what he is. Gulliver wishes to be like Houyhnhnms, a species that he thinks to be perfect. The rejection of him leads to break down because he cannot and will not ever perceive himself as yahoo. The first stage of madness begins with an inability to control his life. Over the duration of his stay with Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is full of pride and when he is exiled from Houyhnhnm – land he is in despair. Gulliver sinks more into madness because he cannot think clearly. It could be understood from the story that Gulliver’s madness is due to his pride. Gulliver finds it difficult to accept his race which means he cannot accept his true self. He rather prefers to live a lie. Madness begins with little intensity and without rationality it can surge. According to (Gollner) “This hidden component and the culprit behind incorrigibility is pride. Swift illuminates this faculty by placing Gulliver in a situation where his pride has no choice but to rise to the surface in the form of madness”. Here the irrational behavior of Gulliver makes him insane. Self – esteem when exceeds can make human follies and lead to unacceptable behavior which surface in the form of madness. In the beginning of the novel, Gulliver is an everyman through whom the readers see the inhabitants of the places he travels through. Gulliver in the beginning has no desire or will but move from one country to another by fate. Gulliver is not conscious about the greedy, morally depraved and ludicrous people around him. However, Gulliver finds himself to be morally superior to the Lilliputians but inferior to the Brobdingnagians. In borndingnan, his weakness is revealed. It is his pride and loyalty to England which leads him to lie to the Brobdingnagian King in order to put his country in a favorable way. As Gulliver progress in his education, he has more judgmental ability about the societies he visits. These judgments are understated in the beginning. For example, in the chapter one, after the ministers plot to kill Gulliver in gruesome way for offences, he notes primarily that ministers and courts may not be perfect. During the stay of Gulliver in Houyhnhnms he loses his innocence and objectivity. He fined himself torn between rationality of the Houyhnhnms and the bestiality of yahoos. He is overly impressed by Houyhnhnms and disgusted by yahoos and he wants to be like Houyhnhnms. Ironically, he resembles more like yahoos which is not desirable to him. Gulliver in his attempt to be like Houyhnhnms slips in to insanity. Gulliver rejects his own men being a slave to pride and condemning whole human kind. Gulliver believes himself to be Houyhnhnms and this is due to his insanity. He even rejects the best of human kind because he thinks they resemble Yahoos. He is condemning his fellow men due to his pride and he fails to understand that he has fallen for victim to pride and became a disgusting human. Gulliver tries to resist himself from yahoos as Gulliver’s own observation confirms that he has nature identical to Yahoos. Yahoos have greediness and love for shiny stones which they hoard secretly. Yahoos eat in excess and succumb to diseases like humans. Yahoos like English Men are rich and idle and subjected to spleen disease. He is also sexually desirable to Yahoo and all this make him more identical to Yahoo s which he hates. Gulliver is not a very intelligent person and lacks proper rezoning and judgmental skills. According to ( Shollenberger) “Gulliver is precisely middle: he is the third of five children, of the middle class, and not particularly intelligent or unintelligent”. In the story, a young male yahoo defecates on Gulliver making him remind of the human infant attitude. Gulliver sees animalistic characteristics in Yahoos. The whole madness of the Gulliver starts with his hatred towards Yahoos and overly obsession with Houyhnhnms.In this forth voyage, Gulliver reaches a position he no longer cares for human kind and we see the beginning of his transformation. He reaches a country where he is no longer rational or moral enough and is stuck between unruly Yahoos and the humane Houyhnhnms. As the story progress Gulliver start loving Houyhnhnms and their society and express that he has never felt such love and veneration for any other society. He promises himself to never return to humankind and live among houyhnhnms. Gulliver believes the way of life of Houyhnhms is desirable and is more intelligent and strong than Yahoos. His rationality is deterioriating day by day as he becomes madder. Gulliver grieves when he is asked to leave the island and sails after kissing his Master’s hoof. Door to his insanity, he avoids Yahoos at all levels of his travel. Here Gulliver finds that Yahoos are alike humans and he developed hatred for them and his hatred for Yahoos and humans is the first sign of the development of madness in him. His madness is proceeding to such a level he is even ready to kill the Yahoos and eradicate them from the face of the earth. He is so insane that he sees only goodness in Houyhnhnms and vices in Yahoos. As per ( Berezowsky)“The deterioration of Gulliver’s mind is noteworthy because he is a Yahoo, or human, and a voyager of England to whom the reader can relate. His madness is a representation of mankind and its shortcomings in England during the eighteenth century”. Gulliver’s inability to balance passion and sanity leads him to madness. Gulliver attempts to be perfect and in this journey he progresses to be a madman. Gulliver falls to his false internal logic and becomes a victim to his emotions and unreasonably venerates Houyhnhnms logic. In his journey Gulliver transforms from a levelheaded traveler to a mad person. Gulliver satirically views England and has clash between reason and faith. Gulliver becomes acquainted with Houyhnhnms and loses his moral, faith country and ultimately his sanity. The insane behavior of Gulliver is evident from the fact that he does not value the lives of Yahoos. In reality, Gulliver is getting obsessed with a race that is egoistic and inhumane. Due to Gulliver’s distorted reasoning and logic he cannot understand the difference between Yahoos and Houyhnhnms. One of the reason for his madness his lack of foundation in religious values. He forfeits the human bond of compassion and humanity. As the story proceeds, Gulliver becomes more suspicious and arrogant. His perceptions and judgmental skill become negligent. Due to his madness he is making fun of human kind and forgets that he is a human too. As per ( Rawson 1-10) “Gullivers madness is not psychological study of mental disintegration, but a means for Swift to say that while Gulliver is mad but not wrong, Swift can endorse his rightness without being mad”. The internal mechanism of Gulliver has shifter to another dimension where he could not understand the realities of world. His thinking and emotions are mirage by the values of Houyhnhnms and he slowly becomes mad each day interacting with this so called superior race. So in this part Gulliver grows to become madder as he travels along. Gulliver’s pride, ego and superiority thinking turns him to a mad person. Work Cited Berezowsky, Karly. "Absurdities Abound in Gulliver’s Travels." http://karlyberezowsky.f iles.wordpress.com. Word Press, 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. . Claude, Rawson. "Gulliver Travel and Empire." Purdue 14.5 (2012): 1-10. Print. Gollner, Joe. "The Will to Madness: Pride and the Meaning of Gullivers Madness." http://j gollner.type pad.com. N.p., 1987. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. . Shollenberger, Brett. "Gullivers Irrationality." http://brettshollenberger.wordpress.com. Word Press, 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. . Read More