Gulliver's_Travels

Layers of Criticism The framework of the novel, Gulliver’s Travels, provides several examples of satire, from strong and ironic claims to witty, comedic descriptions, alluding to much stronger social criticisms. Jonathan Swift purposely creates a narrator to filter his harsh criticism towards European culture, while he also gives a lot of attention to Gulliver’s subtle changes as a person throughout the novel. Although Swift’s satiric nature is not always obvious in the text, Gulliver’s instability and naivety become more evident as the novel continues, which significantly weaken his reliability as the narrator. Swift does not only try to convey his own criticisms through him, but Gulliver, himself, also reinforces some of the same ideas Swift is attacking throughout his travels. As we observe the insecurities and challenges that Gulliver faces during his voyages, we identify with him less as a person, and realize that our understanding of his adventures are based off of observations during his downward spiral towards his hatred for humanity. Swift’s satiric criticisms, in addition to Gulliver’s self interest and skewed perception of human nature, establish the structure of the unclear narration, which both impact the way we interpret Gulliver’s insights from his journey in comparison to the understanding of Swift’s satiric parallels. Jonathan Swift creates several layers of satire in Gulliver’s Travels with his ironic tone and clever use of Gulliver, not only as a filter to reference his own satiric criticisms, but also as a direct object of satire himself to characterize Gulliver as an unreliable narrator. Swift creates the narrator as an undeveloped character to criticize Gulliver’s own perception of himself and his lack of understanding among the many places he visits, to subtlety draw our attention towards his opinions about the English. Gulliver’s self-interest, ignorance, naivety, and arrogance are all traits that Swift uses to criticize his “Englishness,” and to also provide an argument about how Gulliver’s failure to successfully narrate his travels is associated with England’s culture. Swift emphasizes Gulliver’s flaws to reinforce his dislike for the English, while he also suggests that Gulliver’s pride and hegemonic attitudes towards the different cultures he encounters contribute to his eventual demoralization as a human. Swift manipulatively uses Gulliver’s character to sermonize the ideals of the eighteenth century, which in turn also ironically affirms Gulliver’s unreliability as a narrator, since his main focus is to emphasize the importance of his own well being. For example, Gulliver’s voyage to Gludmalclitch exemplifies Gulliver’s growing insecurities, “I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth” (Swift 123). Gulliver lingers on his self absorption, while we can also see that his commentary is extending on Swift’ opinions about how English deem it necessary to establish their pride. Swift uses Gulliver as a device to generate his own social criticisms about the English and Irish tension, but also to further emphasize how the narrator’s flaws influence his distorted understanding about human nature. Gulliver acts as a “divided” character; he relates his observations to the audience throughout his journey, but he never fully explores or understands how his vivid descriptions of his experiences render a larger significance. Gulliver’s character supports Swift’s criticisms about the English, but he also inevitably complicates his own reliability through the style in which he narrates his observations of the different cultures he encounters throughout his voyages. The style of Gulliver’s narratives from his travels tends to linger on long and overanalyzed descriptions that frame the parameters for Swift’s satiric references and motives of criticisms. Gulliver’s descriptive monologues potently stress the gap between his perceptions of himself versus his awareness of others. At the end of Gulliver’s second voyage, he tries to rationalize why he considers himself a successful narrator. As he desperately attempts to justify his reasons for dwelling on details that may seem insignificant to others, his philosophical speculation of the importance of his voyages cause us to question the consistency of his descriptions and challenge his credibility as a successful and meaningful narrator. “I hope the gentle Reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the like Particulars, which however insignificant they may appear to groveling vulgar Minds, yet will certainly help a Philosopher to enlarge his Thoughts and Imagination, and apply them to the Benefit of public as well as private Life, which was my sole Design in presenting this and other Accounts of my Travels to the world” (89). Although Gulliver views his own observations as meaningful, his persistent emphasis on his overly detailed descriptions are not always convincing, which raises the question if they render any greater meaning for Gulliver at all. The irony of Gulliver’s commentary is that it exposes the subjective nature of his descriptions about his experiences, which allows more of Swift’s satiric objectives to surface in the novel. Swift uses the narration as a framework to reinforce Gulliver’s instability and to further indicate his absurd understanding about human nature. Gulliver’s inability to maintain a steady, undeviating narration contribute to his eventual degradation as a human; his failure to comprehend the significance of his experiences challenge his ideology about the importance of social status, and confirms his inability to maintain his moral framework as a human. Gulliver is a tedious narrator to understand and a confusing character to follow in his narration and if we cannot establish the foundation as a dependable narrator, Swift wants to highlight the reasons why is such a complicated figure is because his flaws capitalize the irony of his character. Gulliver most palpably confirms his unreliability as a narrator during his transformation as an ignorant traveler in Lilliput, to a delusional form of a human being, succumbed to madness, in Brobdingnag. At the end of the novel, our inability to sympathize with Gulliver as a character is a defining moment, when we realize that Swift purposely did not fully characterize Gulliver, and left him as a flat narrator. Gulliver formally recognizes his own untrustworthiness in the last part of the novel when his past insecurities and experiences ultimately corrupted his ability to uphold his defining characteristics of humanness. Gulliver’s reflections about his disconnection from humanity take place in Brobdingnag where he states, “Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my Travels, so disagreeable an Animal, nor one against which I naturally conceived so strong an Antipathy” (207). After Gulliver elaborates on the foreignness of the Yahoos, while they are actually human, he confirms his delusional state of mind when he chooses not to associate with them. His absent self recognition immediately detaches any association we once had following Gulliver in his travels, and his seclusion from society at the end of the novel expands upon his unreliability as a narrator. Swift conveys his ideas about the motives and temptations that ultimately led to Gulliver’s destruction and complete loss of emotion, and his criticisms about succumbing to the challenges humans face establishes the grounds on how Gulliver’s ignorance catalyzed his transformation to a completely different person. Swift’s clever use of satire through Gulliver exemplifies one of his main points about the downfall of mankind. His travels describe an experience we are completely unfamiliar with, and the criticisms that Swift interjects within Gulliver’s narration reveal a further and more concrete understanding about the narrator to the audience. Swift’s intent was to create an undeveloped character to show how his inevitable downfall was due to the parameters we use to define human nature. Swift established Gulliver’s unreliability by illustrating his naivety as a traveler during each voyage, challenging his insecurities, and confirming how the importance of upholding human nature is determined by moral independence. At the end of the novel when we confirm Gulliver’s instability and go beyond trying to interpret the purpose of his narrative, it is much easier to recognize the larger ideas that Swift is trying to establish. Until his madness, Gulliver’s unreliability as a narrator confirms that humans have insecurities and the challenges we face every day prove how inherently selfish people can be. Swift’s objective in Gulliver’s Travels is to challenge our knowledge in this text and go beyond the satiric criticisms and the narrator’s unsteadiness, to understand what leads to the degradation of human nature, in order to highlight the importance of our ability to maintain moral stability.