physical and mental deterioration

There are some noticeable aspects in Gulliver’s Travels that can be easily recognised by the reader. One of the most remarkable one is the expression of physical and moral corruption of mankind.

This corruption is spread among several fields such as society or politics. In fact, every single place in the book is dealing with different ways of being corrupted under the influence of those scopes.

There is an important figure in the text and it is that of the master. It is represented as an idealized image of a ruler who wants to have submissive people surrounding him in order to impose his authority. This idealisation is created by the ‘slave’ himself. However, since the leader does not use his rationality all his attempts fail. Jonathan Swift is reflecting this image on that of English politicians.

As part of this critic, Swift creates an island above earth in order to express the naivety of those people who want to make up an image of themselves that they can never reach. And also of those who let themselves be corrupted by their political leaders or the society itself. In addition, it can be remarked that humankind is deformed by his own vices.

 Therefore, it can be guessed that the author chooses intellect over the whole savagery and deterioration to which human kind is exposed.

Guthrie, Ben. Jonathan Swift’s Use of Satire in Gulliver’s Travels