SWIFT'S GULLIVER: A QUESTION OF FREEDOM OR SLAVERY by Lori Sue Goldstein A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 1991 = Copyright by Lori Sue Goldstein 1991 ii SWIFT'S GULLIVER: A QUESTION OF FREEDOM OR SLAVERY by Lori Sue Goldstein This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Carol McGuirk, Department of English and Comparative Literature, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the College of Arts and Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Thesis Advisor ({&;__ u Jlj-V ~ ~erson, Department of English and Comparative Literature Dean, College of Arts and Humanities It!'~' l?t:;( Dean of DatV ABSTRACT Author: Lori Sue Goldstein Title: Swift's Gulliver: A Question of Freedom or Slavery Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Carol McGuirk Degree: Master of Arts Year: 1991 Although Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels in 1726, Swift's outrage at personal, social, economic, and political slavery can still be felt today, and his work continues to be significant. Criticizing institutions and human nature's tendency to trust those who wield political authority, Swift condemns our reluctance to safeguard our freedom. Swift exposes submissiveness and its consequence: a loss of liberty. Whether Swift uses allusions to Irish history, direct personal statement, or Gulliver as persona to reveal the self- destructive consequences of passivity, he "deliberately taunts those who might be so wise and yet remain so stupid" (Bloom 34) • iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Introduction . ............................... 6 CHAPTER 2: Submission in Irish History and Swift's Personal History ........................... 11 CHAPTER 3: Gulliver as Persona: The Critical Debate ... 19 CHAPTER 4 : Gulliver in Voyage 1: The Passive Giant .... 24 CHAPTER 5: Gulliver in Voyage 2 : A Lilliputian Among Giants ..................................... 3 7 CHAPTER 6: Gulliver in Voyage 3: The Uninvolved Reporter ................................... 4 7 CHAPTER 7: Gulliver in Voyage 4: A Yahoo Among Houyhnhnms ................................. 53 CHAPTER 8: Conclusion ................................. 59 Works Cited ............................................... 62 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Swift believed that the issues he addressed in his satires would remain relevant for ages to come. Concerned with human nature in general and slavery and liberty in particular, Swift exposed and criticized the consequences of any passive acceptance of oppressive control. Particularly through the persona of Gulliver, Gulliver's Travels exposes and reproaches nations, institutions, and individuals who invest an absolute and unreasonable faith in authority. Knowing that such passivity causes us to lose liberty, Swift uses Gulliver to reveal his concern. Using Gulliver as a satiric tool, Swift exposes our faults and imperfections and dramatizes the consequences of submissive behavior. Whatever Swift's motives in creating Gulliver as a submissive persona in Gulliver's Travels--to satisfy a personal need, to comment on his own situation, or to reform society's morals--he criticizes the abuses that arise from passive acceptance of oppression. In Gulliver's Travels, swift enables us to see that we continue to give others the power to mistreat us. Gulliver encounters an emperor in Voyage 1, a king in Voyage 2, a prince in Voyage 3, and wise horses in Voyage 4. 6 7 Each of these sovereigns requires all subjects to maintain a subordinate status. The horses have a democracy, yet they exclude the Yahoos, keeping them at a subservient level. Emphasizing only two classes of people, the powerful and the powerless, Swift uses Gulliver's experiences to cry out for liberation. Angry that the powerless are treated like an inferior species and feeling helpless as they accept their oppression, swift throughout Gulliver's voyages "deliberately taunts those who might be so wise and yet remain so stupid" (Bloom 34). Almost all critics agree that Swift's satire is directed at "human nature," yet critics have seldom named human submissiveness and its destructive consequences as a major target. Yet swift himself reveals to us through personal letters and other writings that he is deeply concerned with the issues of slavery, freedom, and submissiveness. Consequently, after examining criticism and the text of Gulliver's Travels, I have become convinced that satirizing human submissiveness was Swift's major concern. In Chapter 1, I cover the background leading to Swift's insistence on liberation of the powerless. England's cruelty toward Ireland, Ireland's passive acceptance of England's tyrannical oppression, and Swift's feelings of personal political oppression all were factors in the development of the satiric perspective of Gulliver's Travels. I argue that swift was concerned with liberty and slavery because of his 8 observation of Irish passivity and its destructive consequences. Chapter 2 surveys the last fifty years of criticism on Swift ' s persona, Gulliver. Critics have deb a ted whether Gulliver is Swift, a character, a type, a mask, a voice, or an ironic device. Although it is important to know what the critics have said, it is also important to see that the critics have never come to a consensus. I conclude that Swift's motives for writing Gulliver's Travels--his attack on submissiveness and its destructive consequences--may be used to clarify the critical debate on Gulliver as persona. Chapter 3 discusses Gulliver as a passive giant in Voyage 1, exploring where his fears originate and how he handles them. As he encounters different situations, we see the destructive consequences of Gulliver's fawning behavior and inaction. Remaining humble (in Gulliver's case, weak and submissive despite the pain he experiences), Gulliver is Swift's tool--a mirror--showing us our inadequacies. Chapter 4 discusses Voyage 2, examining Gulliver as a Lilliputian among giants. Gulliver's fears are explored and his submissiveness is again illustrated. Looking for approval, acceptance, and security, tiny Gulliver relinquishes his liberty. Gulliver is a toy and an oddity used for entertainment. Flattered by the attention he receives, Gulliver adopts a slave-like submission, accelerating the downward spiral of his self-deception and self-destruction. 9 Chapter 5 examines Voyage 3, where Gulliver visits Laputa and Balnibarbi. In this loosely constructed voyage (written last and in collaboration with Pope and other Scriblerians), Gulliver is not consistent in his narrative as he reports about the women of Laputa and their desire for change. Yet the theme of submission emerges in Gulliver's discussion of the consequences of Count Munodi's inability to make a stand against the king. The brief additional anecdote about the newly liberated natives of Lindalino also reveals what happens when passivity is rejected for political activism. Gulliver's experiences in Voyage 3 show the destructiveness of passivity and the benefits of fighting for liberty; however, in this voyage Gulliver is only a device to show us that we have choices. He does not here internalize his experiences, as he will in Voyage 4. Chapter 6 examines Gulliver as a Yahoo among Houyhnhnrns in Voyage 4. In previous voyages, Gulliver has accepted temporarily subservient roles for a short time; by the conclusion of this voyage, however, Gulliver has completely renounced his humanity. Gulliver's submissiveness has become an idolatry of horses and a loss of human identity: Gulliver returns horne disgusted by his wife, his children, and even his own existence. This final stage of Gulliver's degeneration leaves him isolated, unenlightened, and de-humanized. Gulliver is a tool to show that "we must work out our solution, not denying but wrestling with the chaos we are born 10 to, and refusing any of the tempting simplifications which prove, as in Gulliver's own case, so dangerous" (Williams Compromise 206) . CHAPTER 2 SUBMISSION AND SLAVERY IN IRISH HISTORY AND SWIFT'S PERSONAL HISTORY Swift's concern for political oppression resulting from blind submission to authority is apparent in many of his writings. The source of this concern seems to have been his experience of living in Ireland. Swift was described by Sir Walter Scott as "dwelling in a land where he considered the human race as divided between petty tyrants and oppressed slaves, and being himself a worshipper of that freedom and independence which he beheld daily trampled upon" (Williams Heritage 292). England professed to represent and support the Irish, yet England conspired to prevent Ireland from becoming constitutionally sovereign and economically independent. In fact, the English lived on Irish revenues while Irish poverty grew. As Swift notes in "A Modest Proposal," the English allowed absentee landlords to levy unfair rents on the peasants, causing Irish lands to become uncultivated. English policies favored dissenters, desired to get rid of the Test Acts, and did not enforce the Act of Uniformity: these were all positions unfavorable to Swift's Church of Ireland and 11 12 therefore forcefully opposed by Swift. Encouraging Ireland to import all its food, England encouraged Ireland to remain dependent and impoverished. Moreover, Irish posts and pensions were given away largely to the English, serving as "out-door relief for such as had a claim on the English government" (Newman 279). Commercial restrictions were also placed on the Irish. The Navigation Acts of 1660-1663 allowed exports to the colonies only from English ports and only by English ships-­ thereby restricting Irish trade. The Cattle Act of 1666 placed prohibitive taxes on Irish livestock exported to England, and the Woolen Act of 1699 forbade the export of any Irish woolens except raw wool. In thus restricting Irish exports, England exploited Ireland, which in Swift's view became a pawn being manipulated by an oppressive, corrupt English government.