Lecture Notes, Jonathan Swift:
1. Jonathan Swift, brief bio:
2. Satire, a working definition:
3. General questions to consider while reading Gulliver’s Travels.
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If
a satire calls for the amendment of vices, what vices are exposed in Gulliver’s Travels?
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What
is the relation between the Yahoos and humankind?
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Does
Gulliver’s attitude toward men shift during Gulliver’s
Travels?
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Some
people argue that this volume (Part IV) of Gulliver’s Travels constitutes and
unrelenting and total attack on humankind. Do you agree? Support using examples
from the text.
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Trace
Gulliver’s state of mind through the volume. Is Gulliver ,
for instance, deluded after his journey?
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Do
Houyhnhnms represent an ideal for humanity,
specifically their allegiance to reason?
4. Discussion Quotes:
from Gulliver’s Travels
“[T]he
Yahoos were a species of animals utterly incapable of amendment by precepts or
examples” (434).
“And, it
must be owned that seven months were sufficient time to correct every vice and
folly to which Yahoos are subject” (435).
“I wrote for their amendment” (435).
“I should
never have attempted so absurd a project as that of reforming the Yahoo race in
this kingdom, but I have now done with all such visionary schemes for ever”
(436).
“Their
shape was very singular, and deformed” (438).
“Then he neighed three or four times, but in so different a cadence,
that I almost began to think he was speaking to himself in some language of his
own” (439).
“Upon the whole, the behavior of these animals was so orderly and
rational” (440).
“I saw three of those detestable creatures” (442).
“My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed,
in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure” (442).
“For they looked upon it as a prodigy, that a brute animal should
discover such marks of a rational creature” (445).
“[B]ecause the Yahoos … were observed to be
the most unteachable of all brutes” (445).
“Besides,
I considered that my clothes and shoes would soon wear out, which already were
in a declining condition, and must be supplied by some contrivance from the hides
of Yahoos, or other brutes” (446).
“He
said, as if it were possible there could be any country where Yahoos alone were
endued with reason, they certainly must be the governing animal, because reason
will in time always prevail against brute strength” (449).
“I laid before him, as well as I could, the whole state of
“Sometimes
the ambition of princes, who never think they have land or people enough to
govern” (452).
“[H]e thought
nature and reason were sufficient guides” (453).
“That
the bulk of our people was forced to live miserably,
by laboring every day for small wages to make a few live plentifully” (455).
“To remedy
which, there was a sort of people bred up among us, in the profession or
pretense of curing the sick” (457).
“I had
formerly upon occasion discoursed with my master upon the nature of government
in general, and particularly of our own excellent constitution, deservedly the
wonder and envy of the whole world” (457-8).
“[O]
“I began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different
light” (459).
“I entered on a firm resolution never to return to humankind” (459).
“[R]eason alone is sufficient to govern a
rational creature” (460).
“[H]e
believed it might proceed from the same principle of avarice, which I had
ascribed to mankind” (461).
“[S]o their grand maxim is to cultivate reason” (465).
“Friendship and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Houyhnhnms” (465).
“In
educating the youth of both sexes, their method is admirable, and highly deserveth our imitation” (466).
“I
enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquility of
mind” (470).
“Their subjects are generally on friendship and benevolence; on order
and economy” (471).
“[N]o person can disobey reason without giving up his claim to be a
rational creature” (473).
“I had
quite forgot the faculty of lying” (477).
“This indeed would be too great a mortification if I wrote for fame;
but, as my sole intention was the PUBLIC GOOD” (480).
from “A Modest Proposal”
“”I
think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children … therefore,
whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children
sound and useful members of the commonwealth” (483-4).
“I have
been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a
young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious,
nourishing, and wholesome food” (485).
“And the
money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own
growth and manufacture” (487).
“Therefore
let no man talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees at five shillings a
pound; of using neither clothes nor household-furniture except what is of our
own growth and manufacture …” (488).
“I have
no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being
nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing” (489).