Gulliver's Travels Summary and Analysis of Part IV,

"A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms,"

Chapter I
"The Author sets out as Captain of a Ship. His Men conspire against him, confine him a
long Time to his Cabin, and set him on Shoar in an unknown Land. He travels up into the
Country. The Yahoos, a strange Sort of Animal, described. The Author meets
two Houyhnhnms."
After five months at home, Gulliver leaves his children and pregnant wife yet again to go
on his fourth voyage, this time as captain. Not long into the trip, his crew mutinies,
locking him into his cabin for a great deal of time and threatening to murder him.
Eventually the crew, who plan to become pirates, drop Gulliver off on an unknown
island.
Gulliver walks inland until he comes across a field of strange creatures. After observing
them for some time he comments, "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." Soon Gulliver comes to realize that these are actually naked human beings
behaving like cattle. Gulliver comes face to face with one of them. He hits it with the side
of his blade when it comes at him violently. The animal-like human (which Gulliver later
learns is called a Yahoo) cries out, causing the rest of the forty Yahoos to surround
Gulliver.
Gulliver fears the worst until the Yahoos suddenly flee because of a grey horse coming
toward them. The horse takes an interest in Gulliver and circles him until another horse
comes along. Gulliver observes that their whinnies to each other sound almost like a
language. Gulliver hears the word Yahoo several times and repeats it to the great surprise
of both horses. The horses then teach Gulliver the word Houyhnhnm, which Gulliver later
learns is their word for themselves-for horse. Afterward, the grey horse signals to
Gulliver that he should walk in front of him, which he does.
Chapter II
"The Author conducted by a Houyhnhnm to his House. The House described. The
Author's reception. The Food of the Houyhnhnms. The Author in Distress for want of
Meat. Is at last relieved. His Manner of feeding in this Country."

Gulliver and the grey horse arrive at a home where Gulliver expects to meet the horse's
human masters. The two move through every room of the house and meet several other
horses before Gulliver realizes that the grey horse is the master of the house.
After some discussion between the horse and his wife about whether or not Gulliver is in
fact a Yahoo, he is brought out to the stable where the Yahoos are kept and is made to
stand next to one of them. Aside from the extra hair, longer nails, and nakedness of the
Yahoo, they are the same.
Gulliver makes a kind of bread out of the horses' oats for his dinner and is given a small
room near the house with some hay to sleep in.
Chapter III
"The Author studies to learn the Language. The Houyhnhnm his master assists in
teaching him. The Language described. Several Houyhnhnms of Quality come out of
Curiosity to see the Author. He gives his Master a short Account of his Voyage."
After about three months of living among the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver has learned their
language quite well and can answer most of their questions. He tells them about the
mutiny that landed him on their shores, but they have a very difficult time understanding,
because they have no concept of what a lie is. They tell Gulliver that "The Word
Houyhnhnm, in their Tongue, signifies a Horse, and its Etymology, the Perfection of
Nature."
The horses believe that Gulliver is a Yahoo-but a more rational and civilized Yahoo.
Gulliver, wanting to separate himself from the Yahoos as much as possible, asks not to be
called a Yahoo anymore.
Chapter IV
"The Houyhnhnms' Notion of Truth and Falsehood. The Author's Discourse disapproved
by his Master. The Author gives a more particular Account of himself, and the Accidents
of his Voyage."
Gulliver continues explaining the concept of lying to his master. He also explains the
relationship of horses and humans back in England. The horses cannot believe that

humans would be able to control creatures that are so much stronger than they are, but
Gulliver explains that horses are tamed beginning at a very young age.
Chapter V
"The Author at his Master's Commands informs him of the State of England. The Causes
of War among the Princes of Europe. The Author begins to explain the English
Constitution."
Over the next two years, Gulliver explains much about the English government and
political systems. Gulliver tries to explain war and the reasons why humans kill each
other. His master says that Yahoos in England are worse than Yahoos because they use
their reason to gain power but use it badly.
Chapter VI
"A Continuation of the State of England. The Character of a first Minister."
Gulliver continues telling his master about the vices of the English people. He paints a
particularly disturbing picture of lawyers and doctors, saying that lawyers are the
stupidest among the Yahoos and doctors are corrupt and seldom cure their patients.
Chapter VII
"The Author's great Love of his Native Country. His Master's Observations upon the
Constitution and Administration of England, as described by the Author, with parallel
Cases and Comparisons. His Master's Observations upon Human Nature."
Gulliver has come to love the Houyhnhnms, their society, and their way of living. He
writes, "I had not been a Year in this Country, before I contracted such a Love and
Veneration for the Inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution never to return to human
Kind, but to pass the rest of my Life among these admirable Houyhnhnms in the
Contemplation and practice of every Virtue."
Gulliver then describes a conversation with his Master in which he is honored by being
asked to sit farther away. His Master tells Gulliver that his conclusion, after learning all
about Gulliver's fellow human beings, is that they are not as different fromYahoos, "their
Brethren," as originally thought.

Chapter VIII
"The Author relates several Particulars of the Yahoos. The great Virtues of the
Houyhnhnms. The Education and Exercise of their Youth. Their general Assembly."
In order to study the Yahoos more closely, Gulliver asks to spend some time among them,
which is granted. Gulliver is completely disgusted by the Yahoos. They smell terrible, are
completely unkempt, and act ridiculously, even throwing their excrement at one another.
When Gulliver sneaks away to a pond for a bath, he is nearly assaulted by one of the
female Yahoos but is saved by a Houyhnhnm.
Chapter IX
"A grand Debate at the General Assembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was
determined. The Learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their Buildings. Their manner of Burials.
The Defectiveness of their Language."
Gulliver's master attends a great assembly as the representative of his district. When he
returns he tells Gulliver that they were discussing whether or not to exterminate the
Yahoos-and that he suggested they be castrated when young, just as Gulliver told him
horses in England often are. That way they will be easier to tame, and they will
eventually die off. In the meantime, the Houyhnhnms can breed asses, which are much
stronger and more manageable than Yahoos.
Gulliver tells the reader that the horses have no system of letters and do not read or write,
but that they maintain their knowledge through oral tradition. They also have very few
diseases and can calculate the year by the revolutions of the sun. Houyhnhnms live to
about seventy or seventy-five years old, and when they die no one makes a big fuss.
Chapter X
"The Author's Oeconomy and happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. His great
improvement in Virtue, by conversing with them. Their Conversations. The Author has
notice given him by his Master that he must depart from the Country. He falls into a
Swoon for Grief, but submits. He contrives and finishes a Canoo, by the help of a FellowServant, and puts to Sea at a venture."

Gulliver is given a nice room in the Houyhnhnms' home, where he settles in very
comfortably. He makes new clothes and enjoys his life very much. The other
Houyhnhnms, however, begin to worry about a Yahoo living among Houyhnhnms. They
fear that Gulliver may lead a revolt among the other Yahoos. They tell Gulliver's master
that it is time for him to leave the island. When Gulliver hears this news, he faints from
grief. Having no other choice, Gulliver builds a canoe over the next two months.
Heartbroken, he sets sail, but not before kissing his master's hoof.
Chapter XI
The Author's dangerous Voyage. He arrives at New-Holland, hoping to settle there. Is
wounded with an Arrow by one of the Natives. Is seized and carried by Force into a
Portugueze Ship. The great Civilities of the Captain. The Author arrives at England."
Gulliver paddles away from the shore, determined not to go too far from the
Houyhnhnms. He writes, "My Design was, if possible, to discover some small island
uninhabited, yet sufficient by my Labour to furnish me with the Necessaries of Life,
which I would have thought a greater Happiness than to be first Minister in the Politest
Court of Europe." He finds a small island, where he lives for four days on raw oysters
and other shellfish until he is discovered by the natives. He runs to his canoe and rows
away, but not before being shot in his left knee.
Gulliver sees a Portuguese ship, but he feels disgusted by the thought of sharing a ship
with Yahoos, so he chooses to return to another side of the same island. The Portuguese
land and find Gulliver. He refuses to leave, but the crewmates decide not to leave him by
himself on the island. The captain, Don Pedro, is very kind to Gulliver, but Gulliver
cannot stand to be near Yahoos, so he spends most of the voyage in his cabin alone.
Finally back in England, Gulliver's family is thrilled to see him alive, but Gulliver thinks
of them only as Yahoos and cannot stand to be near them. He buys two horses and spends
at least four hours a day in the stables conversing with them.
Chapter XII
"The Author's Veracity. His Design in publishing this Work. His Censure of those
Travellers who swerve from the Truth. The Author clears himself from any sinister Ends
in writing. An Objection answered. The Method of planting Colonies. His Native Country

commended. The Right of the Crown to those Countries described by the Author is
justified. The Difficulty of conquering them. The Author takes his last leave of the
Reader; proposes his Manner of Living for the future; gives good Advice, and
concludes."
Gulliver concludes the tale of his travels, saying that everything he has written is true. He
also tells the reader that he is now able to eat at the same table with his family although
he is still working to teach them to overcome their vices. He only wants to help the world
he lives in to become more like the world of the Houyhnhnms.
Analysis
In the country of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver meets the species that is the most skeptical
of him-and for good reason. Gulliver must do everything he can to separate himself from
the Yahoos, a very different situation from his distinct positions in Lilliput and
Brobdingnag. In order to accomplish this, Gulliver does small things daily like using his
best manners, eating with a knife and fork, keeping his clothes on, and being as clean as
possible. He shows that he can use language, can reason well, and can be prudent and
mannerly.
It is interesting to note that from the very beginning of his time in the country of the
Houyhnhnms, Gulliver strives to separate himself from his own species. Is this what
Swift has been trying to do his entire life? It often is difficult to strive for individual
human greatness among a mass of people who hardly try and have hardly any notion of
what greatness would be. In Brobdingnag, when Gulliver explained the English people
and their way of life to the king, the king decided they were lowly creatures and Gulliver
became offended, trying to defend his people. Something is different now in the country
of the Houyhnhnms. When the grey mare tells Gulliver that he thinks his people are
worse than the Yahoos, Gulliver is quick to agree.
What is different here? Only Gulliver's experiences since Brobdingnag and his contact
with the Yahoos. Through the Yahoos, Gulliver has come to see some awful aspects of
human nature, and Swift has shown his readers what they would be (and often are)
without the intelligence and graces of which they are capable. Gulliver seems willing to
turn his back on the English people in favor of those he deems better than the English.
Now that he has been exposed to many alternatives, he can think carefully about who to

admire and what political systems to favor, and the English certainly come up short in
relation to the Houyhnhnms.
Also interesting in these chapters is Gulliver's plain admonishment of lawyers and
doctors. Gulliver's negative commentary about lawyers is in many ways not surprising
except for its level of ferocity. Lawyers seem no better than politicians, going to court
over the petty human squabbles that Gulliver satirized as early as Part I. Gulliver's
description of doctors as shallow and greedy people who would kill a patient as soon as
cure him is surprising to contemporary readers, especially because Gulliver has spent so
many years working as a surgeon. One should remember that eighteenth-century
medicine was still rather poor.
Gulliver tells his master about the way horses are treated in England, and the master
cannot believe it, just as the English would never believe that there was a place where
humans are ruled by horses. Yet, in the country of the Houyhnhnms, this relationship
makes perfect sense. (Compare Planet of the Apes.) Again perspective plays an important
role in Gulliver's journeys. There has been a major change between the two places. Here
the horses have intelligence and virtue while humans, according to the grey mare, are
different from Yahoos only in appearance-their morality is the same. Gulliver does not
disagree. Swift encourages us to consider what really does distinguish better and worse
examples of humanity.
Swift creates an interesting parallel between the governments of the Houyhnhnms and of
the English when the grey horse attends the great assembly-both exhibit similar senses of
entitlement to rule on the basis of merit. The Houyhnhnms are discussing whether or not
to exterminate the Yahoos, never pausing to discuss whether or not they have the right to
subjugate and kill the morally weaker species. Similarly, the English colonists of Swift's
time often felt moral superiority to the native peoples-but if they really were like Yahoos,
they had little right to think so. And even if they were superior in various ways, the
English needed to think carefully about the alternative ways of ordering life and society
before deciding what to do about it-as Gulliver has learned.
The Houyhnhnms' decision to do away with the Yahoos is very interesting. First of all,
the idea to slowly kill off the race by castrating the males came from Gulliver. He has
directly contributed to the destruction of a subspecies of his own race, but he shows no
remorse. Also, the horses seem to feel better about killing off the Yahoos slowly by

keeping them from breeding rather than actually murdering them, even though the end
result is the same.
Even though the reader has been on Gulliver's side throughout his adventures so far, here
we wonder if Gulliver has gone too far in giving up on humanity in favor of another
species altogether. Why would he choose to abandon his people, his life, and his family?
It is true that Gulliver is the kind of person who is called to the sea, to live apart from
traditional society. And we understand the criticism of humanity, especially if we have
some of the religious sensibilities of most of Swift's readers, knowing that humans are
flawed in many ways. Can we redeem ourselves? When Gulliver returns, he slips into his
reclusive state, spending large amounts of time talking to his horses, but he retains some
interest in helping humans become better-apparently through the work of comparing
alternatives and choosing what is better-the life of the Houyhnhnms.
Meanwhile, one should not forget that even though the Yahoos are disgusting, they
express something attractive about human nature. The Yahoos have strong emotions and
are sexual beings. They have fun, frolicking and playing in the fields. They are not afraid
to get dirty or to have less-than-perfect manners. The Houyhnhnms, on the other hand, do
not have love, do not shed a tear when one of them dies, and are aloof and rather cold.
Perhaps it is not so bad being a Yahoo-but we should be wary of this pull toward roughand-tumble life. It was not quite right to be an absentminded intellectual, and it is not
quite right to be aloof like the Houyhnhnms, yet it is not quite right to be a Yahoo. We
must consider the alternatives and decide for ourselves.

Gender Differences
Gender Differences 1: Gulliver illustrates the carelessness of women, when he
retells the story of the fire. It started, apparently, by the mindlessness of one of the
Empress's maids. Furthermore, the only way to extinguish the fire is through
urination, an act so lewd and grotesque that a woman could not handle it. She
decrees that public urination be banned and that the contaminated building be left
as it is. The method by which Gulliver describes this event, leads the reader to
believe that only a woman would act so harshly to his actions.

Gender Differences 2: When the farmer initially shows Gulliver ot his wife, she
screams with disgust, the way a woman would react to a bug. Later, Gulliver is
repulsed most of all by the sight of a woman's breast. He looks up close at the
woman's anatomy and thanks God for the women of England. Whenever Gulliver
notices women in Brobdingnag, he is perpetually repulsed, for he sees all their
faults and blemishes in expanded form.
Gender Differences 3: Glumdalclitch adopts Gulliver as her little pet/doll, and loves
him dearly. Her feminine touch and attention is what Gulliver needs while living in
Brobdingnag. Perhaps only a young woman (child) would have been able to care for
Gulliver with such attention, affection, and detail. However, her youthful feminine
cries are also a disturbance to Gulliver, for he must deal with the negatives as well
as the positives.
Gender Differences 4: When Gulliver describes a grotesque vision of humanity in
Brobdingnag, he generally uses women as the objects of repulsion. Initially it is the
Empress who eats in a grotesque fashion, and now it is the homeless beggar. The
beggar is a horrific site, as Gulliver can see into the crevices and cavities in her
body, destroyed by vermin and waste and disease.
Gender Differences 5: Again, Gulliver describes a repulsive experience with a
woman. Glumdalclitch brings Gulliver to visit the maids of the palace. However,
they change in front of him, making him gag at the sight of their blemished skin
and sickly smell. One maid even placed him on her nipple so that she could play
with him closely. Gulliver does not describe men purely by their physical and
flippant attributes - only women.
Gender Differences 6: Women are repeatedly described separately from men, as is
the case in the flying island of Laputa. The women are described by geometric
shape and mathematical figures. The entire population is described in the same
way, however, Gulliver makes a point to tell the reader that the women are
separate. Furthermore, the women are not allowed to explore or travel off the
island without specific doctrine from the King.
Gender Differences 7: Women are taxed differently than men are in Balnibarbi.
They are taxed on the basis of what their most important virtues are - beauty and
fashion.
Gender Differences 8: Gulliver relates a story of the yahoo women and how they
are different from the men. One day he was bathing and a female yahoo jumped
after him, leaping and attacking. Gulliver was so shocked, he didn't know what to

do. Furthermore, he learns that the female yahoo can leave her family after she
gives birth. There is no allegiance to anyone.

Politics
Politics 1: When Gulliver first meets the emperor of Lilliput, he is honored. He wants
to impress this man who runs the country so well. Gulliver discovers the
mathematics involved with the country and how intelligent these people are.
Furthermore, he politically plays his cards right, as he demonstrates kindness and
clemency with the Lilliputians. By putting them down, instead of eating them,
Gulliver politically showed the population his generosity and kindness.
Politics 2: Gulliver requests his freedom from the Emperor of Lilliput, however, is
turned down. The Emperor, however, uses Gulliver for his own political gain.
Gulliver allows the Lilliputian army to march through his legs. Furthermore, the
Emperor orders an edict about Gulliver that would eventually grant him his
freedom. It is a long and complicated list of orders and mandates.
Politics 3: When Gulliver learns about the opposing political forces in Lilliput, he
sees the futility in their arguments. The parties are in opposition because of a feud
on how to break an egg; either by its big end or small end. Because of such a feud,
the Big-Endians must flee and find refuge in the neighboring enemy island of
Blefuscu.
Politics 4: Gulliver helps the Lilliputian army by pulling out the anchor of a Blefuscu
ship and carrying it to victory for Lilliput. Upon such a victory, the Emperor makes
Gulliver a Nardac, a position of superior honor, and praises him for his political
edge. However, Gulliver soon commits political suicide by expressing his values and
virtues. He refuses to enslave the Blefuscu island. He helped Lilliput win, but he will
not harm Blefuscu. This statement causes further political problems for Gulliver
during his stay on Lilliput.
Politics 5: Gulliver learns of the different political system of Lilliput. The good is
rewarded, as opposed to not simply the bad being punished. Children are raised
outside of the family in nurseries, there is no Divine Providence, and ingratitude is a
capital crime. Gulliver takes note of such staunch differences in the political culture
of Lilliput from England.
Politics 6: Reldresal informs Gulliver of the threat on his life. The Emperor and
assemblymen have voted to have Gulliver killed because of his actions as a traitor,
of public urination, of refusing to obey the Emperor's command, and so on and so

forth. Because of such political problems, Gulliver is forced to flee Lilliput to

Blefuscu.
Politics 7: Gulliver describes the political system of England to the King of
Brobdingnag. After a while, the King jokes with Gulliver about the differences
between Whigs and Tories.
Politics 8: Gulliver explains more of the political system of the United Kingdom to
the King of Brobdingnag. This time, the discussion continues for days and in front of
several more people. The king wants Gulliver to have an audience, so he brings in
some of his royal friends to listen. They do not understand Gulliver's system of
politics, and offer rebuttals to each law cited.
Politics 9: Gulliver learns of the problems with the continent lands and of the
method of controlling them. There are three ways by which Laputan politics and
governance control the land, in order of gravity. First, they throw stones and rocks
on the land, forcing people to flee into caves. Second, they cover the continent with
Laputa, preventing lightness and rain from entering the land. And finally, they
smash Laputa on top of the land, causing complete disaster. The latter is never
used.
Politics 10: Munodi explains the political problems that he has with the people of
Balnibarbi. After the revolt in Lindalino, they people established an Academy, full of
impractical and ridiculous experiments. The people of the land are frustrated with
Munodi for not helping the problems with agriculture and food. Therefore, Munodi
must not show his face at the Academy.
Politics 11: Gulliver learns of the laws pertaining to the Struldbruggs of Luggnagg.
They do not favor these people and mandate certain actions be taken against them
when they reach a certain age. When Gulliver decides to bring back some of these
Struldbruggs to England, the laws of transport do not allow it.
Politics 12: Gulliver explains a bit of English politics to his master when he explains
the differences between horses and humans. Humans (or yahoos) control the
horses (or Houyhnhnms), chaining them, raising them, using them, and even
castrating them. This differential nature shocks and confuses Gulliver's master
horse.
Politics 13: Gulliver begins to explore the differences in politics between England
and Houyhnhnm, beginning with the rule by reason. Everything is done differently
in this land, and much to Gulliver's pleasing. The master doesn't understand

lawyers or laws or politics or parliament or any of the core values by which England
(and thenceforth Europe) is run.
Politics 14: Gulliver is forced to leave Houyhnhnm after the Assembly voted him to
leave. They had been discussing the political expulsion and extermination of all
yahoos from the land. After his master speaks in his favor, the Assembly of
Houyhnhnms still votes that Gulliver must leave the land because of his close
association and likeliness of the yahoos.

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Might Versus Right

Gullivers Travels implicitly poses the question of whether physical power or moral
righteousness should be the governing factor in social life. Gulliver experiences the
advantages of physical might both as one who has it, as a giant in Lilliput where he can
defeat the Blefuscudian navy by virtue of his immense size, and as one who does not have
it, as a miniature visitor to Brobdingnag where he is harassed by the hugeness of everything
from insects to household pets. His first encounter with another society is one of
entrapment, when he is physically tied down by the Lilliputians; later, in Brobdingnag, he is
enslaved by a farmer. He also observes physical force used against others, as with the
Houyhnhnms chaining up of the Yahoos.
But alongside the use of physical force, there are also many claims to power based on
moral correctness. The whole point of the egg controversy that has set Lilliput against

Blefuscu is not merely a cultural difference but, instead, a religious and moral issue related
to the proper interpretation of a passage in their holy book. This difference of opinion seems
to justify, in their eyes at least, the warfare it has sparked. Similarly, the use of physical force
against the Yahoos is justified for the Houyhnhnms by their sense of moral superiority: they
are cleaner, better behaved, and more rational. But overall, the novel tends to show that
claims to rule on the basis of moral righteousness are often just as arbitrary as, and
sometimes simply disguises for, simple physical subjugation. The Laputans keep the lower
land of Balnibarbi in check through force because they believe themselves to be more
rational, even though we might see them as absurd and unpleasant. Similarly, the ruling
elite of Balnibarbi believes itself to be in the right in driving Lord Munodi from power,
although we perceive that Munodi is the rational party. Claims to moral superiority are, in
the end, as hard to justify as the random use of physical force to dominate others.

The Individual Versus Society

Like many narratives about voyages to nonexistent lands, Gullivers Travels explores the
idea of utopiaan imaginary model of the ideal community. The idea of a utopia is an
ancient one, going back at least as far as the description in PlatosRepublic of a city-state
governed by the wise and expressed most famously in English by Thomas
Mores Utopia. Swift nods to both works in his own narrative, though his attitude toward
utopia is much more skeptical, and one of the main aspects he points out about famous
historical utopias is the tendency to privilege the collective group over the individual. The
children of Platos Republic are raised communally, with no knowledge of their biological
parents, in the understanding that this system enhances social fairness. Swift has the
Lilliputians similarly raise their offspring collectively, but its results are not exactly utopian,
since Lilliput is torn by conspiracies, jealousies, and backstabbing.
The Houyhnhnms also practice strict family planning, dictating that the parents of two
females should exchange a child with a family of two males, so that the male-to-female ratio
is perfectly maintained. Indeed, they come closer to the utopian ideal than the Lilliputians in
their wisdom and rational simplicity. But there is something unsettling about the
Houyhnhnms indistinct personalities and about how they are the only social group that
Gulliver encounters who do not have proper names. Despite minor physical differences,

they are all so good and rational that they are more or less interchangeable, without
individual identities. In their absolute fusion with their society and lack of individuality, they
are in a sense the exact opposite of Gulliver, who has hardly any sense of belonging to his
native society and exists only as an individual eternally wandering the seas. Gullivers
intense grief when forced to leave the Houyhnhnms may have something to do with his
longing for union with a community in which he can lose his human identity. In any case,
such a union is impossible for him, since he is not a horse, and all the other societies he
visits make him feel alienated as well.
Gullivers Travels could in fact be described as one of the first novels of modern alienation,
focusing on an individuals repeated failures to integrate into societies to which he does not
belong. England itself is not much of a homeland for Gulliver, and, with his surgeons
business unprofitable and his fathers estate insufficient to support him, he may be right to
feel alienated from it. He never speaks fondly or nostalgically about England, and every
time he returns home, he is quick to leave again. Gulliver never complains explicitly about
feeling lonely, but the embittered and antisocial misanthrope we see at the end of the novel
is clearly a profoundly isolated individual. Thus, if Swifts satire mocks the excesses of
communal life, it may also mock the excesses of individualism in its portrait of a miserable
and lonely Gulliver talking to his horses at home in England.

The Limits of Human Understanding

The idea that humans are not meant to know everything and that all understanding has a
natural limit is important in Gullivers Travels. Swift singles out theoretical knowledge in
particular for attack: his portrait of the disagreeable and self-centered Laputans, who show
blatant contempt for those who are not sunk in private theorizing, is a clear satire against
those who pride themselves on knowledge above all else. Practical knowledge is also
satirized when it does not produce results, as in the academy of Balnibarbi, where the
experiments for extracting sunbeams from cucumbers amount to nothing. Swift insists that
there is a realm of understanding into which humans are simply not supposed to venture.
Thus his depictions of rational societies, like Brobdingnag and Houyhnhnmland, emphasize
not these peoples knowledge or understanding of abstract ideas but their ability to live their
lives in a wise and steady way.

The Brobdingnagian king knows shockingly little about the abstractions of political science,
yet his country seems prosperous and well governed. Similarly, the Houyhnhnms know little
about arcane subjects like astronomy, though they know how long a month is by observing
the moon, since that knowledge has a practical effect on their well-being. Aspiring to higher
fields of knowledge would be meaningless to them and would interfere with their happiness.
In such contexts, it appears that living a happy and well-ordered life seems to be the very
thing for which Swift thinks knowledge is useful.
Swift also emphasizes the importance of self-understanding. Gulliver is initially remarkably
lacking in self-reflection and self-awareness. He makes no mention of his emotions,
passions, dreams, or aspirations, and he shows no interest in describing his own
psychology to us. Accordingly, he may strike us as frustratingly hollow or empty, though it is
likely that his personal emptiness is part of the overall meaning of the novel. By the end, he
has come close to a kind of twisted self-knowledge in his deranged belief that he is a
Yahoo. His revulsion with the human condition, shown in his shabby treatment of the
generous Don Pedro, extends to himself as well, so that he ends the novel in a thinly
disguised state of self-hatred. Swift may thus be saying that self-knowledge has its
necessary limits just as theoretical knowledge does, and that if we look too closely at
ourselves we might not be able to carry on living happily.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.

Excrement
While it may seem a trivial or laughable motif, the recurrent mention of excrement in
Gullivers Travels actually has a serious philosophical significance in the narrative. It
symbolizes everything that is crass and ignoble about the human body and about human
existence in general, and it obstructs any attempt to view humans as wholly spiritual or
mentally transcendent creatures. Since the Enlightenment culture of eighteenth-century
England tended to view humans optimistically as noble souls rather than vulgar bodies,
Swifts emphasis on the common filth of life is a slap in the face of the philosophers of his

day. Thus, when Gulliver urinates to put out a fire in Lilliput, or when Brobdingnagian flies
defecate on his meals, or when the scientist in Lagado works to transform excrement back
into food, we are reminded how very little human reason has to do with everyday existence.
Swift suggests that the human condition in general is dirtier and lowlier than we might like to
believe it is.

Foreign Languages
Gulliver appears to be a gifted linguist, knowing at least the basics of several European
languages and even a fair amount of ancient Greek. This knowledge serves him well, as he
is able to disguise himself as a Dutchman in order to facilitate his entry into Japan, which at
the time only admitted the Dutch. But even more important, his linguistic gifts allow him to
learn the languages of the exotic lands he visits with a dazzling speed and, thus, gain
access to their culture quickly. He learns the languages of the Lilliputians, the
Brobdingnagians, and even the neighing tongue of the Houyhnhnms. He is meticulous in
recording the details of language in his narrative, often giving the original as well as the
translation. One would expect that such detail would indicate a cross-cultural sensitivity, a
kind of anthropologists awareness of how things vary from culture to culture. Yet
surprisingly, Gullivers mastery of foreign languages generally does not correspond to any
real interest in cultural differences. He compares any of the governments he visits to that of
his native England, and he rarely even speculates on how or why cultures are different at
all. Thus, his facility for translation does not indicate a culturally comparative mind, and we
are perhaps meant to yearn for a narrator who is a bit less able to remember the
Brobdingnagian word for lark and better able to offer a more illuminating kind of cultural
analysis.

Clothing
Critics have noted the extraordinary attention that Gulliver pays to clothes throughout his
journeys. Every time he gets a rip in his shirt or is forced to adopt some native garment to
replace one of his own, he recounts the clothing details with great precision. We are told
how his pants are falling apart in Lilliput, so that as the army marches between his legs they
get quite an eyeful. We are informed about the mouse skin he wears in Brobdingnag, and

how the finest silks of the land are as thick as blankets on him. In one sense, these
descriptions are obviously an easy narrative device with which Swift can chart his
protagonists progression from one culture to another: the more ragged his clothes become
and the stranger his new wardrobe, the farther he is from the comforts and conventions of
England. His journey to new lands is also thus a journey into new clothes. When he is
picked up by Don Pedro after his fourth voyage and offered a new suit of clothes, Gulliver
vehemently refuses, preferring his wild animal skins. We sense that Gulliver may well never
fully reintegrate into European society.
But the motif of clothing carries a deeper, more psychologically complex meaning as well.
Gullivers intense interest in the state of his clothes may signal a deep-seated anxiety about
his identity, or lack thereof. He does not seem to have much selfhood: one critic has called
him an abyss, a void where an individual character should be. If clothes make the man,
then perhaps Gullivers obsession with the state of his wardrobe may suggest that he
desperately needs to be fashioned as a personality. Significantly, the two moments when he
describes being naked in the novel are two deeply troubling or humiliating experiences: the
first when he is the boy toy of the Brobdingnagian maids who let him cavort nude on their
mountainous breasts, and the second when he is assaulted by an eleven-year-old Yahoo
girl as he bathes. Both incidents suggest more than mere prudery. Gulliver associates
nudity with extreme vulnerability, even when there is no real danger presenta pre-teen girl
is hardly a threat to a grown man, at least in physical terms. The state of nudity may remind
Gulliver of how nonexistent he feels without the reassuring cover of clothing.

Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.

Lilliputians
The Lilliputians symbolize humankinds wildly excessive pride in its own puny existence.
Swift fully intends the irony of representing the tiniest race visited by Gulliver as by far the
most vainglorious and smug, both collectively and individually. There is surely no character
more odious in all of Gullivers travels than the noxious Skyresh. There is more backbiting

and conspiracy in Lilliput than anywhere else, and more of the pettiness of small minds who
imagine themselves to be grand. Gulliver is a nave consumer of the Lilliputians grandiose
imaginings: he is flattered by the attention of their royal family and cowed by their threats of
punishment, forgetting that they have no real physical power over him. Their formally
worded condemnation of Gulliver on grounds of treason is a model of pompous and selfimportant verbiage, but it works quite effectively on the nave Gulliver.
The Lilliputians show off not only to Gulliver but to themselves as well. There is no mention
of armies proudly marching in any of the other societies Gulliver visitsonly in Lilliput and
neighboring Blefuscu are the six-inch inhabitants possessed of the need to show off their
patriotic glories with such displays. When the Lilliputian emperor requests that Gulliver
serve as a kind of makeshift Arch of Triumph for the troops to pass under, it is a pathetic
reminder that their grand paradein full view of Gullivers nether regionsis supremely
silly, a basically absurd way to boost the collective ego of the nation. Indeed, the war with
Blefuscu is itself an absurdity springing from wounded vanity, since the cause is not a
material concern like disputed territory but, rather, the proper interpretation of scripture by
the emperors forebears and the hurt feelings resulting from the disagreement. All in all, the
Lilliputians symbolize misplaced human pride, and point out Gullivers inability to diagnose it
correctly.

Brobdingnagians
The Brobdingnagians symbolize the private, personal, and physical side of humans when
examined up close and in great detail. The philosophical era of the Enlightenment tended to
overlook the routines of everyday life and the sordid or tedious little facts of existence, but in
Brobdingnag such facts become very important for Gulliver, sometimes matters of life and
death. An eighteenth-century philosopher could afford to ignore the fly buzzing around his
head or the skin pores on his servant girl, but in his shrunken state Gulliver is forced to pay
great attention to such things. He is forced take the domestic sphere seriously as well. In
other lands it is difficult for Gulliver, being such an outsider, to get glimpses of family
relations or private affairs, but in Brobdingnag he is treated as a doll or a plaything, and thus
is made privy to the urination of housemaids and the sexual lives of women. The
Brobdingnagians do not symbolize a solely negative human characteristic, as the Laputans

do. They are not merely ridiculoussome aspects of them are disgusting, like their gigantic
stench and the excrement left by their insects, but others are noble, like the queens
goodwill toward Gulliver and the kings commonsense views of politics. More than anything
else, the Brobdingnagians symbolize a dimension of human existence visible at close
range, under close scrutiny.

Laputans
The Laputans represent the folly of theoretical knowledge that has no relation to human life
and no use in the actual world. As a profound cultural conservative, Swift was a critic of the
newfangled ideas springing up around him at the dawn of the eighteenth-century
Enlightenment, a period of great intellectual experimentation and theorization. He much
preferred the traditional knowledge that had been tested over centuries. Laputa symbolizes
the absurdity of knowledge that has never been tested or applied, the ludicrous side of
Enlightenment intellectualism. Even down below in Balnibarbi, where the local academy is
more inclined to practical application, knowledge is not made socially useful as Swift
demands. Indeed, theoretical knowledge there has proven positively disastrous, resulting in
the ruin of agriculture and architecture and the impoverishment of the population. Even up
above, the pursuit of theoretical understanding has not improved the lot of the Laputans.
They have few material worries, dependent as they are upon the Balnibarbians below. But
they are tormented by worries about the trajectories of comets and other astronomical
speculations: their theories have not made them wise, but neurotic and disagreeable. The
Laputans do not symbolize reason itself but rather the pursuit of a form of knowledge that is
not directly related to the improvement of human life.

Houyhnhnms
The Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rational existence, a life governed by sense and
moderation of which philosophers since Plato have long dreamed. Indeed, there are echoes
of Platos Republic in the Houyhnhnms rejection of light entertainment and vain displays of
luxury, their appeal to reason rather than any holy writings as the criterion for proper action,
and their communal approach to family planning. As in Platos ideal community, the
Houyhnhnms have no need to lie nor any word for lying. They do not use force but only

strong exhortation. Their subjugation of the Yahoos appears more necessary than cruel and
perhaps the best way to deal with an unfortunate blot on their otherwise ideal society. In
these ways and others, the Houyhnhnms seem like model citizens, and Gullivers intense
grief when he is forced to leave them suggests that they have made an impact on him
greater than that of any other society he has visited. His derangement on Don Pedros ship,
in which he snubs the generous man as a Yahoo-like creature, implies that he strongly
identifies with the Houyhnhnms.
But we may be less ready than Gulliver to take the Houyhnhnms as ideals of human
existence. They have no names in the narrative nor any need for names, since they are
virtually interchangeable, with little individual identity. Their lives seem harmonious and
happy, although quite lacking in vigor, challenge, and excitement. Indeed, this apparent
ease may be why Swift chooses to make them horses rather than human types like every
other group in the novel. He may be hinting, to those more insightful than Gulliver, that the
Houyhnhnms should not be considered human ideals at all. In any case, they symbolize a
standard of rational existence to be either espoused or rejected by both Gulliver and us.

England
As the site of his fathers disappointingly small estate and Gullivers failing business,
England seems to symbolize deficiency or insufficiency, at least in the financial sense that
matters most to Gulliver. England is passed over very quickly in the first paragraph of
Chapter I, as if to show that it is simply there as the starting point to be left quickly behind.
Gulliver seems to have very few nationalistic or patriotic feelings about England, and he
rarely mentions his homeland on his travels. In this sense, Gullivers Travels is quite unlike
other travel narratives like theOdyssey, in which Odysseus misses his homeland and
laments his wanderings. England is where Gullivers wife and family live, but they too are
hardly mentioned. Yet Swift chooses to have Gulliver return home after each of his four
journeys instead of having him continue on one long trip to four different places, so that
England is kept constantly in the picture and given a steady, unspoken importance. By the
end of the fourth journey, England is brought more explicitly into the fabric ofGullivers
Travels when Gulliver, in his neurotic state, starts confusing Houyhnhnmland with his
homeland, referring to Englishmen as Yahoos. The distinction between native and foreign

thus unravelsthe Houyhnhnms and Yahoos are not just races populating a faraway land
but rather types that Gulliver projects upon those around him. The possibility thus arises
that all the races Gulliver encounters could be versions of the English and that his travels
merely allow him to see various aspects of human nature more clearly.