Cultures vary from people to people. Groups of humans have gathered for mutual interests. Such interests are attributed value according to what the assemblies consider more or less important. On the novel Gulliver’s Travels, written by Jonathan Swift, four different cultures and the way people lead their lives are described. These cultural characteristics play an important role on the manner Gulliver will be seen by the natives of each region, influencing the attribution of value given to him.

On the first pages of the book, we can realize that Gulliver is in a very good social level in his community. He describes his personal life, and informs us that he has always prepared himself to be a great navigator and studied to be a surgeon. He is heterosexual, has a wife and a good profession and although he had some momentary money problems, he is very well fitted in society. We can note that his peers value him in the community he is embedded due to all the things he has achieved, which are very important in the English culture.

Although Gulliver has such life in his social milieu, he sets sail and lands in Lilliput, a nation in which people are about six inches high. The size of the inhabitants of this place makes Gulliver a giant among them. As a metaphor, his height can be seen as the importance that he has to that people. They do their best in order to feed and give comfort to the Great Man Mountain, as he is known in that community. This value is given due Gulliver’s size that allows him to do significant things there. One of the biggest prowesses Gulliver does in that part of the world is the avoidance of a war, as he takes all the ships of enemies from the shore and gives to the majesties of Lilliput. After this act, he receives a high title of honor among that nation, becoming even more renewed. As we can see, during his stay in Lilliput, Gulliver has a high attribution of value because of his importance to the nation. On the other hand, by the time he unconsciously breaks the rules he is not accepted anymore by the villagers. The acceptance of Gulliver in that reign lasts as long as he does not break their rules and traditions.

He leaves Lilliput and faces a total change by the time he reaches his second destination, opposite of the first one. Now he is surrounded by giants, and again as a metaphor, we can see that all the power and importance that he had before now fades away. Moreover, all the things that he is as a man are not valued by the people from Brobdingnag. There he is found by a farmer and taken to his house, this native uses him as an attraction to entertain people and get money for him and his family. After some hard work as an “entertainer”, he is sold because the giant thought that his life was coming to an end and that he could not give profits to him anymore. Gulliver is considered in that reign a puppet, a nice little human who has the ability to amuse the giants in many different ways, as we can see in the following extract:

I was everyday furnishing the court with some ridiculous story; and Glumdalclitch, although she loved me with excess, yet was arch enough to inform the Queen whenever I committed any folly that she thought would be diverting to her Majesty. (148)

On the same fashion, Gulliver is used in other ways through the period that he is in the Giants reign. Concerning these episodes, we can cite the visits that he has to make to the maids of honor’s rooms, where he is sexually used by them:

The handsomest among these maids of honor, a pleasant frolicsome girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me astride upon one of her nipples, with many other tricks, wherein the reader will excuse me for not being over particular. (141)

This “use” of him, evidences the presence of a devaluation of the foreign visitor among the members of Brobdingnag. On the top of that, being a sexual tool denotes an invasion of his most intimate feelings as a human being, reinforcing the fact that he is a puppet that is used in many ways in that land. As we can see, in the Brobdingnag reign, Gulliver is considered a pleasant company. However, he has disadvantages concerning his size, and this fact influences the attribution of value given to him, as an individual in all aspects.

Different from those previous lands, the measure that attributes value to the narrator now is intelligence. The third place that Gulliver happens to land is an inland, where its people have some specific physical characteristics and the same size as him. Their most unusual characteristic is the fact that they are experts about music and mathematics and ignore all the other areas of knowledge that Gulliver is familiar with. This peculiarity can be seen in the extract below:

Their ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures. If they world, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms, ellipses, and other geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn from music, needless here to repeat. (197)

That contrast in interests did not allow Gulliver to be recognized as an individual in this place by most of the people. In this island, the faculty of intelligence that had been a source of getting a little respect in the giants reign, and the difference in size which was very important in the Lilliputans community could not be used. Here, Gulliver is totally ignored by the population; he is seen as someone on the edge of the society, that is, someone who makes no difference in the social gear.

In the last country Gulliver visits the issue of mind in still present. He lands in a reign inhabited by two species: the Houyhnhms and the Yahoos that symbolize reason and instinct. The former race is composed by rational horses that have their own language and are very developed creatures concerning the good human values. The latter correspond to wild irrational animals that are just like human beings in behavior and physical characteristics, differing just by rationality. In this country Gulliver is considered a Yahoo. However, due to his rational behavior he is hosted in one family that teaches him their language and the culture of that nation. Gulliver calls the attention of the community, as we can perceive in the following extract:

Several horses and mares of quality in the neighborhood came often to our house upon to report spread of a wonderful Yahoo that could speak like a Houyhnhm, and seems in his words and actions to discover some glimmering of reason. (287)

In this reign Gulliver is lowered to the level of irrational animals that the Houyhnhms are not very fond of, due to their lack of virtues and behavior. This equality was at first denied by him, but then he could note physical and behavioral similarities between this race and his countrymen. These findings made him realize that he really belonged to the specie for which he has an aversion.

The value attribution that Gulliver has in the Houyhnhms country is the smallest he had ever had, since the beginning of his voyages, because there, he belongs to an inferior race and is surrounded by inhabitants who are much more rational than him. And although he has “some glimmering of reason”, the natives from that region do not see this fact as an advantage. On the following extract, we can note the perception that one Houyhnhm has concerning the differences between the Yahoos from his country and Gulliver.

He said I differed, indeed, from other Yahoos, being much more cleanly and not altogether so deformed, but in point of real advantage he though I differed for the worse. (295)

This passage clearly shows the total inferiority that is attributed to Gulliver in that reign. That is, because besides being compared to the Yahoos, the most hateful species he is also put in a level of disadvantage towards them.

As we can note in Gulliver’s travels, the main character loses his status gradually throughout the text. This happens due to the attribution of value given by the distinct cultures that he has joined during his voyages. Gulliver is the same man from the beginning of the story who is a rather successful member in his country. However, at the end of the narrative he realizes that he belongs to the most cursed race he had ever thought about and he changes the attribution of value given to his own people and nation. Consequently all the things that he has achieved as a successful Englishmen become meaningless.

REFERENCE:

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels. London: Collector’s Library, 2004

He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail than any of his Court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. His features are strong and masculine; with an Austrian lips and arched nose; his complexion olive; his countenance erect; his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic. (30)

The reading of the Emperor done by the English surgeon seems to adjust itself to the superiority patterns transmitted by his society. So, we may comprehend why Gulliver did not question his perception concerning the citizens and the Emperor of Lilliput.

The description of the Emperor made by Gulliver is an indicator that helps us to understand the critique presented on this novel. The ruler of Lilliput is a man who “is enough to strike an awe into the beholders (30)”. His appearance has the standards of the idealized models cultivated by the Western Culture: “Austrian lips and arched nose; his complexion olive; his countenance erect; his body and limbs well proportioned (30)”. However, although Lilliput is an island ruled by a distinct man, its great central issues are belittled and reduced to unimportance, like centering on which end of an egg must be open first, the big or the small end. Besides, Gulliver did not question this fact, what can show the banality of his values.

On the other hand, on his second voyage the traveler faces his littleness in the reign of Brobdingnag. He realizes: “I reflected what a mortification it must prove to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation… (101-102)”. Gulliver is mortified because his pride is violated. He feels substandard in that community in which the inhabitants are much bigger than him.

On other words, Gulliver has to face his double inferiority, which is caused by his size and his strong dislike towards that society. One of the reasons of his dislike is the fact that his society is seen by the majesty of Brobdingnag as a vicious civilization, as we can perceive in the following excerpt:

After listening to the words said by the majesty of that reign, Gulliver opts to censure the way the people of Brobdingnag lead their lives rather than consider the words concerning his society. Gulliver has the following point of view in relation to the giant’s society: “The learning of this people is very defective, consisting only in morality, history, poetry and mathematics, wherein they must be allowed to excel (164)”. The attitude adopted by Gulliver can be seen as a way of protecting the values and principles of his society. That is, a manner of supporting his hybris. Besides disagreeing with the judgment of the majesty, he sees in an arrogant way the social system of Brobdingnag, which does not reach the qualities of his society.

After his voyage to Brobdingnag, Gulliver arrives to Laputa, where the traveler perceives his inadequacy. In this island, the inhabitants are more interested in spending their time with mathematical theories and music than in giving attention to him: “...yet must confess I thought myself too much neglected, not without some degree of contempt (209)”. Gulliver is inferior concerning his intelligence since he is not able to have the same level of understanding of the areas of knowledge that the citizens from the floating island are experts. Thus, his pride is again offended and he sees the relativity of those sovereign qualities that he is a carrier. Nevertheless, Gulliver expresses his disapproval in relation to the social actions of the citizens from the floating island, as we can see below:

Taken by arrogance, the English surgeon does not question the values and qualities of the people from his society, neither his intelligence. Actually, although unfitted to that nation, Gulliver is still part of a dominant culture, whose beliefs, behavior, values, moral rules are most of the time considered superior in relation to a foreign culture.

The last reign visited by Gulliver is Houyhnhnm, where the traveler is compared to an inferior race of savage creatures. This place is inhabited by the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses, and the Yahoos, a repulsive specie of creatures that behaves like animals. For the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is considered a Yahoo because he resembles the members of this race. The European people described by the traveler are like the Yahoos: greedy, perverse, lascivious and stupid. They actually are more intelligent than the Yahoos, but rationality makes them worst because according to Gulliver’s master: “when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself (303)”. We may read these words as a criticism to the English thought, whose hybris is capable to develop the humankind cruelty. Once again the English society appears in a disagreeable way.

We may perceive a satire of the British Empire while Gulliver is in Houyhnhnm and in the other reigns. His stay in these places reveals a criticism of the English habits and values. Social patterns are questioned through the voyages of the English surgeon, in which we can see the relativity of the supremacy of his race. Like a carrier of the hybris transmitted by his nation, Gulliver can be seen as a synecdoche-character, whose superiority exists due to the fact that he is a European man. However, this narrative exposes that his value is actually big only in his nation, where Gulliver lives according to the English social patterns.



REFERENCES:

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. London: CRW Publishing Limited, 2004.