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A Dream In Gulliver's Travels

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In Jonathan Swift’s Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels Gulliver presents the British nation with a gift: the perfect rational society as represented by a horse. The Houyhnhnms, as Gulliver describes, are “abound in all excellencies that can adorn a rational creature” as this gift, they offer the receiver these excellencies for themselves (Swift 317). However, the Greek’s gift to Troy appeared the same way, and their adherence to the old proverb never look a gift horse in the mouth proved fatal. Consequently, when Gulliver presents the gift of a way of life modelled off the Houyhnhnms the reader (to whom he addresses) must learn from Troy’s mistakes and be sure to inspect the horse for all it may contain. The truth of Gulliver’s account of his time spent living with …show more content…

In Gulliver, this manifests through his treatment of the Yahoos, his fellow humans. At the prospect of their genocide Gulliver does not flinch or raise any voice in protest. Instead, Gulliver’s sole concern is for his own welfare and the fact that his master referred to him as “a certain wonderful Yahoo” (291). Furthermore, when laying out a dry list of his preparations for the journey home Gulliver states that used the skins of Yahoo children in the crafting of his sail (301). The passive way he states this, with no care for the murder of a child that must of accompanied this displays how the Houyhnhnms’ rationality leads one to despise those that threaten their way of life to the point of no remorse for the murder of a child. Consequently, Gulliver no longer has any sympathy for humankind. His lack of humanity: decency, benevolence and kindness, the traits that he once praised so highly shows that he has chosen the horses, the beasts, and from this has become one

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