Analysis on Swift’s Attitude towards Humanity

Introduction
In1726, Jonathan Swift, one of the best-known realistic writers in 18th century, published his book Gulliver’s Travels which on the surface is a collection of travel journals of a surgeon called Lemuel Gulliver but actually is a work of satire on politics and human nature. In the four incredible adventures, Gulliver’s perceptions are tied closely with Swift’s shame and disgust against British government and even against the whole of the human condition as Richard Rodino says in his book that Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score satirical points. (Rodino 124) Indeed, …show more content…

When Gulliver returns home after his voyages he assumes the most absurd things. Looking at his wife after his visit to the land of giants he concludes: “She had been too thrifty, for I found she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing” (Swift 359). It is one thing to misconstrue completely why they would look so. t the finale of his narrative he becomes very strange; he has difficulty filtering out human things; he thinks that horses speak to him. Actually Gulliver returns home in exile and his homecoming is a foreign and alienating experience. The degeneration of human nature results in the thoroughly satiric ending.

Redemption
However, Swift still believes that man can redeem himself from corruption by eliminating our egocentric character and facing squarely to the vice in human nature, simultaneously pursuing a moral life. Swift argues that it is unavoidable to have flaws, and it is the denial of one’s shortcomings that is shameful as Swift writes in his book: “but when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience.” (Swift 395) Swift wants people to acknowledge their life, adopt nature rules such as birth and death. In Gulliver’s Travels part III, chapter X, Swift depicts the immortal Struldbruggs in Luggnag. They will never die after they are born, but they are not happy, instead they are melancholic and