The Merrie Monarch

Swift's Satirical Exposure of Human Pride

After being in the land of the Lilliputians, Gulliver’s size moves from a colossus to an insignificant insect that finds himself in the land of Brobdingnag, where, as soon as he arrives, is turned into a domestic pet due to his tininess.

Once again we discover Swift making reference to the issue of “size”, this time from a different point of view. According to K.M. Jan and Shabnam Firdaus in Perspectives on Gulliver’s Travels “Swift concentrates on the superiority of the giants and the insignificance of Gulliver” revealing “human reality as ridiculous and infinitely small”.

Gulliver’s insignificance is perfectly seen all through the book. He is described as a pet, a freak of nature, a baby, even as a doll. Evidently, all these experiences, paraphrasing David Daiches’ ideas in A Critical History of English Literature: the Restoration to 1800, are used by Swift to explore what is considered one of the major themes of this second story: the satirical exposure of human pride and pretention.

 In several occasions we will find Gulliver boasting about England’s history and culture, proud of their achievements even when they are destructive ones as in the case of the gunpowder, but each time also, Gulliver will find the king, shattering his pride with moral comments that show the readers the nature of those giants. About it the authors of Perspectives on Gulliver’s Travels make an interesting observation “The moral superiority and the intellectual clarity of the King of Brobdingnag are far superior to those of Gulliver. Gulliver’s pride is a common failing of man which needs to be humbled”.

Another example can be seen when Gulliver is used as a doll. Even though he has been treated as a slave by his first master, has worked hard entertaining people and also has been threatened by huge animals like rats, a cat, a dog and a monkey, nothing is more disgusting and humiliating to him than being treated as a doll by the maids that also strips him from time to time (Jan, Firdaus 96) hurting deeply his self pride.   

   In this way Swift satirizes the theme of human pride and pretention within his book. By turning Gulliver into a tiny, insignificant creature, he minimizes not only the size but also human existence and its self-admiration and self-exaltation. Swift teaches us we are not as perfect as we think we are and invites us to reconsider our strength and weakness from a humble point of view.  

Bibliography:
 Daiches, David. "A Critical History of English Literature: the Restoration to 1800, Volume 3". Allied Publishers, 1979.
 Jan, K.M;  Firdaus, Shabnam. "Perspectives on Gulliver’s Travels". Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 01/01/2004.