GULLIVER’S
VOYAGE TO THE LAND OF HOUYHNHNMS AND ETHICS OF EQUINE
Name- Kavisha Alagiya
Paper- The Neoclassical Literature
Roll No- 15
Enrollment no.- 2069108420200001
Email id- kavishaalagiya@gmail.com
Batch – MA 2019-21
GULLIVER’S VOYAGE TO THE LAND OF HOUYHNHNMS AND ETHICS OF EQUINE
Introduction-
Published on
October 28, 1726, 'Gulliver's Travels' is the greatest ironic masterpiece of
the 'Master of Irony' Jonathan Swift. While introducing Jonathan Swift to the
readers David Daiches makes a subsequent statement for Swift’s scholarship,
"Such a practice was not agreeable to the reason
for nature, or a thing ever heard of before among them." (Swift) (Gulliver’s travels
pg. 357)
Indeed
there is an inescapable dilemma in the thought of Swift and of his age.
The voyage to the
Land of Houyhnhnms
In his
work 'Gulliver's Travels' Swift satirizes morals, the culture of appearance, power, and knowledge. The final voyage describes the mannered country of Houyhnhnms,
horses with the qualities of rational man contrasting to brutes in human shape.
When people find it difficult to interpret the hidden meaning or hidden satire
in Gulliver's Travels, this work is placed in the genre called Children's
literature. But the darkest voyage is the fourth voyage of Gulliver where Swift
embodies the chief elements of satiric analysis in the concrete symbols of the
horse and the Yahoo and he describes the Yahoo in full and unpleasant detail.
The spirit of the scheme of the fourth voyage employee less negative richness
but more emphasizes is laid on his attack. In contrast to the first and second
voyage which is concerned with the faults and defects of man's action, the
fourth part of the book cuts deeper and deeper into symptomatic actions and
doings of mankind.
The
reader in the fourth Voyage is himself inescapably becomes an object of satiric
attack. Swift is attacking Yahoo in each of us. Furthermore, it has now
become Swift's purpose to drive home the satire, insistently and relentlessly.
Swift sharply cuts human nature into two parts by describing the Houyhnhnms as
rational. He gives reason and benevolence to the Houyhnhnms.
The
Yahoos resemble us all too closely in some ways, and their unpleasant physical
traits are displayed to us without the variety of relief permitted in the
second voyage. Thackeray interprets the fourth book as
"that man is utterly wicked, desperate and
imbecile".
Swift by giving the centrality to the Houyhnhnms in the
fourth part generated a deep and most ambivalent symbol and though the narration seems weak the horse and his rationale as well as the satire it
carries for the whole human race overpowers the very narration and the whole
structure of the text seems to be supported by the last voyage and the satire
it carries!
“The word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue,
signifies a HORSE, and, in its etymology, the PERFECTION OF NATURE.” (Swift)
The horse which Swift seemed to portray actually carries a variety of perspectives
like a philosophical perspective, cultural as well as political perspective and
without forgetting linguistic perspective as they have their own polished
language. All those who reside in the land of Houyhnhnm have never visited any other land so it might be assumed that they have a sense of ‘preservingness’
and hence their values won’t get disturbed as far as they secure their
self-reflective, self-enclosed, self-authenticating nature.
Ethics of the Equine
The
word ‘equine’ itself arouses a kind of curiosity when we hear and as it is
attached with attribution of ethics, it sounds more interesting to explore. Here
the meaning of Equine is ‘relating to or
affecting horses or other members of the horse family’ and the word comes from
a Latin word equinus, from Equus which means ‘horse’. But
still, the curiosity leads us to find that why horses are at all called equine?
Well, it can be said that when the
word horse begins to be included in the theory since ancient times. This was
because they were considered similar to that "swift," or
"running." So for domestication, the mammal came to be known as
equine. Horse can better perform things if they are allowed as they may have a
high intellect also. After defining the word equine the meaning or
definition of ethics becomes necessary in order to understand the ethics of the
equines. Ethics is a branch of knowledge also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and
morally right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory
of moral values or principles. (Singer)
In a way, Swift has presented
ethics and moral concern of Houyhnhnms to show how if allowed animal can make a
better society to some extent.
Ethics
of the Equine in the Fourth Voyage
Jonathan Swift established a new
set of comparisons in his work ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by comparing the behavior
and ethics of humans and equines. One may be curious to know that why Swift
uses horses to make a pun or to even satirize human society, human tendency?
Maybe because horses are considered loyal and modest animal of all kinds?
Or it may be because they establish a philosophical connection like they have
power in terms of speed and intellect. Their physical speed can be compared
with their mantle speed. The way they manage and govern the entire kingdom is
what must be taken into consideration. Their potential to manage the entire
Houyhnhnm race makes them entirely different and unique. Thus this, at last, leads to better construction and management of society.
As for example,
“The ugly monster, when he saw me,
distorted several ways, every feature of his visage, and stared, as at an
object he had never seen before; then approaching nearer, lifted up his
fore-paw, whether out of curiosity or mischief I could not tell; but I drew my
hanger, and gave him a good blow with the flat side of it, for I durst not
strike with the edge, fearing the inhabitants might be provoked against me, if
they should come to know that I had killed or maimed any of their cattle.” (Swift)
Swift by
these lines represent the horrible human habitation on the land of Houyhnhnms.
And by this horrific habitation Houyhnhnms becomes indirectly more rational
horses and most ethical idealists as well as the most disciplined among all. The
immediate impression of the brutes makes them undoubtedly the nastiest creature
and threatens Gulliver as well as readers. But these brutes are actually humans
which is the more terrifying reality that Swift tries to depict through the fourth
Book. The ethics of equines are very well woven by the portrayal of brutes.
“The ugly monster, when he saw me,
distorted several ways, every feature of his visage, and stared, as at an
object he had never seen before; then approaching nearer, lifted up his
fore-paw, whether out of curiosity or mischief I could not tell; but I drew my
hanger, and gave him a good blow with the flat side of it, for I durst not
strike with the edge, fearing the inhabitants might be provoked against me, if
they should come to know that I had killed or maimed any of their cattle.” (Swift)
Here,
Gulliver seems to give the details of his culture and reveals vices as well as
follies of his England. Gulliver is curious to know what some words are in
the language of Houyhnhnms and he forces the master Horse to contemplate
"lust, intemperance, malice and envy" the alien concept to the Master
Horse which hadn't ever occurred in the history in Houyhnhnms Land. Gulliver
tries to disturb the Ethics of Equines and represents himself as a
European Yahoo.
“But
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. He seemed therefore confident, that, instead of reason we were only
possessed of some quality fitted to increase our natural vices.” (Swift)
The
Master Horse regards his purpose of reason has a total resemblance with ethical
standards and moral principles. So as Gulliver tries to justify himself not as
a Yahoo and demands to be a reasonable person or rational person still comes
from a land of vices and this thing is impossible to grasp for the Master Horse.
So, the Master Horse concludes that though Gulliver claims to come from a
rational land, he in some ways looks rational but he actually cannot be a
reasonable.
Swift seemed to present his
artistic qualities with his rational decision to cast an animal in the role of a man by giving it each and every (good) human quality and with a high intent to present
a pun that a beast or an animal can be more rational than the men. And as far
as the rationality is concerned, man is not ‘animal rationale’ but ‘rationis
capax’. It means that instinct and reason rule humans and not animals. Besides,
Houyhnhnms differentiates the other race and does not regard the ‘other’ like
Houyhnhnms and so here they become the representative of human culture where the human tendency is reflected.
It can also be assumed to
show the human race as inferior to animals, Swift has portrayed Yahoos who has an appearance just like that of human beings. He portrays Yahoos like unrestrained
and selfish who are constantly fighting for food and presents a brutish
behavior. Swift dwells with unpleasant, particularly on Yahoo nature.
Conclusion-
In this
connection it can be assumed that the unpleasant physical characteristics of
the Yahoo's are in themselves hardly as repellent as the disgusting physical
details that Gulliver has noted among the problem in nature. The microscopic eye
among the Giants produces perhaps as repulsive a series of physical images as
can be found in Literature but for all that we are unaware of a fantastic
enlargement and this makes for a relative on reality. The Yahoos resemble us all too
closely in some ways and their own place and physical traits are displayed to
us without the variety of relief. Perhaps, for this reason, the ethics of Equine
are easily highlighted and assumed to be wise than our vice. They are ethical
and possess some moral standards to some extent.
Works Cited
Daiches, David. A critical history of English
Literature. New Delhi: Supernova Publishers, 2018.
Panagopoulos, Nicolas. "Gulliver and the Horse:
An Enquiry Into Equine Ethics." Viva modern critical interpretations
(n.d.).
Singer, Peter. Encyclopædia Britannica. 12
August 2019. 8 October 2019
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-philosophy>.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. New
York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1726.
"Why Horses Are called
Horses." 123HelpMe.com. 08 Oct 2019
<https://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=39709>.
<https://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=39709>.
Shmoop Editorial Team.
"Gulliver's Travels." Shmoop.
Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 8 Oct. 2019.
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