A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS
Gulliver's Travels, Swift's masterpiece, has often been praised for its unquestionable worth as a work of literature, largely because of Swift's masterly use of satire, but has been criticized to the same degree for the negative opinions on mankind that it contains, especially in regard to part IV, A voyage to the Country of the Houynhnms.
It is due to the misunderstanding of this part of the book that Swift attained a reputation as a hater of mankind, an opinion held since the "Travels" was published and which has only been challenged quite recently.
A few opinions will suffice in order to demonstrate the reaction provoked since "Gulliver's Travels" first appeared:
Sir Walter Scott reaches the conclusion that "We are compelled to admire the force of his talents; even while thus unworthily employed, in expressing the worst parts of our nature"
Thakery's remarks go further "horrible, hameful, unmanly, blasphemus; and giant and great as this Dean is, I say we should hoot him."
Sir Edmund Gosse laments that the horrible foulness of the last voyage "banishes from decent households a fourth part of one of the most brilliant and delightful of English books."
Nearer to our own days we have Orwell's radical remarks on Swift's view of mankind: "It is not enough to make the usual answer that of course Swift was wrong, in fact he was insane."
The question is, then, was Swift indeed a hater of mankind? I believe that this can be proved or otherwise by examining the text and Swift's thoughts on man and his religious ideals.
In book IV, the last part of Gulliver's Travels, Swift establishes a dichotomy the end of which is to criticize two extreme ideas of man, that is, man as a supremely rational being, and man as an animal. The narrator, Gulliver, is himself used to complete the allegory by becoming a reference point with which the reader can identify and compare the two members of the opposition: the Houynhnms, completely rational creatures in the shape of horses and the Yahoos, primitive and degenerate relatives of man. We learn about the characterisitcs of these creatures through the description given by Gulliver in his role of a traveller giving his account of a strange land and its inhabitants.
Firstly, he gives us his impressions of the Yahoos: "Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizzled and others lank ..." " They had no tails, nor any hair at all on their buttocks, except about the anus."
Gulliver comments: "I never beheld in all my Travels so disagreeable an Animal, nor one against which I naturally conceived so strong an Antipathy"
Next Gulliver describes the conduct of the Houynhnms: "Upon the whole, the behaviour of these animals was so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded, they must needs be Magician."
From these preliminary descriptions Gulliver seems to take an immediate aversion to the Yahoos and just as quick liking to the Houynhnms. Gulliver's stand so early on in the book is symptomatic of what is going to happen throughout the book.
A few pages further on we are told about the eating habits of the Yahoos and the Houynhnms, respectively:
"I saw three of these detestable Creatures, whom I first met after my landing, feeding upon Foots, and the Flesh of some animals, which I afterwards found to be that of Asses and Dogs, and now and then a Cow dead by Accident or disease... They held the food between their Claws and their Forefeet, and tore it with their teeth."
Gulliver's description of the Houynhnms' eating habits provide another contrast: " They dined in the Best Room, and had Oats boiled in Milk for the second course ... each Horse and Mare eat their own Hay, and their own Mash of Oats and Milk, with much Decency and Regularity."
The further we enter the book the more Gulliver becomes an admirer of the Houynhnms, and by the end of the book this turns into more a case of insanity than anything else. This is characterisitc of Gulliver's malleability and can be seen throughout the whole book, but in the fourth part become even more manifest. His continual comparisons between Man, the Houynhnms and the Yahoos lead him to the opinion that he himself and mankind in general are more akin to the latter, to his infinite disgust, as can be seen from the following extracts: "My horror and Astonishment are not to be described, when I observed, in this abominable Animal, a perfect Human Figure..."
Gulliver's recognition of the similarity of himself to the Yahoos is followed by his master's use of the word Yahoo to describe him: "I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the Appelation of Yahoo, and odious Animal, for which I had so utter an Hatred and Contempt."
In the end Gulliver is compared to his disadvantage with the creatures he despises by his master: "He said I differed indeed from other Yahoos, being much more cleanly, and not altogether so deformed , but in point of real Advantage, he thought I differed for the Worse."
The extent to which Gulliver worships the Houynhnms can be seen by the horror he feels of being human: "When I happened to behold the Reflection of my own form in a lake or a Fountain, I turned away my face in Horror and Detestation of myself..."
Later on Gulliver starts to imitate the
Houynhnms in an obviously futile attempt to escape from his condition and in doing so becomes a fanatic and an outcast from his own kind as Kathleen Williams explains: "And when Gulliver tries to live the life of "Reason Alone" the results are disastrous, since what is harmless and unavoidable selfsatisfaction in an Houynhnms becomes in him a fanatical pride, an illusion more dangerous than any he has had before."There is something more than faintly ridiculous about Gulliver's attempts to mimic the Houynhnms: " By conversing with the Houynhnms, and looking upon them with delight, I fell to imitate their Gate and Gesture, which is now grown into an Habit."
Finally the process has been completed with Gulliver's rejection of his own family despite all their attempts to help him: "I must freely confess the sight of them filled me only with Hatred, Disgust and Contempt, and the more by reflecting the near Alliance I had to them."
Gulliver's opinions seem to be clear; he loathes the Yahoos and worships the Houynhnms to the point of insanity. Do these ideas represent what Swift felt about mankind? Is he trying to tell us that we should look at the Houynhnms as a model, and reject the animal side of ourselves. This may seem so from a superficial analysis and is indeed the obvious conclusion after having read the book. However, we should not take things at their face value, at least that is, as far as the Houynhnms are concerned. We have to remember that Swift rarely said what he wanted us to understand in such a direct way; his apparent praise could be disdain. Swift abhored the idea of man as an animal, without laws and the necessary restraints to his instincts that religion provided; Selfishness, one of the vices shown by the Yahoos, was one of man's characteristics and could only be overcome by Christina charity. The same could be said of other vices such as lust, avarice and pride which could only be kept in check by following the teachings of revealed religion. The Dean was also an enemy of those that forwarded a totally rational idea of man as can be seen from one of his letters to Alexander Pope "I tell you after all, that I do not hate mankind: it is vous autres who hate them, because you would have them reasonable animals and are angry for being disappointed" Swit's satire then, is of a subtler kind; his descriptions of the Houynhnms through his mouthpiece, Gulliver, are not meant to be taken seriously, in fact, if we do take them seriously we could end up like Gulliver, a hater of mankind, and imitators of something we can never be: totally rational beings. Are the Houynhnms worth imitating anyway. There seems to be no reason for them to exist; they have no passions, feel no love towards their family or friends, have no opinions and are wholly governed by Reason.
Their lack of strong feelings can be seen from their attitude to their offspring: "They have no fondness for their Colts or Foles, but the Care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the dictates of "Reason".
Love plays no part in matrimony, other considerations are valued more: "In their Marriages they are exactly careful to choose such Colours as will not make any disagreeable Mixture in the Breed."
Even death is no cause for alterations in their placid lives: "If they can avoid Casualties, they die only of Old-Age, and are buried in the obscurest Places that can be found, their Friends and Relations expressing neither Joy nor Grief at their Departure"
Orwell sums up the lack of sympathy we feel for the Houynhnms in the following sentence: " The Houynhnms, creatures without a history, continue for generation after generation to live prudently, maintaining their population at exactly the same level, avoiding all passion, suffering from no diseases, meeting death indifferently, training up their young in the same principles- and all for what?"
Orwell, mistakenly (in my opinion), attributes this unattractiveness to Swift's inability to make the Houynhnms more appealing; I believe that his intention was exactly the opposite, he intended them to be unappealing in order to demonstrate how alien a creature man would be if he were completely rational as this would imply an absence of all feelings natural to man, both positive and negative.
The Houynhnms are contrasted with the Portuguese sailors and their captain, Don Pedro, who treat Gulliver with the greatest kindness and affection. Gulliver repays them with disdain and feels nothing but disgust towards them. The same happens when he is reunited with his family near the end of the book. It is hard to believe that Swift meant us to admire this product of rationalism; of course he did not. Gulliver becomes an outcast and a hater of mankind, we should not confuse the author of the Travels with the narrator, which is somthing many critics have done. The fourth part of the book is really Swift's attack on the stoics - represented by the Houynhnms and the sceptics and free thinkers - represented by the Yahoos. The former are attacked for their belief and trust in reason, which leads to pride and fanatism, and the latter for their continual delving into theological matters which eventually leads to a loosening of belief in religion.
So, by criticizing both extremes Swift is pointing towards a middle road. but what guidance can man get in order not to stray too near either side of the road? The answer for Swift was religion, the revealed word. Only in this way could man in spite of all his weakness, lead a good life.