Essay Archive - Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels
One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether
the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other
hand they are the butt of Swift's satire. In other words, in Book IV, is
Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take
them seriously as the proper way to act? If we look closely at the way that
the Houyhnhnms act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them
seriously: he uses them to show the dangers of pride. First we have to see
that Swift does not even take Gullver seriously. For ins....
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