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A Mirror of the Time-Gulliver’s Travels
-An analysis of Chapter VI, Part Four
When Jonathan Swift was writing Gulliver’s Travels, the South Sea Bubble happened in 1770. George, the king of the England became the governor of the South Sea Company in 1718. People were so confident of his governor and the company which actually had no financial support that they bought its shares with all their money. With the shares price collapsing, the society was in a mess. The following economy crisis and credit crisis even worsen the situation. It became the time of money and everything works around money. The author now was banished to edge of the country, Dublin, after he racked his brain to work for the British royal family or the politicians to get a good position as reward. The banishment helped Jonathan Swift see the deeper consequence of the South Sea Bubble-the suffering of the oppressed and help him finish the great work-Gulliver’s Travels while this work is mirror of the time to some degree.
Writers’ using travelling stories is common means to comment on their own country. The social evils attacked in Chapter VI also can be seen in the reality. Gulliver’s definition of money is Swift’s doubt of humanity and the critics of the current situation. Everyone is greedy, ugly and can do everything to get money, begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, etc. They are occupations that are popular in 18th in England because of the bubbles. No one can escape except a very small number of rich men or powerful men who enjoy the poor man’s labor and squeeze them.
Another social evil is man’s luxury and intemperance and woman’s vanity. People swap necessary things for the evil thing, disease, folly and vice, to satisfy the man and the woman. The imported wine make the apathetic people feel even number. The rich waste their money and resources while the poor suffer from their life and poverty.
The social evils swift attacks are the reflection of the time. Meanwhile, the professions he mentions also have the distinct characteristics of era. The first profession he attacks is lawyer. This profession is supposed to be with justice, but in the novel He personifies the worship of money and avarice. His injustice will bring him a lot of money which is his ultimate aim. Then the doctor, getting his livelihood by attending the sick, actually is cruel and is the one killing people. His special position can help the rich that is able to pay him a lot of money to get rid of someone. The third is chief minister. He has no emotions but the desire of money, power and titles. To preserve their power or get benefits, these ministers bribe and flatter their superior, which reveals the truth. In reality, the Whigs and the Tories get profits in the bubbles by speculating and bribing. The politics is full of corruption and treacherousness. What’s more, both in the book and in fact, their pages, lackeys, and porter bully commoners on the strength of their masters’ powerful position. The last profession he attacks is aristocracy who is a composition of spleen, dullness, ignorance, caprice, sensuality, and pride. The irony is that this kind of people decides our law and property. These people of different profession work just like what Swift
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describe in real life. Every profession is a tool to exploit the people, including those related to public service, like law, medicine and religion.
Swift criticize the society in a more direct way compared with the last two parts. In the last 2 part, Gulliver is just a viewer. The critics about his country is said by others instead of himself, even some can’t be understood by him. But in this chapter, Gulliver becomes eloquent under the effect of his master Houyhnhnms. When he talks about the lawyer, injuring their fellow-animals for a ‘hire’, or talk about minister on how to get the position by three ways, he is quite outspoken in his criticism. Moreover, different from the former parts where he tries to be rational and reasonable by counting the size and proportion of things around him, just like when he advises to eat babies to solve the problem of poverty and starvation, here the author just show us the absurd and disgusting scene that stimulate the readers’ emotions with overburdened stress. Through Gulliver, the author describes how the doctor makes the medicine and how he put it into the patients in details. He uses numbers in the beginning to convince people while he just presents the description, not considering whether the readers can accept or not. He also satirizes the society and the profession by using exaggerated and sharp-fanged sentence. Gulliver says he needs to go around the earth three times to prepare breakfast for female Yahoos. Hyperbole and irony used here express the vanity of female. Another example is that the doctor’s prognostics, killing the people when they recovery just because he has predicted their death. When you read it, you will feel how ironic it is.
In this chapter, we can feel that Gulliver hates human beings and has hardly sense of belonging to his native society that is similar to the real society. Showing his dissatisfaction with his country, Swift resurfaces the truth in Gulliver’s Travels, which makes it the mirror of the time.
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