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Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels unleashes the blemishes of mankind. Along with mankind comes an unavoidable imperfection which ultimately lowers one’s perception of man. The satiric story occurs in two imaginative lands called Lilliput, where all of the inhabitants are much smaller than Gulliver, the exhausted ship doctor who managed to swim to shore after a horrendous storm causes a ship wreck, and Brobdingnag, where the people tower over the puny Gulliver. Each land contrasts in its style of government which aids in the discovery of the faults of man. As depicted in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, mankind possesses foibles and vices which detract from his nobility.

Mankind’s faults often take away from how people perceive one another. Initially, the laziness of man allows others to view him as unworthy of nobility. Sleeping “sounder than ever I[Gulliver] remember to have done in my life,�(508) Gulliver unknowingly allows others to perceive him as a lazy bum. Gulliver prefers that the secretary deliver Gulliver’s duty to the emperor because Gulliver does not feel like doing so(512). Impatiently, mankind insists upon receiving the proper respect immediately. Once again, Gulliver illustrates his nonaristocratic traits by not allowing himself to sit still when he remains fully aware that he remains binded by the string (508). Gulliver, when in desperate need of nourishment, “found the demands of nature so strong upon me[him], that I[he] could not forbear showing my[his] impatience,�(509) and immediately signaled for food by repeatedly sticking his finger inside of his mouth further portraying the demise of mankind. Ignorantly, man sets himself up for tragedy which detracts from his dignity. Gulliver stumbles upon a civilization in which vacant positions exist in the government, and people may perform such acts as jumping high on a tight rope in order to obtain the position; however, these acts of...