Ridicule Of English Politics And Human Nature In J

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Ridicule of English Politics and human nature in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels British literature has known an explosion of satire in the early 18th century also known as the “Age of Reason”. This period was influenced by a group of the elite of society who were called the Augustans. The latter were very keen on living a life based on truth and reason. Jonathan Swift was among the “most biting, most pungent, and most bitter satirist” of this age (Ryan Norris, par. 1). In his most famous work, Gulliver’s Travels, Swift ridicules English politics and human nature. In “A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms”, the forth book of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver finds himself in the middle of a Utopian society of horses, the Houyhnhnms, who have a strong dislike towards the wild, unruly Yahoos. Swift greatly criticizes England in the fourth book. We begin to see that when Gulliver starts to explain to his master why England engages in war. He claims that England, under the pretext of valour and patriotism, seeks to destroy and conquer all those who are inferior to her. The English colonists usually felt that they were morally superior to the native people they were conquering. English imperialists claimed to want to civilise those whom they conquered and often used brutality and oppression although these natives were more often than not harmless. Moreover, Gulliver shows a great deal of dislike towards lawyers who his. They are depicted as “social parasites who measure their worth by their excellence at deception and therefore inhibit justice” (Shirley Galloway, par.7). He also heavily criticises England’s politicians and claims that they are heavily corrupted: A First or Chief Minister of State, [...], was a creature wholly exempt from joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and anger; at least made use of no other passions but a violent desire of wealth, power, and titles;
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