“My Father had a small Estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the Third of five Sons. . . . I was bound Apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent Surgeon in London . . . my Father now and then sending me small Sums of Money. . . . When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my Father; where, by the Assistance of him and my Uncle John . . . I got Forty Pounds, and a Promise of Thirty Pounds a Year.”
This comes at the beginning of the novel and appears to be a simple statement of biographical information. However, the reader can discern several things. First, Gulliver is the third born which means he will not inherit enough money to sustain himself. He must make a living and the drive for money is the only motivation for all of Gulliver’s travels. Second, his description of his father, his life, and his world reveal no emotional attachments. He has no inner life at all. He is a shallow and unreflective man.
“He said, he knew no Reason, why those who entertain Opinions prejudicial to the Publick, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And, as it was Tyranny in any Government to require the first, so it was Weakness not to enforce the second.”
Coming in Part II of the novel, this apparent speech on free speech and opinion is questionable in Swift’s satire. It is not clear if Swift means to say that people are entitled to their opinions and should be free to express those opinions since the words here come from a foreign and strange land. What is more, these words are brought to us form Gulliver who offers no reflection or even real understanding.
“My little Friend Grildrig . . . I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.”
This is the denunciation of England by king of Brobdingnag after Gulliver attempts to portray England as a noble place filled with fine and noble people. The king comes to the opposite conclusion based entirely on Gulliver’s own words. The misanthropy of Swift’s satire becomes evident here as the portrayal of England by the English people shows such a self-evidently debased and corrupt culture.
“My Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult, if they would be content with those Vices and Follies only which Nature hath entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at the Sight of a Lawyer, a Pick-pocket, a Colonel. . . . This is all according to the due Course of Things: But, when I behold a Lump of Deformity, and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience; neither shall I ever be able to comprehend how such an Animal and such a Vice could tally together.”
Gulliver’s final statement on the nature of humanity at the end of the novel. After all that he has seen in his travels, his final conclusion is that humanity is little more than a vicious and corrupt beast equipped with just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Swift’s satire becomes cruel at the end with no happy judgment on the human condition.
