Descartes' Discourse on Method and Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Introduction

A book by Swift's, “Gulliver's Travels” can be seen as a rational. One can see Swift's protagonist and as a readers, one can learn a lot from his experiences. However, critics have noted the extraordinary attention that Gulliver pays to clothes and other things throughout his journeys.

Discussion

It is now widely assumed that Gulliver's Travels"? like much of Swift's writing? is carefully designed to engage readers in a strenuous process of meaning-making--that "the book becomes a machine designed not to advance a set of doctrines but to start readers on the way to reflection? self-doubt? and fresh thought. (More? p12)

The out come of a literary gamble? the satirical narrative Gulliver's Travels ` holds a mirror ' to the corruption present in 18th century English society? whilst satirizing the Crusoesque travel literature popular at the time and exploring the contradictions of human nature.

The initial aims of Gulliver's Travels? aside from satirizing travel literature? were to expose and disparage the evils present in English society? moreover? Swift knew that the perfect format in which to satirize the System was the detached form of an anonymous fictional tale. The out come of a literary gamble? the satirical narrative Gulliver's Travels ` holds a mirror ' to the corruption present in 18th century English society? whilst satirizing the Crusoesque travel literature popular at the time and exploring the contradictions of human nature. (Swift? pp36-50)

While it may seem a trivial or laughable motif? the recurrent mention of excrement in Gulliver's Travels actually has a serious philosophical significance in the narrative. It symbolizes everything that is crass and ignoble about the human body and about human existence in general? and it obstructs any attempt to view humans as wholly spiritual or mentally transcendent creatures. Since the Enlightenment culture of eighteenth-century England tended to view humans optimistically as noble souls rather than vulgar bodies? Swift's emphasis on the common filth of life is a slap in the face of the philosophers of his day. Thus? when Gulliver finds himself up to his waist in cow dung in Lilliput? or when Brobdingnagian flies defecate on his meals? or when the scientist in Lagado works to transform excrement back into food? we are reminded how very little human reason has to do with everyday existence. (More? p12) Swift suggests that the human condition in general is dirtier and lowlier than we might like to believe it is.

Critics have noted the extraordinary attention that Gulliver pays to clothes throughout his journeys. Every time he gets a rip in his shirt or is forced to adopt some native garment to replace one of his own? he recounts the clothing details with great precision. We are told how his pants are falling apart in Lilliput? so that as the army marches between his legs they get quite an eyeful. We are informed about the mouse skin he wears in Brobdingnag? and how the finest silks of the land are as thick as blankets on him. In one ...