Gulliver's Travels

character of hoyhnmes are not ideally followed in gulliver's travells

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"On his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated by Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about learning their language, and when he can speak he narrates his voyages to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their noble culture. He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo, and he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave. He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well, though Gulliver cannot help now seeing the captain—and all humans—as shamefully Yahoolike. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with a claim that the lands he has visited belong by rights to England, as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism." (1)

Source(s)

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gulliver/summary.html

When Gulliver finally embarks on his fourth voyage, he's reached the point where he doesn't enjoy human company at all anymore. Think about it, the man leaves his pregnant wife at home........... he's not get a lot of sympathy or understanding from me.......... except that he has no desire for the company of humanity.

He's been traveling for a long period of time to lands that are both distant and different from his own. He's too big; he's too small; he's too down to earth. Now he finds himself in a country where his morality is in question and he mentally can't handle it. He wants to be a part of this society......... but he can't.

Gulliver mistakenly believes that the horses are magicians, but they aren't magicians. They are intelligent, moral creatures. They aren't the servants of men, but rather an entirely intelligent race.......... upon this realization, Gulliver no longer sees them as what they are......... he simply sees them as nonhuman. Gulliver fools himself here (and sometimes the reader), and he wants to stay in a place he clearly doesn't belong.......... this doesn't make him a sympathetic figure, but it does make us question why.

So why? Well, the Houyhnhnms are kind, they're smart, they have values and make intelligent moral decisions. They are to Gulliver, everything that humans aren't but should be. That's why he wants to stay.......... his vision of humanity is so low that he'd rather live in an alien environment that meets the standards he believes in or has come to desire.......... than return to his wife and unborn child. I find him completely unsympathetic, but I do understand what he's experiencing here.

Source(s)

Gulliver's Travels