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The Evolution of Gulliver In Jonathan Swift? s Gulliver? s Travels, the main character, Gulliver, embarks on numerous journeys bringing him to strange lands and affecting his views of the world around him. His response to each voyage differ as do his ideas and reactions to the environment in which he is residing. Gulliver begins his expeditions with a very social and open behavior while possessing a general acceptance of any newly encountered beings.
But by the end of the fourth voyage, Gulliver leans toward a more anti-social attitude which was derived from the hatred and disgust he has for human beings, the " Yahoos. " &# 9; As for the first voyage to Lilliput, Gulliver acts very sociable with all of the different creatures he comes in contact with. Once he arrives on the unknown island, he begins to explore the land around him. After being brought into the city, Gulliver remains subservient towards the Lilliputians by staying chained up near his hut without acting out and attempting to break free which would have most likely been a successful attempt. This subservience created enough trust of the " Man-Mountain" by the Lilliputian king that it was declared that his liberty hath been granted when he could have easily crushed and killed these little people. Gulliver is also very eager to be able to interact with the creatures and this is evident when in a few weeks he " made a great progress in learning their language" (68).
He is also quite helpful and there are two definitive cases of Gulliver displaying this helpfulness in the country of Lilliput. The first occurs when he obeys the orders of the king to destroy his opposition? s navy and ends up stringing up the navy of Blefuscu rendering them helpless. Then he saves the fiery palace by relieving himself onto it, extinguishing the flames. As you can see throughout the first voyage, Gulliver was very sociable and friendly to those he came in contact with. &# 9; An anti-social behavior is then exhibited near the end of the last voyage, after he leaves the country of the Houyhnhnms, because of his new found disgust and hatred for the rest of the world especially the " Yahoos. " This is evident almost immediately when Gulliver first encounters natives on the new island. Unlike previous encounters with new people, he " made what haste [he] could to the shore" to quickly retreat from an impromptu meeting (333).
His sole purpose after leaving the Houyhnhnm land was " to discover some small island uninhabited, yet sufficient by [his] labour to furnish [himself] with the necessaries of life, which [he] would have thought a greater happiness than to be first Minister in the politest Court of Europe; so horrible was the idea [he] conceived of returning to live in the society and under the government of Yahoos. For in such a solitude as [he] desired, [he] could at least enjoy [his] own thoughts" and end up living the life of a hermit so interaction with the " Yahoos" wouldn? t occur (332). His change continues when he acts rude and dishonoring after being rescued by the Portuguese sailors.
He doesn? t cooperate with the answering of the captain? s questions and then he tries to sneak off the ship to get away from civilization because he would much rather be alone than be amongst the uncivilized " Yahoos" in a world with the complexities and weaknesses of human society. &# 9; Gulliver goes from being an amiable human being to one who is completely anti-social. After looking at his characteristics and examples there of, one should notice a significant change. He attempts to shut himself off from the rest of the world after being asked to leave the Houyhnhnms? country. &# 9; Gulliver is also so accepting of all that he is confronted with during the beginning of his voyages.
From his first encounter with the little people of Lilliput, Gulliver remains extremely calm and collected upon realizing he was tied down and he only ends up loosening his head restraints enough to move it to the side a few inches, not making extreme movements which would terrify the Lilliputians. He also accepts the Lilliputians rules and regulations and follows them as if it was a necessity or a life / death situation. It? s not like he couldn? t destroy them if need be.
Even during his stay in the land of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver did as his master asked by describing his journeys, his native country and countrymen. &# 9; An extreme disgust and hatred for humans is created upon leaving the land of the Houyhnhnms because it is there he realizes the evil possessed in his own people through the Yahoos in the country. He is appalled by the idea of going to live among the " Yahoos, " and he has so fully adopted the belief system of the Houyhnhnms that he cannot help but see his wife and children as primitive, ugly, beast-like creatures and " the sight of them filled [him] only with hatred, disgust, and contempt" (338). " During the first year" after returning " [he] could not endure [his] wife or children in [his] presence" because of his continuous feelings of disgust towards them (339). &# 9; Gulliver went from being highly accepting to possessing a disgust and hatred of humans or as he now refers to them, " Yahoos. " For the first time, Gulliver finds himself wanting to stay in exile from humanity, but he is not given the choice. &# 9; Gulliver changed dramatically from the first voyage to Lilliput until the end of the fourth voyage. His friendliness and curiosity was overcome by his relentless negative views of humans as being the " Yahoos" he detests so much. His only outlet was to buy some horses with whom he conversed regularly as if they were Houyhnhnms. The " original" Gulliver who traveled on all the journeys is gone after returning that last time. It is as if his old self was left in the land of the Houyhnhnms and can never be regained.
It ends up that his travels were for the worse because he changed for the worse-from being social and accepting to anti-social and full of hatred. Will Gulliver ever regain his previous self? The world may never know!
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