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Gulliver’s Erroneous Acumen
Gulliver’s Erroneous Acumen
From the start of his narrative, Gulliver makes it evident that he regards himself as an intellectual, honest being as a seasoned surgeon. In addition to those qualities, he distinguishes himself among others as having morals and being objective and experienced because of his travels, his exposure to a bevy of literature, and his studies of math and physics. While Gulliver appears to offer verisimilitude in the sense that he has an “extreme love for the truth,” his transcendence towards misanthropy by the end of the narrative suggests otherwise (P2, Ch 7). Further than that, his forwardness with what he sees and does disguises his unreliability. Because Gulliver insists on reporting back to his audience only on his findings and experiences at face value, he lacks in making meaning of the situations he is in. He enumerates everything and provides great detail and measurements to appear as matter of fact. It is true that Gulliver successfully describes the customs of the Lilliputs and those alike objectively, but what he doesn’t do is admit his offenses. For instance, when the King of Brobdingnag disagrees with Gulliver about his opinions and devotion to England he reverts to insults and says that they are “the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth” (P2, Ch. 6). During the disagreement, Gulliver intentionally avoids addressing his own fallacies by omitting his responses to the King and instead adds that he “artfully eluded many of his Questions, and gave to every Point a more favourable turn by many Degrees than the strictness of Truth would allow” (P2, Ch. 7). Gulliver clearly sees anything that he disagrees with or goes against his values as wrong and doesn’t have the capacity for criticism or difference of opinion that he seems to think he does. He shows his sense of perceived superiority when comparing the Brobdingnagians to himself by declaring, “from which we and the politer Countries of Europe are wholly exempted” (P2, Ch. 7). A reliable narrator would be able to reflect on the situation, but Gulliver is only able to while adamantly insisting that he is right in the end. He shows this sort of superiority again when he talks about the origins of the word “Laputa”. The Laputians have their own etymology for the word while Gulliver insists on adding what he seems is the better explanation, “ But I do not approve of this Derivation, which seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer to the Learned among them a Conjecture of my own, that Laputa was quasi Lap outed; Lap signifying properly the dancing of the Sun Beams in the Sea, and outed a Wing, which however I shall not obtrude, but submit to the Judicious Reader” (P3, Ch. 2). Although any narrative will inherently be biased because of its subjective nature, Gulliver actively contends that this is not the case for him. His own words, however, refute that by revealing that he’s unwilling to reflect on what is absurd or wrong in his own culture and customs.
References
Swift, J., & Gough, A. B. (1939). Gulliver's Travel. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
From the start of his narrative, Gulliver makes it evident that he regards himself as an intellectual, honest being as a seasoned surgeon. In addition to those qualities, he distinguishes himself among others as having morals and being objective and experienced because of his travels, his exposure to a bevy of literature, and his studies of math and physics. While Gulliver appears to offer verisimilitude in the sense that he has an “extreme love for the truth,” his transcendence towards misanthropy by the end of the narrative suggests otherwise (P2, Ch 7). Further than that, his forwardness with what he sees and does disguises his unreliability. Because Gulliver insists on reporting back to his audience only on his findings and experiences at face value, he lacks in making meaning of the situations he is in. He enumerates everything and provides great detail and measurements to appear as matter of fact. It is true that Gulliver successfully describes the customs of the Lilliputs and those alike objectively, but what he doesn’t do is admit his offenses. For instance, when the King of Brobdingnag disagrees with Gulliver about his opinions and devotion to England he reverts to insults and says that they are “the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth” (P2, Ch. 6). During the disagreement, Gulliver intentionally avoids addressing his own fallacies by omitting his responses to the King and instead adds that he “artfully eluded many of his Questions, and gave to every Point a more favourable turn by many Degrees than the strictness of Truth would allow” (P2, Ch. 7). Gulliver clearly sees anything that he disagrees with or goes against his values as wrong and doesn’t have the capacity for criticism or difference of opinion that he seems to think he does. He shows his sense of perceived superiority when comparing the Brobdingnagians to himself by declaring, “from which we and the politer Countries of Europe are wholly exempted” (P2, Ch. 7). A reliable narrator would be able to reflect on the situation, but Gulliver is only able to while adamantly insisting that he is right in the end. He shows this sort of superiority again when he talks about the origins of the word “Laputa”. The Laputians have their own etymology for the word while Gulliver insists on adding what he seems is the better explanation, “ But I do not approve of this Derivation, which seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer to the Learned among them a Conjecture of my own, that Laputa was quasi Lap outed; Lap signifying properly the dancing of the Sun Beams in the Sea, and outed a Wing, which however I shall not obtrude, but submit to the Judicious Reader” (P3, Ch. 2). Although any narrative will inherently be biased because of its subjective nature, Gulliver actively contends that this is not the case for him. His own words, however, refute that by revealing that he’s unwilling to reflect on what is absurd or wrong in his own culture and customs.
References
Swift, J., & Gough, A. B. (1939). Gulliver's Travel. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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