Jonathan Swift's Utopian Satire and Literary Roots

Swift's Utopian Visions and Literary Influences

In the tradition of extraordinary voyages, most significant for Swift were the two posthumous works of Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655):

• Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune (1656)
• Histoire comique des états et empires du soleil (1657)

Cyrano de Bergerac: A Key Influence on Swift

The Society of Moon Dwellers: Cyrano's Utopia

Cyrano's lunar society is depicted as:

• A crimeless idyll with a natural abundance of food, minimal work, beautiful females, and eternal spring.
• As there is no crime, there are no lawyers.
• Physicians are unnecessary since the Lunarians live healthy lives.
• Upon death, there is no grief but a kind of rejoicing at passing into heaven.

Cyrano's Lunar Voyage and Brobdingnag Parallels

Swift drew much from Cyrano's Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune for the circumstances of the voyage to Brobdingnag:

• Cyrano travels to the moon and discovers giants, one of whom immediately exhibits him for money.
• He is taken to court and becomes the queen’s pet.
• A young giantess falls in love with him.

Cyrano's Solar Journey and Houyhnhnmland Echoes

Cyrano's Histoire comique des états et empires du soleil is in part directly comparable with Gulliver’s experience in Houyhnhnmland:

• In the land of the birds on the sun, Cyrano is put on trial for the vices of humanity.
• Cyrano tries to evade censure by pretending that he is not a debased man but an innocent monkey.
• Within the genre of the fantastic voyage, though strange creatures are common, beast kingdoms are rare.

Swift's Unique Portrayal of Humanity and Satire

Swift took the precedent of Cyrano one step further by portraying Homo sapiens as the degraded Yahoo. In addition, Swift presents in the Houyhnhnms both a critique of humankind and a utopian ideal for Gulliver. The satire of Part IV is aimed at the notion of a rationalist utopia.

Theriophily: Animal Superiority in Western Thought

There is one further cultural background Swift draws on: what is called “theriophily.”

Theriophily (i.e., love of animals) is a word coined to denote that tradition in Western literature in which beasts are seen to be superior to humankind. Theriophily finds various arguments for the superiority of animals:

• They are stronger, speedier, and happier.
• They do not have envy, pride, hatred, or greed.

Gulliver’s Houyhnhnm master goes over in detail the physical shortcomings of our protagonist:

• The uselessness of his nails.
• The weakness of feet needing covers.
• The necessity of clothing.

However, the Bible teaches that humankind has dominion over the beasts, and pagan philosophy insists that humankind is the only rational animal. To counter this, theriophilists argued that beasts do have reason.

(Cf. the King of Brobdingnag’s summary reply to Gulliver’s panegyric on the status quo of England in the 1720s.)