《 格列佛游记》的批判性分析(英文版)

第一篇：《 格列佛游记》的批判性分析(英文版)

《格列佛游记 》的批判性分析

Travels

A CriticalAnalysis of Gulliver’s

Abstract: BasedonGulliver’s fourvoyages inJonathan Swift’sGulliver’s Travels this paperana2 lyzes theauthor’s satirical viewof the state of European government and religions,and inquiry into the corruptionofmen,and his desire to establisha harmoniousanddemocratic Houyhnhmlike society;Gulliver’s Travels

The name of Jonathan Swift is one of the very greatestnames in English literature,andTheTaleof a Tub and Gulliver’s Travels are twoof the greatest satires in the English language.Jonathan Swift was born of English parents in Dublin in 1667 and became a product of Irish cul2 ture and learning.Hewas educated at the Kilkenny School and Trinity College inDublin,and became an assistant to authoranddiplomat SirWilliam Tem2 ple.He left thisposition after Temple died in1699 to earn his priest’s ordination.He worked as a clergyman in Ireland,traveling throughout theUnit2 ed Kingdom,and exploring his frustrationswith so2 ciety throughhiswritings.Hewrote about thepover2 ty he saw amongthepeople,the typical daily lifeof cityfolkand the problems hewitnessed in the social order.It is thiswriting that makes Swift one of the most renowned satiristsofEnglish societyandBritish history.He believed that social conventions were outdated and must bechanged,and qualities of mind(and notphysical beauty)should be the foun2 dations of love.He also found a heavy interest in politics,takingupweight in the Torypartyof Eng2 land’s governmental party system.From such ob2 servations in government and religion,and love and gender inequality,Swiftproducedanenormous body ofwork.Hiswritingsfall into several categories,in2 cludingpoetry,short stories,political essays,and novels.In1742,hewas declaredofunsoundmind, and died in 1745 inDublin.Gulliver’s Travels is the immortal work ofJon2

athanSwift.The bookbecame tremendouslypopular as soon as it was published in 1726,and can be justly ranked among the best novels of theworld lit2 erature and has not lost its significance even to the current society.It is a classicwhich always arouses the interestof every child to share Gulliver’s ad2 ventures into fantastic lands,andmakes everyma2 ture reader broodover hisbitter satire on the human race.In it,Swiftexploresgenderdifferences,poli2 tics,class,money,race,science,education, exploration,love,physicalstrength,physical beauty,and then satirize on them bitingly.Through depicting the experiences of his four voyages to dif2 ferent lands,Gulliver intensely satirizes the hypo2 critical,greedy,deceptive and aggressive nature of the human society.He alsomocks the corrupt reli2 gious and political systems in his homeland,Eng2 land,which is caught in constant wars and vio2 lence.He hopefully desires to establish a harmoni2 ous and democratic Houyhnhmsea voyages, which are described in the four parts of the book.In Part One, “A Voyage toLilliput”,Gulliver finds him2 self tied down by a race of dwarfswho are onlyone

①作者简介: 李 江 , 云南大学大学外语教学部讲师(云南 昆明 , 650091)。

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思想战线2009年人文社会科学专辑 第 35卷 №12009 Vol135

-twelfth the size of his own.This is his

first travel, in

which he visitsLilliput Gulliver is

facedwith the m

inute people, called Lilliputians.He judges the country’s inhabitants he

meets to be as perfect

and innocent as their

appearances.He refers to theLilli2 putian emperor as

“His Imperial Majesty”

and blindly agrees to

perform any demanded service, e2 ven though he could easily overpower the tiny na2 tion.Gulliver is used as the Emperor’s absolute weapon to conquer his world of two islands.It is

on2 ly after his services have been exploited, Gullive

r

realizes how cruel and deceitful the

Lilliputians truly are and his personality begins to transform.Swift

al2

so criticizes the religious beliefs of the

Lilliputians.InLilliput, M inisters

are chosen strictlyon tightrope walking

or stick jumping.If they do well, they are able to maintain their positions as ministers.Sw

ift

also criticizes the English political parties.His use of the terms High Heels and

Low Heels to compare the meaningless battles of the

Whigs and Tories is quite ironic.He alsomocks the religionwar thatwas goingon in England, through the use of the

war

be2 tweenLilliput, and its nearest neighbor, B

lefuscu.(Zhu, 74)

In Part Two, “A Voyage to Brobdingnag”, Gulliver

faces a world with everything being twelve times its normal size.Because of his unfavorable

ex2 periences

onLilliput, Gulliver approaches the

Brob2 dingnagianswith suspicion and contempt.A

lthough

this race is far more benevolent and trustworthy, Gulliver gives it more criticism and disrespect I

t

becomes obvious that his dissatisfaction relates di

rectly to his inferiority among these huge beings.Gulliver

himself

admits:

This made me

reflect how vain an attem pt it i

s

for a m an

to endeavor doing himself honour among

thosewho are out of all degree of equality or com pari2 son with him.And yet I have seenthe m oral of m y own behavior very frequent in England since m y re2

turn, where a little contem ptible varlet, without the least title to birth, person, w it or comm on sense,shall presume to look with importance, and put him 2

self upon a footw ith the greatest persons of

the king2 dom.(Swift, 110)

Gulliver is beginning to get involved in the

mor2 al controversies he observes, and then satirize the social and political conditions he

observed.Even the

using destructive weapons.(Lu, 70)His second voyage shows us the filthymental and

physical char2 acteristics of

man.Gulliver’s first owner in

Brob2 dingnag represents the selfishness of

man.Gulliver is constantly displayed in public,abused for the profit

of the owne.When his owner finds out that Gulliver

isweakening, he sells

him immediately, at a high price in order to

milk every last penny out

of Gulliver.In Part Three, “A Voyage to Laputa ”, Gul2 liver is pulled up to a flying

floating island that

hov2

ers above ground.On the floating island of

Laputa, Gulliver meets the Laputans who run their world

through mathematics and science, and allow their land to be dictated by

a giant lodestone at the center of the island.Eventually, Gulliver grows weary of these people, for they cannot communicate

without

the help

of a flapper.So, he journeys to the islands below andmeets different races of

people.Gulliver’ s third voyage, to the floating island of Laputa is one of the

most satirical of the whole book.In this voyage Swift criticizes the Royal Society of

England, in which he says is composed of useless philoso2 phers, inventors, and scientists.In the view of Gulliver, he regarded the science

ofLaputa

aspseu2 doscience, which is distorted and abused by

Lapu2 tans.(Sun, 100

01)

In Part Four, “A Voyage to the Houyhnhnm asters.”(Swift, 279)

When Gulliver is expelled from the island b

y the Houyhnhnm

s, he returns to England altered.W

hen he finally returns home after his voyages,he

discovers that he cannot endure the companyofother humans,including his wife,andhe

even faint2

swhen his wife kisses hi.He gets worse and

worse, and cannot even bear to look at his own re2

flection because he knows what degeneration it re2

presents.He no longer cares to look upon his fami2 ly, and spends all his ti e with the two horses he buys to keep in his nearby stable.Before he returns home,he even i

agines:

M y D

esign was,if

possible, to discover some

《格列佛游记 》的批判性分析★

李 江★

small island uninhabited, yet sufficient by m yLabour to furnish m ewith Necessaries of Life, which Iwould have thought a greaterHappiness than to be firstm in2 ister in the politest Court of Europe;so horrible was

the Idea I conceived of returning to live in the society and under the Governm ent of Yahoos.For in such a Solitude as I desired, I could at least enjoy my own

Thoughts, and reflect w ith Delight on the V irtues of those inim itable Houyhnhnm s, without any O pportu2 nities of m y own Species.(Sw ift, 291)

The tragic hero returns home in exile.His homecoming is the most

alienating experience of

all “Gulliver is an odysseus gone sour, a homecomer

who, in a satiric version of narrative rest, is de2 pressed and drained by his very resources as a hu2

man”(R ichetti,75-)

being.76 Gulliver devel2 ops a satirical view of the state of European govern2 ment and religions, and an inquiry into the corrup2

tion

ofmen.He hopefully desires to establish

a har2 monious and democratic Houyhnhm-like society.But because he can not find a

wayout

of the real so2 ciety to embrace his Houyhnhm

ian ideal, he choo2 ses to retire into his

own innerworld and becomes a complete pessimistwho tries to escape from the real world.That’s Gulliver’s individual tragedy, and the tragedy of the

whole human society aswell.Reference: [1

] SwiftJonathan:

Gulliver’ s Travels,Beijing: Foreign Lan2

guages teaching and Research Press, 1996.[ 2 ]

Richetti, John, ed: The Cambridge Companion to the

Eighteenth

Century

Novel1London:

Cambridge University

Press, 1998.[3] Zhu, Yanmei:“TheArt of Irony in Sw ift’sLilliput”.Beauty

& Ti es, Vol.3(2005): pp173～74.[4] Zhu, Yanmei:“A Comment on theCriticism of the Eighteenth

CenturyLife in England in Sw ift’s Gulliver’s Travels”.Jour2

nal of Adult Education in Hebei University, Vol.5 No.2

(2003)pp169～71.[5] Sun, Shaoxian.“On theScienceSubject in Gulliver’s Travels”

Foreign Literature Studies, Vol.(2002): pp199～102.(责任编辑 蝶 起)

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第二篇：格列佛游记英文读后感

格列佛游记英文读后感

One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other hand they are the butt of Swift's satire.In other words, in Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them seriously as the proper way to act? If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the dangers of pride.First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gullver seriously.For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that he will believe anything.Also, when he first sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same in return until they run away.He says, “I must needs discover some more rational being,”even though as a human he is already the most rational being there is.This is why Swift refers to Erasmus Darwins discovery of the origin of the species and the voyage of the Beagle-to show how Gulliver knows that people are at the top of the food chain.But if Lemule Gulliver is satirized, so are the Houyhnhnms, whose voices sound like the call of castrati.They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people.As Gulliver says, “It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these creatures playing the flute and dancing a Vienese waltz.To my mind, they seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dextrous than the Lord Edmund Burke”.As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because they are so prideful.For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can singlehandedly recite the names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II.Swift subtly shows that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeths husband.Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out in other ways as well.One of the most memorable scenes is when the dapple grey mare attempts to woo the horse that Guenivre has brought with him to the island.First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the bewildered horse.But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets another idea: “As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was yet more monstrous than Mr.Pope being fitted by a clothier.She dropped this creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice.My horse sniffed the creature and turned away.” It might seem that we should take this scene seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see the grey mare as an unrequited lover.But it makes more sense if we see that Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move, which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England.The Houyhnhm is being prideful, and it is that pride that makes him unable to impress Gullivers horse.Gulliver imagines the horse saying, Sblood, the notion of creating the bare backed beast with an animal who had held Mr.Pope on her back makes me queezy.A final indication that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously occurs when the leader of the Houynhms visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society.He goes into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water(itself a prideful act that refers to the marriage at Gallilee).The scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without success,when the Houyhnmn arrives and immediately knows that to do: “The creature no sooner stepped through the doorway than he struck upon a plan.Slurping up all the wine in sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door”.He has accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his livelihood has now been destroyed.Swifts clear implication is that even though the Houyhnhmns are smart, they do not know how to use that knowledge for the benefit of society, only for their own prideful agrandizement.Throughout Gullivers Travels, the Houyhnhms are shown to be an ideal gone wrong.Though their intent might have been good, they don't know how to do what they want to do because they are filled with pride.They mislead Gulliver and they even mislead themselves.The satire on them is particularly well explained by the new born Houyhnhm who, having just been born, exclaims, “With this sort of entrance, what must I expect from the rest of my life!”.

第三篇：《格列佛游记》英文读后感

One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other hand they are the butt of Swift's satire.In other words, in Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them seriously as the proper way to act? If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the dangers of pride.First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gullver seriously.For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that he will believe anything.Also, when he first sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same in return until they run away.He says, “I must needs discover some more rational being,” even though as a human he is already the most rational being there is.This is why Swift refers to Erasmus Darwins discovery of the origin of the species and the voyage of the Beagle-to show how Gulliver knows that people are at the top of the food chain.But if Lemule Gulliver is satirized, so are the Houyhnhnms, whose voices sound like the call of castrati.They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people.As Gulliver says, “It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these creatures playing the flute and dancing a Vienese waltz.To my mind, they seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dextrous than the Lord Edmund Burke”.As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because they are so prideful.For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can singlehandedly recite the names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II.Swift subtly shows that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeths husband.Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out in other ways as well.One of the most memorable scenes is when the dapple grey mare attempts to woo the horse that Guenivre has brought with him to the island.First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the bewildered horse.But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets another idea: “As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was yet more monstrous than Mr.pope being fitted by a clothier.She dropped this creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice.My horse sniffed the creature and turned away.” It might seem that we should take this scene seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see the grey mare as an unrequited lover.But it makes more sense if we see that Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move, which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England.The Houyhnhm is being prideful, and it is that pride that makes him unable to impress Gullivers horse.Gulliver imagines the horse saying, Sblood, the notion of creating the bare backed beast with an animal who had held Mr.pope on her back makes me queezy.A final indication that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously occurs when the leader of the Houynhms visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society.He goes into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water(itself a prideful act that refers to the marriage at Gallilee).The scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without success, when the Houyhnmn arrives and immediately knows that to do: “The creature no sooner stepped through the doorway than he struck upon a plan.Slurping up all the wine in sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door”.He has accomplished the scientists goal, but the scientist is not happy, for his livelihood has now been destroyed.Swifts clear implication is that even though the Houyhnhmns are smart, they do not know how to use that knowledge for the benefit of society, only for their own prideful agrandizement.Throughout Gullivers Travels, the Houyhnhms are shown to be an ideal gone wrong.Though their intent might have been good, they don't know how to do what they want to do because they are filled with pride.They mislead Gulliver and they even mislead themselves.The satire on them is particularly well explained by the new born Houyhnhm who, having just been born, exclaims, “With this sort of entrance, what must I expect from the rest of my life!”.

第四篇：格列佛游记英文读后感

Don’t be a Yahoo Originally accomplished by an English writer Jonathan Swift in 1726, and later on adapted for a film by Charles Sturridge and a cartoon by Peter R.Hunt, Gulliver’s Travels is such a famous satirical novel that influences both adults and children.The editionI read is one of the adaptations, published by Oxford University.I was completely absorbed in its fantastically designed plot and the deep meaning it conveys to my mind.The author, Jonathan Swift, is an English satirist, statesman and poet.He was born in a poor family in Ireland and was brought up by his uncle.When he grew up, he became a private secretary in Moore Park with other’s help.The master of the park was an experienced politician and philosopher.There’s no doubt that he gave a huge impact on Swift.During those years, Swift went through so much that after he left the park, he spared no effort to fight for freedom and independence for Irish people.The Gulliver’s Travels, wrote by the year 1726, exposing the darkness of the society at that time.The leading character—Gulliver, who travels to the imaginary lands of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the country of the Houyhnhnms, had experienced much during the expedition.All of these four voyages brought new opportunities and future to Gulliver’s life, and these are also for satirizing the way of the English.The first voyage is to Lilliput where people are extremely small, so Gulliver is a giant to Lilliputians.Lilliputians seem friendly but actually they are very ridiculous and stupid, the king even wanted to kill Gulliver because he made water to put out a fire to save the queen’s life.The second voyage is to Brobdingnag which is absolutely different from Lilliput.Gulliver is like a Lilliputian in Europe and he began to understand how a very small creature feels before a giant.Luckily, his master is very kind to him.But the king laughed at his country, which is famous for its beautiful places, its brave and honest people and criticized its inhuman, cruel ideas about murdering people.The third voyage is to Laputa.Laputans are strange-looking and their main interests are music and mathematics.They pay little attention to others, so it’s very difficult to talk with them.Gulliver also went to the Glubdugdribb and Luggnagg nearby.In a visit to Glubdugdribb, Gulliver was able to call ghosts to answer his questions.In Luggnagg, he learnt something about Stuldbrugs, who are miserable for their long lives with poor heath.The last voyage is to the country of Houyhnhnms, which is controlled by horses.Gulliver felt happy with these sensible, gentle creatures, which never lied or stole, in a country which had no disease, no crime, and no wars.But at last, he had to leave.On returning to England, Gulliver felt disappointed with other humans, including his children and wife.He found himself is so stupid to think that he could bring reason and truth into their lives and thoughts.So he told others to keep away from him.As the narrator said “human are all Yahoos and Yahoos they will remain”.Yahoo, described as an ugly animal, is a reflection of human beings.Yahoos had human faces and they also so violently fond of the pieces of gold or silver that they dig for days to get them out of the ground, and hide them jealously from other yahoos.This is really an action of human.I don’t like people who are always thinking about how to attack other countries and kill tens of thousands of people who have never hurt them.They do these only with the purpose of conquering more lands.As far as I’m concerned, if we think like the horses in Houyhnhnms, don’t let lies, crimes and wars exist, our world would be more beautiful and peaceful.In a word, don’t be a Yahoo!

第五篇：格列佛游记英文读后感

Gulliver’s Travels

When writing the experience in the country of Houyhnhnms, Jonathan Swift satirizes a lot of hideous phenomena and social figures—lawyers, doctors, chief ministers and noble persons in chapter VI.I.Lawyers

At the beginning of this chapter, the author mentions lawyers by using such words--perplex, disquiet, weary and injustice, totally the opposite what a lawyer should be like.When Gulliver tries to describe the reason why they do so many evil things, the horses just can’t understand.Of course, for those civil horses who do things in a manner of justice and law, how can they understand these indecent deeds.The sharp contrast between horses and yahoos strongly satirizes the degenerate society in England at that time, where there was no justice and equality at all.Money was the only thing those people chased throughout their life.Then the author talks about the money, the lust and the exploitation.By using hyperbole that “This whole globe of earth must be at least three times gone around, before one of our better female Yahoos could get her breakfast, or a cup to put it in” to satire the luxurious rich people’s ruthless persecution on the poor.Here Swift makes a long list of crimes—such as begging, robbing, stealing, by doing which poor people can seek their livelihood, making the life of lower class much more miserable.II.Doctors

In the following paragraphs, Swift talks about diseases which have killed a large number of people, some even propagating to later generations.To cure these diseases, a magic tribe emerged.Just as the so-called lawyers Swift mentions at the very beginning, the doctors and their “miraculous” diagnostics follows to be satirized.In the author’s description, doctors here never fail to predict their patients’ diseases, or they would make their predictions seemingly accurate by all means—deadly poison or something like that.All in all, anyone who has been unluckily sentenced death by those doctors will soon die.“They are likewise of special use to husbands and wives who are grown weary of their mates, to eldest sons, to great ministers of state, and often to princes.” In this sentence, here “they” refer to those death-like doctors.With the special help of them, people with some evil thoughts can achieve what they desperately expect.Very cleverly, by criticizing the doctors’ immorality, Swift also satirizes the social ills like disloyalty between couples, betrayals among brothers and offices.III.Chief Ministers

In the next paragraph, Swift turns his sharp nib to the chief ministers.Those people are so hypocritical and deceptive that they discard all their human feelings, but to chase power, wealth and titles—as Swift directly points out.No one can guess their true feelings.Here Swift uses several antitheses to show their hypocrisy.Truth for lie;lie as truth.Both praise and deformation are bad omens.What’s more, their promise resembles the curse.Then the author jokingly offers three methods about how to become a chief minister.That’s where the highlight is.“First, by knowing how with prudence to

dispose of a wife, a daughter, or a sister;the second, by betraying or undermining his predecessor;and the third is, by a furious zeal in public assemblies against the corruptions of the court.” shows that only by betrayal, conspiracy and something immoral can one become a chief minister.“The palace of a ’chief minister’ is a seminary to breed up others in his own trade.” By using metaphor, the author ironically criticizes the English chief ministers, who are dirty and corrupted.IV.Noble Persons

Last but not least, Jonathan Swift reveals the true figures of the nobility.The author takes Gulliver himself—who is much healthier and cleaner than those Yahoos but born the lower class as an example to satire the noble persons.With odious diseases derived from lewd females and terrible personality caused by being spoiled, they regard their unhealthy complexion as grace, and mock those robust persons instead.Their twist and reverse values actually reflect the deformed social value system at that time.Money worship leads them to marry those they don’t love, even to give birth to malformed children.How ridiculous!

“Without the consent of this illustrious body no law can be made, repealed, or altered, and these have the decision of our possessions without appeal.” At the end of the this part, the author again uses irony to mention that all the society is under the control of those both physically and psychologically ill persons, as implicates that the whole society is in the darkness of sickness.V.Conclusion

Jonathan Swift is a genius in sarcasm.Reading his novel—Gulliver’s Travels, one can find that every page is filled with his sharp sarcasm and irony.