Gulliver's Travels: Gulliver's Identity Loss
Spencer Shelburne
British Literature I
Novel Paper
12/2/11
Gulliver’s Lost Identity
J.R.R. Tolkien once said, "Not all who wander are lost." It is to be assumed then that he was not talking about Capt. Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a narrative of the identity crisis. Captain Gulliver is indeed lost, both literally and metaphorically. He sets out on a voyage seeking a way to fulfill his identity as the financial supporter of his family, but once he leaves the structured society of England, his sense of identity is lost. At times, he does not even consider his family back home. He is misplaced in strange countries with strange inhabitants.
In his misplacement, an interesting identity-void is created; Gulliver has no way to define himself as a foreigner in a new society. The need to belong overwhelms him, and he accepts any identity that is thrown his way, no matter how degrading it is. Through this void, Swift explores how society and politics systematically function to disassemble and reinvent the individual.
In each of the countries Gulliver travels to, he is isolated from a sense of kinship and alienated from acceptance, the degree of which increases with each voyage. This alienation and isolation is surprisingly first apparent in his home country, England. In an unemotional tone he describes his family: "My Father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons... my father now and then sending me small sums of money..." (p. 1). Likewise, his attachment to his wife is just as dispassionately observed: "I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmond Burton, Hosier, in Newgate-street..." (p. 2). Even in his professional life, Gulliver has no real connection. He comments, "But my good Master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren" (p. 2). Though he tries to connect to
British Literature I
Novel Paper
12/2/11
Gulliver’s Lost Identity
J.R.R. Tolkien once said, "Not all who wander are lost." It is to be assumed then that he was not talking about Capt. Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a narrative of the identity crisis. Captain Gulliver is indeed lost, both literally and metaphorically. He sets out on a voyage seeking a way to fulfill his identity as the financial supporter of his family, but once he leaves the structured society of England, his sense of identity is lost. At times, he does not even consider his family back home. He is misplaced in strange countries with strange inhabitants.
In his misplacement, an interesting identity-void is created; Gulliver has no way to define himself as a foreigner in a new society. The need to belong overwhelms him, and he accepts any identity that is thrown his way, no matter how degrading it is. Through this void, Swift explores how society and politics systematically function to disassemble and reinvent the individual.
In each of the countries Gulliver travels to, he is isolated from a sense of kinship and alienated from acceptance, the degree of which increases with each voyage. This alienation and isolation is surprisingly first apparent in his home country, England. In an unemotional tone he describes his family: "My Father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons... my father now and then sending me small sums of money..." (p. 1). Likewise, his attachment to his wife is just as dispassionately observed: "I married Mrs. Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmond Burton, Hosier, in Newgate-street..." (p. 2). Even in his professional life, Gulliver has no real connection. He comments, "But my good Master Bates dying in two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren" (p. 2). Though he tries to connect to
Cited: Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver 's Travels. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.