Utopia, Dystopia or Anti-utopia?

Gulliver's Travels and the Utopian Mode of Discourse

Author(s): Chlöe Houston
Source: Utopian Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, Irish Utopian (2007), pp. 425-442
Published by: Penn State University Press
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Utopia, Dystopia orAnti-utopia? Gulliver's Travels and
theUtopian Mode ofDiscourse

Chl?e Houston
Should his talltalesofmarvellousvoyages,newlydiscoveredpeoples, and
to call ThomasMores Utopia (1516),
fantasticsocietiesbe insufficient
and Utopian writings in general, to his reader smind, "Lemuel Gulliver" refers
toUtopia direcdy in a letterto his cousin printedwith the secondedition
(1735) ofhisTravehintoSeveralRemote Nations oftheWorld (familiarly
know
as Gulliver's Travels)-.

If the Censure of the Yahoos could anyWay

affect me, I should have great Reason to
some of them are so bold as to
complain, that
thinkmy Book of Travels a meer Fiction out
ofmine own Brain, and have gone so far as to
drop Hints, that theHouyhnhnms and Yahoos
have no more Existence than the Inhabitants of
30)
Utopia. (Swift

The joke here is obviously on the na?ve reader, and underlines that the pri

mary feature shared by theHouyhnhnms, Yahoos, and Utopians is their fic

tionality. If it is to be inferred from this feature that the and

Houyhnhnms
Yahoos are similar toMores Utopians in any other way, then the comparison
does little to help the reader (na?ve or otherwise) learn more about Swifts

imagined peoples. Mores Utopians, like the textwhich described them, are
"shrouded in
ambiguity," which nearly five hundred years of interpretation
have yet to dispel (Manuel and Manuel 5). The reason for this is of course
that ambiguity is to
integral Mores text, as recent criticism has recognised.1
So, Swiftslikeningof his own inventedpeople to thoseofThomasMore is
more than a tongue-in-cheek aside; it serves to remind us that
ambiguity and
irony have always been a feature of the mode of discourse.
Utopian
The use of journeys, strange new societies and peoples, and a poten

tiallymendacious narrator have made Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels an

obvious subjectforthoseinterested
in thedevelopmentof theUtopianmode
of discourse in the eighteenth century.2 Several modern
interpretations of the
text recognise its Utopian nature or even understand it as a
consisting of series
Utopian Studies 18.3 (2007): 425-442 ? Society forUtopian Studies 2007

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 -UTOPIAN STUDIES 183~

of utopias.3 Others have looked in detail at the relationship between Gullivers

Travels and Utopia, as themost obvious benchmark of utopianism during this
to show thatMores text is to some extent a model for Swifts. Such
period,
endeavours are predicated on an understanding that utopia, its features and
its history, an context for fan
provides important understanding Gullivers
tastical journeys and his reporting of them. Brian Vickers, who has given a
detailed reading of the relationship between the two texts by focusing on their
satiric function, argues that, in
despite important differences?and particular
the divergent use of satirewhich involves Swift's satiricmethod of compari
son an inversion ofMore s"?these two
becoming "almost portrayals of other
worlds share significant common ground (241). In Vickers' reading, Utopia,
in its on contemporary
political and ethical attack society through the juxta
an as a source and model for Gul
position of imaginary equivalent, emerges
livers Travels.4 Even ifUtopias status as model is established, this relationship
does not, of course, mean that Swift's novel is itselfa utopia, or even Utopian.
Given the frequent critical arguments towhich this text has been subjected, it
is hardly surprising that there is no consensus on this issue. Those who reject
its Utopian nature may emphasise thewide range of genres with which Gul
livers Traveh engages, or see it as "anti-utopian in outlook" (Donnelly 115).5
Others, however, recognise a kind of fellowship between Swift's book and
rests on their shared utopianism, or mutual
Utopia which discovery of "the
moral and spiritual reality of utopia in our everyday lives" (Traugott 145).6
It soon becomes evident from the secondary literature on the utopianism of
Gulliver's Traveh that a uniform idea of what itmeans for a text to be "uto
is a distinction between those critics
p?an" is lacking. Broadly speaking there
who take Utopian tomean idealistic or
perfectionist about human society and
and thoseforwhom thedeciding factoris thenatureof itsen
perfectibility,
or with a
gagement with the Utopian tradition particular Utopian text, usually
(indeed, almost exclusively) Mores Utopia?
This discussionhighlightsa wider issue in the studyof utopianism
and Utopian literaturein the earlymodern period: how should utopia be
understoodingenericterms? Whilst much work has been done on defining
not a one of definition but a broader one
utopia, the question here is generic
of identification: how do we identify and describe theways inwhich a text is

part of or interactswith the Utopian mode of discourse? In other words, what

makes a text utopiani This article will examine this question with reference

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 Houston GulliversTravels and Utopian Discourse

to Gullivers Travels, arguing that the text is neither a utopia, nor a

dystopia,
nor even an
anti-utopia (as ithas variously been read); rather, it contains im
ages of and interactions with ideas of utopia and dystopia which reflect its
as
engagement with the Utopian mode and qualify it simultaneously Utopian
and dystopian. Gullivers Traveh thus provides a noteworthy case study for
those interested in the development of the Utopian mode during this period
because it is an example of Utopian writing which engages with the Utopian
mode whilstnot beingUtopian in the senseof idealisticor optimistic;it isa
Utopian
textwhich is also anti-utopian, or dystopian. This self-reflexive uto

pianism is a feature of the texts satirical nature; the Utopian mode is satirised
use of the
through Utopian form and by attacks upon features common to

Utopian fiction.8
way inwhichGullivers
of satireis thefirstsignificant
Itsemployment
Travels engages with the Utopian mode; the second is its rejection of the ideal
a
earthly society, rejection which, farfrom proclaiming the aanti-utopian"
stance of Gulliver's Traveh, to
signals the depth of its response Utopia itself.
Gulliver's Travels utopianism can ultimately be identified in its denial of the
an ideal state on earth; with this denial, it reaches the same
possibility of
as 9
conclusion Utopia. This article seeks to evaluate the nature of Gulliver's
Travels engagement with the Utopian mode of discourse by paying attention
to its not
relationship only with Utopia but also with other prominent Uto
pian fictions of the earlymodern period: Francis Bacons NewAthntis (1626),
Johann Valentin Andreaes Christianopolis (1619), and JanAmos Comeniuss
TheLabyrinthofthe Heart (1623).
Worldand theParadue ofthe
The satire of Utopian conventions in Gulliver's Traveh is both gen
eral and specific. Swift s tale shares with the Utopian form its use of fantastic

journeys and shipwrecks, the na?ve narrator, stories of new places and seem
are the features which have led scholars to
ingly ideal societies. These place it
within "a canon which includes Plato sRepublic, Lucian s True More s
History,
Utopia, the works of Rabelais, and Bacons New Atlantu? whether it is in
deed "utopian fiction or merely Menippean satire" (Mezciems, "Unity" 5).
However, a closer reading of the text reveals a more complex use of Utopian
features not only thesatirical
byhighlighting natureof Swifts textbut itsde
liberatemockery of earlier new and ideal societies. Productive
descriptions of
examples may be found inGullivers journey to Laputa, and in particular his
relation of the grand Academy of Lagado and itspeculiar inhabitants. Given

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 -UTOPIAN STUDIES 183-

the utopias historical concern with the subject of education, the

description
of the Academy seems an appropriate point at which to examine the text's

utopianism.
Gullivermakes repeatedvisitsto theAcademy ofLagado, inwhich
he calculates he enters at least five hundred rooms, each inhabited by a "Pro

jector"(180). The firstof theseprojectorsencounteredbyGulliver ischemi

in such tasks as to
cal engineers employed "reduc[ing] human Excrement
itsoriginalFood" and turningice intogunpowder(171). The Academy of
Lagado clearly draws upon that other storehouse of scientific wonders, the
idealised research institute of Salomon's House in Bacon's New Atlantis. In
New Atlantis, Salomon's House is portrayed as the "very eye" or "lanthorn" of

Bensalem, the "fair city" encountered by a group of travellerswho put in there

after a storm (464,471,457). Salomons House is a
large research institution
which is run by several "Fathers," whose purpose is "the knowledge of causes,
and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human

Empire" (480).Whilst thework of SalomonsHouse is clearlyfantastic,it

byBacon as an imageof thepotentialof thepursuitof knowledge
isoffered
in support of his wider project for the instauration of human understand
narrator ofNewAthntis
ing. Like the encountering themarvels of Salomons
is the on
House, Gulliver impressed by technologies display, reporting how
he is "highly pleased" and "fully convinced" by various inventions (171,172).
One particularly noteworthy experimenter is "the universal Artuf who has
spent thirtyyears "employing his Thoughts for the Improvement of human
Life" (173). Among the innovative schemes under his production are systems
for attempting to softenmarble "for Pillows and Pin-cushions," and to "sow
whichGul
Land withChaff,"the latterbeingprovedby severalexperiments
liver confesses he was not "skilftd enough" to understand. The grand finale
of thislistofwonders isa schemeforbreedingnaked sheep throughoutthe
on young lambs(173).
kingdombypreventingthegrowthofwool
without calling tomind
It is impossibleto read suchdescriptions
the similarly na?ve and sincere admiration of other Utopian travellers, in
narrators ofNew Atkntis and Andreae's Christianopolis. Like
particular the
New Atlantis, Christianopolis recounts the experiences of an anonymous nar
rator who reaches a strange and far-off land after a sea-journey and storm.
A large section of the narration is taken up with admiring descriptions of
the laboratories, observatories, and lecture theatres of the idealised society,

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 Houston Gullivers Travels and Utopian Discourse

narrator repeats his wonder at the

Christianopolis. The knowledge and tech
inwhose laboratories "heaven ismarried to
nologies of this Utopian society
the earth" and "the divine mysteries imprinted on the earth are discovered
once more" (Bacon, New Atlantis 209). Although Andreae's emphasis is on
the need to reorder society upon truly spiritual grounds, his narrator, like
Bacons, emphasises the seeming miracles that humanity could achieve in the

right circumstances. However, whereas their enthusiasm reflected the genuine

approvalof Bacon and Andreae for thepossibilitiesofferedby technologi

cal advances, the narrative voice of Gulliver's Traveh is firmly located within
of the "wonderftd
the satiricalrange.Swiftssatirising Curiosities" (173) of
theAcademy of Lagado may be interpreted within thewider contextof his
to the "new science," in
long-held aversion represented particular by Bacon,
whom Swiftattacksin othersof hisworks, suchasA Tale ofa Tub.10Other
as
seventeenth-century experimenters such Boyle and other members of the

Royal Societyhad also been subjecttoSwiftianparody.11

But inhis lampoon
ing of the Laputan experimenters and their ridiculous productions, Swift is
not
satirizing only natural philosophy but also its presentation in Utopian
terms and, thus, the Utopian texts that had heralded thewonders of the new
a century before.
technologies
Certain parallels between theAcademy of Lagado in Laputa and the
idealised research institute, Salomons House, inNew Atlantis reflect theway
inwhich the scientific experiments which were seen as genuine wonders in
Bensalem have become objects of ridicule in Laputa. Like the Academy of

Lagado, Salomons House is large in size and filled with experimental scien
tists: 36 named officials as well as servants, novices, and apprentices (487). In
the Academy, research is undertaken to "condensfe] Air into a
dry tangible
the and or fluid Particles
Substance, by extracting Nitre, letting the aqueous
as in Salomons House the scientists "qualify the air as
percolate" (173), just
we think and proper for the cure of divers diseases, and preservation of
good
whilst theAcademy boasts an experimenter
health" (481). Similarly, dedi
cated to "extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers" (170), Salomons House
contains where we make demonstrations of all
"perspective-houses, lights and
radiations" and "find also divers means, yet unknown to you, of
producing
fromdiversbodies" (484).Whilst theFellows of Salomons
lightoriginally
House make "observations in urine and blood, not otherwise to be seen"

(484-485), the scientists of theAcademy examine human excrement in order

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 -UTOPIAN STUDIES 183~

to identifyitsconcealedparts (171). Justas thepractitioners

of Salomons
House have control over fire, using it for a variety of purposes and creat

ing unquenchable "wildfires" as well as "new mixtures and compositions of

so a to calcine Ice into
gun-powder" (486), Laputan Projector is "at work
and intends to "a Treatise he had written concerning
Gunpowder" publish
theMalleabilityof Fire" (171). Thus, therepresentation
of the ideal research
are reflected in Swifts
community and the na?ve observer inNew Atlantis
ironic portrayal of a model scientific community.
The parallels between earlier Utopian fiction and Gulliver's Travels are
to thekindsofphysicalexperiments
not restricted The ide
beingundertaken.
al language schemes and mathematical systems described in Gulliver's Traveh
are reminiscent of the satire on such practices in Comenius s The Labyrinth
text is rather differ
of theWorld and theParadise of theHeart. Comenius's
ent from the other utopias here considered; indeed, its status as a utopia is
not usually discussed. The the Utopian mode,
Labyrinth clearly engages with
however; it offers an image of an ideal society on earth which is not a physi
cal society, but a spiritual one founded on shared community with Christ.
The Labyrinth relates the experiences of its narrator, a pilgrim who journeys
around a version of contemporary society in order to learn more about the
what affairsI shouldoccupymy life"(62). Inhis tour
world and decide "with
of theworld, the pilgrim becomes each profession
increasingly disgusted by
and aspect of the human condition that he observes. The institutions of the

world, and specifically knowledge-based institutions such as the library and

theuniversity(whichshouldprovideguidanceand knowledge),are foundto
be corruptand as failingto offerthe individualand social supportwhich is
their true function. Ultimately, the pilgrim realises that the only prospect of
an ideal life iswithin himself, in communion inChrist, and he commits him
selfto thispath.Comeniusmay not offera plan fora perfectsociety,
but his
individual to know Christ and discover
presentation of the potential for each
a in his own heart makes attainment of a good life on earth feasible.
paradise
However, before this utopia is reached, Comenius exposes the laby
rinths educational system and its institutions through a biting satirewhich
attacks the inequality of educational opportunity, the cruelty of schools, the
failure of universities to teach, and, more broadly, the failure of society to
a he parodies
prepare its young people for happy life.As part of this satire,
scholars who of books around to to absorb
merely carry bags prevent having

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 Houston Gullivers Travelsand Utopian Discourse

an imagewhich is called tomind by

knowledgeby someothermeans (97),
the "sages" of Laputa, who are hampered by theweight of sacks of "Things,"
which they are obliged to carry around in order to be able to use them in
conversation(176). In theLabyrinth,the scholars'othermethod of gaining
knowledgeis theeatingof thewrittenword in theformof books (97), exacdy
as the students ofmathematics are to eat formulae writ
Laputan encouraged
tenonwafers,which they will thenabsorbas theydigest them(176-177).
Whilst bothComenius and Swiftsatirizethenotion that learning
inhis attackon a beliefdearlyheld
can so easilybe takenin,Swiftgoes further
as Comenius:
by the educational reformers of the Second Reformation such
that new and reformed systems of learning will enable faster and more thor
satire on the educational prac
ough absorption of knowledge. Comeniuss
tices that his pilgrim observes in theworld are intended as evidence?as part
of his wider project of pedagogical reform?for the need to improve learning
and its organisation. For Swift, however, it is these new systems of learning
which fail to produce the results they promise. In Laputa, Gulliver observes

computerin theformof a largeframewhich

thedevelopmentof a linguistic
creates sections of sentences movement
through the random of words within
is to show theworld the
it (173-174). The purposeof thisexperimentation
"Usefulness" of a project which will enable the "most ignorant" would-be au
thors to "write Books in Philosophy, Poetry, Politicks, Law, Mathematicks and
Assistance from Genius or Technol
Theology, without the least Study" (173).
ogy has overtaken the need for human and a statewhich
intelligence learning,
direcdy satirizes the Utopian hopes of the early seventeenth century that de
to an
velopments in education and the organisation of learning would lead
amelioration condition.12 Shordy afterwards, Gulliver notes a
of the human

variety of language schemes, including one that involves "entirely abolishing

allWords whatsoever." This scheme would have the benefit of
operating "as
a universalLanguage to be understoodin all civilizedNations" (176). Thus,
the emphasis on useftdness, the interest in universal languages and systems of

learning, and the enthusiasm for the reform of education which characterized
the Utopian thinking of social reformers such as Bacon, Andreae, and Come
nius are all fodderforSwifts satireon the idealism writingsem
which their
bodied. Unlike the narrators ofNewAthntis and Christianopolis, and
despite
the wonders he has witnessed, Gulliver displays no desire to stay in
Laputa:
"I saw nothing in thisCountry that could inviteme to a longer Continuance;

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 -UTOPIAN STUDIES 183-

and began to thinkof returning

home toEngland' (182).13Gullivermay be
impressedby theachievementsof theAcademy ofLagado, but thescientific
institution is no longer the focus of the ideal society.
Another important way inwhich Gulliver's Traveh engages with the

Utopian mode of discourse is by presenting a society which the narrator inter

pretsas ideal.In thelandof theHouyhnhnms,Gulliverfindsan idealsociety

are
organised entirely along rational lines. The Houyhnhnms naturally virtu
ous, with no capacity for vice, and as a consequence "their grand Maxim is,
to cultivate
Reason,and tobewholly governedby it" (242). This emphasison
to arrange all aspects of social life to
rationality leads them according logical
patterns. Procreation, for instance, is for the benefit of the breed,
organised
and children are treated with a common affection that does not distinguish
fromanother's(243).As theirlivesareuntroubled
one individualsoffspring
by the vicissitudes of unwanted emotions and passions, the operation of the
reason "is not or discoloured
Houyhnhnms' mingled, obscured, by Passion
and Interest." Although their society relies upon slavery and is thus not whol
a stranger is not welcomed as
ly equal, there is nowhere in the land inwhich
thoughhewere at home (242).This rationalsocietyproducesfeelingsofgreat
admiration in itsvisitor,who considers its inhabitants themost impressive he
has met (251). All of these features reflect the obvious parallels between the
landof theHouyhnhnmsandUtopia,which isdescribedin similartermsby
the narrator Hythlodaeus. Like Houyhnhnmland, Utopia is organised entire
an absence of sin; children are
ly along rational lines: there is brought up in
common; a system of slavery operates; and one is
city exactly the same as an

other, so that theUtopian is everywhere at home. Like Hythlodaeus, Gulliver

compares his own societywith the land of theHouyhnhnms in unfavourable
terms. The Houyhnhnms' society, like Utopia, is characterized in Gulliver's
terms by what it lacks, as much as by itspositive features:

Here were no Gibers, Censurers, Backbiters,

Pickpockets, Highwaymen, House-breakers,
Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gamesters,
Politicians,Wits, Spleneticks, tedious Talkers,
Controvertists, Ravishers, Murderers, Robbers,

Virtuosos; no Leaders or Followers of Party

and Faction; no Encouragers to Vice, by
Seducement or Examples: No Dungeon,
Axes, Gibbets, Whipping-posts, or Pillories;

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 Houston Gullivers Traveh and Utopian Discourse

No orMechanicks: No
cheating Shopkeepers
Pride,Vanity or Affectation:No Fops, Bullies,
Drunkards, strollingWhores, or Poxes: No
ranting, lewd, expensiveWives: No stupid,
proud Pedants: No importunate, over-bearing,
quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited,
swearing Companions: No Scoundrels raised
from theDust upon theMerit of theirVices;
No Lords, Fidlers, Judges or Dancing-masters.
(250)
More also employs litotes to describe his idealised society. In Utopia, "fraud,
theft, rapine, quarrels, disorders, brawls, seditions, murders, treasons, [and]
no nor do "fear, anxiety,worries, toils, and
poisonings" longer exist, and sleep
lessnights"(243). JustasHythlodaeus'snarrationof thevirtuesofUtopian
to benefit others, Gulliver tries to emulate
society is ostensibly related in order
theHouyhnhnms and to publicise their character and habits in order to be
"useful tomy own Species, by celebrating the Praises of the renowned Houyh
Virtues to theImitationofMankind" (253).
nhnms,and proposingtheir
There is an important difference, however, between Gullivers and

Hythlodaeus's experience of these idealised societies. Hythlodaeus, although

Utopia, livedtherehappilyforfiveyearsand is able to return;at
he has left
theend of thedialogue, it is believedhemay have done so (117). Gulliver,
on the other hand, is barely tolerated whilst living with theHouyhnhnms,
and is eventuallyexiledand obliged eitherto livewith his fellowYahoos or
swim back whence he came (252). On hearing this shocking news, the travel
ler faints.Helped to build a vessel by his Houyhnhnm Master, he leaves his
newfound land "quite sunk with Grief," and at last returns home to England

(254). Unable to adjust to lifeat home, and in particularto theoffensive

smells of his own family,Gulliver ends his narrative five years after his return
from the land of theHouyhnhnms.Having removedhimselffromhuman
society, due to his fear of his fellow Yahoos' "Teeth" and "Claws," the former
traveller finds solace in the company of his two horses, with whom he con
verses for four hours a can understand him
day and who "tolerably well," and
in theequine smellof his groom (261). Gulliverhas encountereda society
which he feelsto be trulyideal,buthe isnot fitto livethere.Foreverchanged
by his experience, he is unable to re-assimilate into his own environment, and
ends up caught between the perfect society he remembers and the realworld

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 ~
UTOPIAN STUDIES 18.3

inwhich he isobliged to live.In a finalUtopiantouch,Gulliver revealsthat

it is theprideofhis fellowhuman beingswhich he findsparticularly abhor
rent:

My Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in

generalmight not be so difficult, iftheywould
be content with thoseVices and Follies only
which Nature hath entitled them to. . . .But,
when I behold a Lump of Deformity, and
Diseases both inBody andMind, smittenwith
Pride, it immediatelybreaks all theMeasures of
my Patience. (266)

as chiefamong evils; the

Pride is also the sinwhichHythlodaeus identifies
success is down to their combat one
Utopians' against "this single monster,
thechiefand progenitorof all plagues" (243). Similarly,it is theabsenceof
pridewhichGulliver identifiesas being the strongestfeatureof theHouyh
nhnms.Beggingall those4who have anyTinctureof thisabsurdVice" tokeep
out ofhis sight,
Gulliver and failstobringhis utopiahome (266).
tries
JustasGulliver seesthe landof theHouyhnhnmsas an idealsociety,
scholars have frequently read it as a utopia within the text as a whole. As such,
it offers a standard of perfection towards which it is presumed human society
ismeant to strive:

SwiftsHouyhnhnmland is this [i.e., a Platonic]

sort of contemplative utopia: a picture of the
Platonic society against which the Yahooish
order of actual human societies can be
can
judged?and condemned. Man, of course,
never be a Houyhnhnm, nor was meant to be,
but the rational society of Houyhnhnmland
nevertheless offers a goal of moral perfection
toward which he should strive, even if?or
perhaps because?he will never reach its
sublime equilibrium. A societys reach, afterall,
should exceed itsgrasp, orwhat s a utopia for?
(Beauchamp 209)14

Whatever utopia is "for,"itmay hardlybe seen to be fulfilling

this idealistic
function inGulliver's Traveh. A more recent study of the text has
argued that,

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 Houston Gullivers Travels and Utopian Discourse

on the contrary, Swift s purpose is tomanifest Gullivers ideal and simultane

ously to show its impossibility:

by "paradingtheHouyhnhnms, theepitome
ofvirtueand rationality,
beforeand forGulliver,Swiftexhibitstheidealwhich
thephilosophyof the schools ... claimedformans nature"(Real 100). This
results in a "double-edged" satirewhich simultaneously "shows that humanity
does not measure up to its own standard" and moreover that "this standard is
not forman." Humanity's failure to reach its own ideal is thus perceived as a
manifestation of an inability to live by reason alone just as Gulliver is unable
to manage to emulate theHouyhnhnms' rational model in his own world.
Gulliver's fateultimately shows that "man's desire to be regarded as reasonable
is a symptom ofmadness" (100). According to this understanding of the re
a
lationship between Gullivers Traveh and the Utopian tradition, it is mistake
to understand Swift's satire as or intent.Whilst
Utopian in character Utopia is
a to hold a
paradox, lacking resolution and refusing position itself but invit
seen as a closed book: "the
ing the continuation of debate, Gullivers Traveh is
conversation is over, and nothing else remains to be said" (97, 106).
In spite of the considerable differences between the two texts, how
ever, there are ways in which Swift's novel may be seen as Utopian both in
character and intent. As the brief reading of the text above has shown, there
are similarities between the societies of the land of the and the
Houyhnhnms
seem more than
Utopians that superficial. More importandy, Gulliver's Trav
eh can also be seen as Utopian in its refusal to concede that the ideal society
can exist in the real world. As in a can
Utopia, seemingly ideal society only
be imagined farfrom English shores. Upon return to the home environment,
it soon becomes apparent that the characterising features of the utopia, in
particular its rationality,mean that it cannot serve as a useful model for real

people in the real world. Mores Utopia, despite repeated efforts to read it as
a an ideal society, ultimately refuses to allow such
genuine representation of
a readingto standbyfrequendy
signallingthat itspresentationof an ideal
human community, with its layers of narration and moments of deliberate
confusion of the reader, is not to be taken at face value. By an
presenting
apparently perfect society through Hythlodaeus's narration, More offers not
an ideal state but a
type of an ideal state?an imagining of
a
society that is
ideal by certain standards and criteria. Ultimately, however, these criteria are
shown to be unsatisfactory. The Utopians' commitment to
living rationally,
for example, leads them to practice assisted suicide, to live for
pleasure above

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 -UTOPIAN STUDIES 18.3

all else, to believe thatreligiousfaithis a matteroffreewill, and to exhibit

signsof spiritualcomplacency(187, 167, 163,237). Thus, ratherthanoffer
inga solutionto the illsof theworld,Utopia isdeliberatelyenigmatic,and
an ideal human existence in this life. Swift's
sceptical about the possibility of
text, likeMores, is doubtful about the ideal commonwealth and rejects the
notion that practices can be liftedfrom one society into another without dif

ficulty. It is in its rejection of the ideal society that Gulliver's Traveh ismost
like its forebear Utopia.15
Another shared feature of these texts is that,whilst the ideal nature
of theUtopian societyisdestabilised,no trulyideal equivalentis offeredin
its place within the text. However, in Utopia the nature of the truly ideal

societyis impliedby itsabsence.On one level,Utopia denies thepossibility

of a perfect social community through the creation of an environment which
seems as as can be but is to be true. For More, the
good really too good perfect
human lifeon earth is a contradiction in terms; the only prospect for such an
existence is after death. For Christian humanists such asMore and his friend
Erasmus, the question of the nature of the ideal lifewould ultimately be spiri
tual in nature. There is a hint of this ideal life even inErasmus's sarcastic Praise

ofFolly (1511), as Folly speaks in thevoice ofChrist to criticizethosewho

think itpossible to live a perfect life based on outward appearance, or indeed
thatit ispossible to livea good lifeat all outsideChrist's teaching(bothof
which features characterize theUtopians):

Long ago in the sight of all,without wrapping

up my words inparables, I promised my fathers
a cowl or
kingdom, not forwearing chanting
petty prayers or practising abstinence, but for
. .
performing the duties of faith and charity.
. Those who also want to appear holier than
I am can go off and live in the heavens like
the Abraxasians, if they like, or order a new
heaven to be built for them by themen whose
foolish teaching they have set above my own
commands. (167)

It is interesting to remember here thatUtopus s realm was known as

Abraxa before he renamed itUtopia (99). Utopia's answer to the question of
the ideal life is its demonstration that a "new heaven" cannot be built on this

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 Houston GulliversTravels and Utopian Discourse

earth; the only heaven, or ideal human existence, exists outside of human ex
on another level is confident about the potential of the
perience. Thus, Utopia
ideal society: it exists as a true Christians.
spiritual possibility for Similarly,
the other Utopian texts considered in this article, whether they posit the ideal
or the future, on earth or in a
society in the present spiritual community,
are
founded on the understanding that it can and will exist.16This is the crucial
difference between these utopias and Gulliver's Traveh. Swift satirises aspects
of theUtopian traditionand rejectsthenotion of the ideal earthlysociety
whilst choosing not to offer an alternative. Thus, whilst the Utopian mode has
in one sense come full circle in 200 years?in that it is once again the rejec
tion of the ideal commonwealth in a satirical mode?there has been a crucial
no
change in its operation. In Gulliver's Traveh, it is longer certain that the
ideal society can exist in any form or time. Gulliver s travels leave him shel

tering in his stables, unable to bear human society, having learned nothing
obliged to live.In thesixteenth
thatwill improvethelifehe isultimately and
seventeenth centuries, the Utopian mode was used to explore the question of
how to live thegood lifewith a view to offeringitsreaderstheprospectof
the ideal society through the "sincere" utopias of writers such as Andreae and
Comenius. The eighteenth century would see the
publication of sincerely
idealistic utopias, but through texts such as Gulliver's Traveh itwould also
see the
development of the Utopian satire, the necessary development for the
emergence of the dystopia, or anti-utopian fiction.17Thus, it is in its use of its
ironic utopianism, as well as its satire of the Utopian tradition, that Gulliver's
Traveh establishes itself as a simultaneously Utopian and
dystopian text.

Endnotes

1
The ironies of More s text have been a focus most
recendy for
Grace 273; Fox 27; and Baker-Smith217-218, 232.
2
These features also signal the text s interaction with another form of

writingwhich also developed in important

ways in theearlymodern period
and is linkedto utopia, thegenreof travel
writing.For Swiftsuse of travel
narratives in Gulliver's Traveh, see Passmann,
Eddy, Shimada, and Loveman
15.
3
For Gulliver's Traveh as a utopia or series of see Morton
utopias,
132;RaymondSmith389-398; Voigt 117-120; and Siu-HanYip 467.
4
See alsoEhrenpreis3: 346; and Brink.

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UTOPIAN STUDIES 18.3

5
For Gulliver's Traveh as "anti-utopian," see Donnelly 115-124. For
thewide range of genres in Gulliver's Traveh, see Frederik . Smith 246.
6 sees Swift and More as
Traugott sharing "a particular kind of view.
.. a
peculiarkind of irony"(146) and a "utopian
mentality"(151).
7
An example of a scholar who uses the first interpretation of utopia
isDonnellywhilstVickers subscribesto the secondusageof the term.
Other
readings of the relationship between Gulliver's Traveh and Utopia include
Traugott, Vickers, Mezciems ("The Unity of Swifts 'Voyage to Laputa'"),
Hammond, Radner, Rielly, and Real.
8
For Gulliver's Traveh as a satire, see Rosenheim 90-102; and Fabian
421-434.
9Fordefinitions
ofutopiaand theUtopian,seeFrye25; Suvin50, 52;
Manuel and Manuel 4-5; 18-19. In his recent book on the early
and Davis
modern utopia, Christopher Kendrick offers a useful overview of theoretical
a not restricted to the
imaginings of utopia towards broad definition of utopia
modern period (3-73).
early
10
Vickers 92, 99.
11
See Vickers 87. However ithas also been argued that assumptions
that Swift parodied Bacon are false; seeQuintana, and Mezciems, "Utopia
and 'theThing which is not'" 60n7.
12
Bacon frequendy wrote that the practice of natural philosophy
would provide the means of restoring mans dominion over nature by en
to re-attain theAdamic condition. See, for example, his Valerius
abling him
Terminus, inWorks 3: 222.
13 contrast to
In Gulliver, Bacons narrator records that only 13 visi
to leave it; his own
tors to Bensalem have been known departure from the
is not recorded (471). In Christianopolis, the narrator frequently avows
place
his desire to remain, and his intention to return (282).
14A similar
opinion isexpressedbyHart 128.
15 see Radner
For the opposite opinion, 51. For the deliberate
Modern Thought1:
enigmatismof Utopia, see Skinner,TheFoundationsof
255-262, and "Sir Thomas More s and the Language of Renaissance
Utopia
Humanism" 123-124.
16This featureof
byErnstBloch as
utopianismhas been identified
the "Not Yet." See Bloch 177.
17 see
For the existence of eighteenth-century British utopianism,

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 Houston Gullivers Travels and Utopian Discourse

a
Claeys vii. Claeys argues thatGulliver's Traveh inspires Utopian satire, "sub
genre of utopianism" (xli).

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