You Thought "Gulliver's Travels" Was For Kids Didn't You??? - Part Four

True Houyhnhnm Happiness                                                                   

            “As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational creature, so their great maxim is, to cultivate reason and to be wholly governed by it.”

            The last country in which Gulliver finds himself is that of the Houyhnhnms, or talking horses, who have been “endowed by nature,” not only with a “virtuous disposition,” but with human reason as well. These horses live very simple and quiet lives, unable to understand the concepts of lying and deceit, and naturally given to kindness, honesty and intelligence in every aspect of living. They take Gulliver in hospitably, teach him their language, and show a keen interest in his nation and people. In this country, Gulliver believes he has found the ultimate society, and his experiences there make him a changed man upon his return. In a way, the nation of Houyhnhnms is also Jonathan Swift’s representation of perfect government, for he contrasts the Houyhnhnms to their ape-like neighbors the Yahoos, abominable creatures suspiciously similar to human beings. The Houyhnhnms’ land is perhaps a place Swift himself would have also been reluctant to leave.

            The Houyhnhnms’ society brings to mind simple, strict cultures like those of Laconia and Sparta. Their wants and passions are very few, their vocabulary narrow, though appropriate to their simplicity of emotion, and their thinking objective, reasonable, honorable, but somewhat cold. Like the Spartans, they have no use for ars gratia artis, nor for beauty for beauty’s sake. As the Spartans left their newborns on hilltops to die if they were weak, so also the Houyhnhnms don’t place a high regard on the family or upon bonds of motherhood, love, or childhood. For example, Gulliver observes that “strength is chiefly valued in the male, and comeliness in the female; not upon the account of love, but to preserve the race from degenerating…” This worship of strength and beauty was also practiced in Sparta. Gulliver also notes that “Temperance, industry, exercise and cleanliness” are most important in Houyhnhnm life. In these aspects Spartan and Houyhnhnm institutions and values are almost identical.

            This lack of passion and emotion is a major flaw in Hoyhnhnm society. They exclude God and know nothing of religion, making them somewhat self-satisfied in their self-sufficiency. They don’t mourn the dead or express sorrow; rather the deceased is “buried in the obscurest place that can be found, their friends and relations expressing neither joy nor grief at their departure”… This cold absence of feeling is ultimately what causes the Houyhnhnms to send Gulliver away, as they perceive he is too similar to their enemies, the detestable Yahoos. Swift’s perfect society without emotions, governed by objective reason, devoid of passion and complications of relationship pales in comparison with our life on earth – its beauties, comedies, tragedies, loves, arts and passions, creations of a perfect God. Moreover, it is this same Creator Who has redeemed mankind from the human flaws Swift was so ashamed of. The Houyhnhnms, with all their rectitude and morality, prove themselves to have more in common with the Yahoos than Gulliver does, for without the acknowledgment of the Creator, they stand on the same level with the senseless beasts living in ignorance and immorality.