CHAPTER 7 - ANIMALS AND HUMANS Flashcards
Which books question G human’s nature the more explicitly?
BK 3 and BK 4
In which book ++ animal analogies ?
BK 2
→ BK 2 : G is compared to a weasel (II, 1, 79), toad and spider (II, 1, 80), lamb (I, 2, 87), sparrow, rabbit, kitten and puppy dogs (I, 2, 87)
Littleness
small and contemptible. This passage about size (small and little) but also what is contemptible (hateful)
BK 2
Monkey who enters his box : Monkey = cat playing with mouse, G is the mouse.
Isolated analogies and passages playing with it : King decided G to be breed which was rejected by G who compared himself to a bird in cage
first encounter: “a small dangerous animal,” “any little hateful animal” (II, 1, 79). G is afraid that the farmer will dash him on the ground as we usually do with an hateful animal.
End BK 2 : bends down to go in “When I came to my own House, for which I was forced to enquire, one of the Servants opening the Door, I bent down to go in (like a Goose under a Gate) for fear of striking my Head.” (II, 8, 137).
⇒ Plays on size and scale, G i s aGiant among lilliputians except that he comes from Giants = difficulty of readapting to what used to be normality.
⇒ Points the reader back to all animal analogies in BK 2.
echoes in BK 4: Stinking like weasels (IV, 8, 248); swimming like frogs (IV, 8, 248). Echos btw BK 2 and BK 4 = G’s identification with Yahoos and this identification with yahoo has a link with animality
→ Freak shows
G in BK 1, 2, 4 G is considered as a freak and used as a freak.
*BK 2, Gulliver striving to have his humanity recognized and acknowledged
> In BK 2 G strives to have humanity recognised and acknowledged. He is placed on his four by the farmer and instantly gets up to show he isn’t an animal : the only human characteristic left to him as he cannot talk because doesn’t know their language : language isn’t enough because he is only making noise.
*“she then asked my Master whether he were willing to sell me at a good price. He who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me; and demanded a thousand pieces of gold.” (II, 3, 91)
> ? of transaction btw the farmer and the queen : G refers to himself as his mater’s slave. Transaction : between goods, G humanity is denied because he is merely a commodity whose trading value is being assessed.
- Dehumanisation goes even further because King thing K is an automaton “a piece of Clock-work […] contrived by some ingenious Artist” (II, 3, 93)
⇒ no consciousness, no self awareness, no thought.
// cartesian philosophy : René Descartes
mechanistic definition of the animal machine, of the body. All bodies are machines which operate on mechanical principles.
⇒ assembly of mechanical pieces devoid of consciousness and thought
→ Passivity
“I was immediately produced and placed upon a table; where I walked as I was commanded” (II, 2, 87) : G explaining how he was used in freak shows.
overabundance of passive forms [cf. CHAP 2.2] Passive forms ++ abundant in all 4 book : the character is the grammatical subject, not just when G is miniaturised). G the characters follow orders and injunctions : he is a giant among lilliputians and yet submit to these creatures. ⇒ passage describes how his affairs are inventoried in the King’s office. In each sentence, King = subject, verb = order and grammatical object = gulliver.
“he directed me to deliver up the several Particulars. He first called for my Scymiter, which I took out, Scabbard and all. […] He then desired me to draw my Scymiter, […] he ordered me to return it into the Scabbard, and cast it on the Ground as gently as I could, about six Foot from the End of my Chain. The next Thing he demanded was one of the hollow Iron Pillars, by which he meant my Pocket-Pistols.” (I, 2, 31)
“For upon my Admittance two Days after my Arrival, I was commanded to crawl on my Belly, and lick the Floor as I advanced; […] I pronounced the following Words, as they had been taught me the Night before […] To this the King returned some Answer, which although I could not under-stand, yet I replied as I had been directed” (III, 9, 190-1)
→ G neither liberty nor initiative, phrases he repeats without understanding them. G is not animalized but we do have G parroting the words of others
→ G neither liberty nor initiative, phrases he repeats without understanding them. G is not animalized but we do have G parroting the words of others
= language is supposedly what distinguishes man kind, human kind ⇒ G isn’t an animal, he is articulate, he is able to speak yet at the same time, language is not sufficient to further establish his humanity. This ? of language and humanity is touched upon in this passage and not yet explored. It is explored in BK 4.
7.2 Humanised horses and dehumanised humans
A The case of the Yahoos
The humanoid Yahoos: unsettling ambiguity quote
“I fell into a beaten Road, where I saw many Tracks of human Feet, and some of Cows, but most of Horses. At last I beheld several Animals in a Field, and one or two of the same Kind sitting in Trees. Their Shape was very singular, and deformed, which a little discomposed me, so that I lay down behind a Thicket to observe them better. […] Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my Travels so disagreeable an Animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so strong an Antipathy. […] I had not gone far when I met one of these Creatures full in my Way, and coming up directly to me. […] I durst not strike him with the Edge, fearing the Inhabitants might be provoked against me, if they should come to know, that I had killed or maimed any of their Cattle.” (IV, 1, 208-9)
Unsettling ambiguity of the yahoos : quote starting with the 1st sentence. It suggests that there are human beings somewhere on the island, expect that “several animas” is used when it’s seen. The reader does not associate the animals mentioned in the 2nd sentence with the human tracks of the first sentence.
Long description of the yahoos form : ambiguous : head hair, breast. Terms that do not categorise them as either humans or animals. They can be used for both. They are unsettling and it’s because they are both of course. They are humanoids, they have human feet and they are animals with claws.
Animals, creatures, (cattles), being : 3 words to refer to the same group : dealing with several way to designate the Yahoos : Gulliver is struggling to both characterise the Yahoos and therefore to set himself apart from them.
In this passage ⇒ Prétérition
⇒ Combination of 2 figure of speech points to what eludes language : sth that isn’t to be described, sth that eludes language because it eludes comprehension
Prétérition
dire qu’on ne va pas dire tout en disant
Trouble characterising them until he is face to face with one of them in BK 2 : here he says what Yahoos really are :
“My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed, in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure” (IV, 2, 214)
Gulliver, the Yahoo
Gulliver looses his sense of humanity
IV, 3: Gulliver’s “teachableness” (218) contrasted the idea that : vs. the Yahoos, “the most unteachable brutes” (219)
⇒ this contradiction makes him wonder :
how Gulliver “was taught to imitate a rational creature” (219)
For G reason, rationality defines humanity : G is said to be rational only by imitation. Reason, rationality isn’t an innate or essential quality.
This idea of imitation = recurring theme in G’s discussion with his Hynhm’s master :
“some rudiments of reason” (239 and 262), “some small pittance of reason” (241), “some tincture of reason” (254), “a small proportion of reason” (260) = use synonyms to undscourse idea of a miger and of an insufficient portion of reason.
G isn’t a rational being likewise “pretension” is a recurring theme :
repeatedly use of the word “pretend” (“that reason you pretend to,” IV, 5, 230; “a creature pretending to reason,” 231)
G claiming to be rational creature and at the same time it’s about G pretending to be a rational creature in the sense that he gives a false appearance of rationality. // imitation & deception. At this time, G is still trying to distinguish himself from the Yahoos.
He accepts it when a female yahoo sexually approaches him while he is in the water :
Hyhnms understanding of the event differs from G’s experience of it.
“I could no longer deny that I was a real Yahoo, in every limb and feature, since the females had a natural propensity to me as one of their own species” (IV, 8, 249)
⇒ passage is suppose to be funny, 18th reversal of gender role, when femal are sexually active VS men are passive.
a matter of “mortification”
the inherent animality of humankind
For the Hynhms = it’s a matter of diversion, a funny anecdote : this is how we readers read it.
VS for G it is a matter of mortification (= shame & humiliation, having one’s pride wounded). His pride is wounded because what female yahoo identified in him = his animality.
They have in common their basic instinct = sexuality : which isn’t governed by reason (unlike Hynhms ½ babies and reproduced in that way.)
“this Animal seeming to receive my Civilities with Disdain, shook his Head, and bent his Brows, softly raising up his Left Fore-Foot to remove my Hand. Then he neighed three or four times, but in so different a Cadence, that I almost began to think he was speaking to himself in some Language of his own.
While He and I were thus employed, another Horse came up; who applying himself to the first in a very formal Manner, they gently struck each others Right Hoof before, neighing several times by Turns, and varying the Sound, which seemed to be almost articulate. They went some Paces off, as if it were to confer together, walking Side by Side, backward and forward, like Persons deliberating upon some Affair of Weight […]. I was amazed to see such Actions and Behavior in Brute Beasts; and concluded with myself, that if the Inhabitants of this Country were endued with a proportionable Degree of Reason, they must needs be the wisest People upon Earth.” (IV, 1, 210)
Relation btw empiricism and knowledge : through association, knowledge.. G slowly comes to understand that he isn’t dealing with Beast but with rational creatures.
⇒ Proleptic value since it announces the shift from the beast to the wisest creature G has encountered during his voyages. The very first book of the 4th book ends on this following assessment by G
“Were so – and irrational, so acude and judicious that they must be magicians –metamorphose of themselves upon deign” (p 211)
G tries to find some reconciliation to account for irreconcilable : his assumptions and what he sees.
⇒ Horses who like talking and Horses like magicians who turned themselves into Horses.
⇒ His reasoning is wrong : we’re dealing with another instance of Gulliver’s faulty reasoning ⇒ Plays on irrationality : it is irrational on the isde of G that he is dealing with some kind of magic transformation
