Early psychoanalytic critiques of literary works were concentrated on examining works of literature to gain insights into the author’s personal influences on his work and therefore these critiques remained within the traditional field of psychoanalysis. For instance, Ben Karpman wrote that, “Gulliver's Travels furnishes abundant evidence of the neurotic make up of the author and discloses the presence in him of a number of perverse trends indicative of fixation at the anal-sadistic stage of libidinal development (Karpman 29).” However critics like Ernest Jones came out of this traditional approach to analyze the text and not the author, such as he did with Hamlet. A psychoanalytic critique provides insights into motivation, catharsis, projection, death, ego and many such factors present in the literary work. Although many underlying factors in a literary text can be brought out through a psychoanalytic lens, it also has its own problems. It can be at times reductionist but it is the best approach to determine reader response about a text or analyze the psychological elements present in it. Swift’s Gulliver's Travels is a satirical work and satire like psychoanalysis tends to take an interest in the personality of humans and their behavior. In his voyage to gain self knowledge Gulliver represents and discovers human frailties and the nature of ego.
Gulliver’s travels in not just another adventure story, behind the facade of the adventurous narrative lies a critique of the ego, human behavior as well as the politicians. Freud says that, "In each individual there is a coherent organization of mental processes; and we call this his ego. It is to this ego that consciousness is attached (Freud 630) ." The ego also involves "Self-reflection, the traditional fundamental principle of consciousness" (Felman '87, 61). Gulliver’s travels to the Island of the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians expose his ego,frailty as well his moral position. This part of the book is also a satire of Gulliver’s ego. In the land of the lilliputians Gulliver was a giant, both in terms of size and in morals. The lilliputians were amoral politicians. Among them, gulliver looks to be a giant as well as a normal man when it comes to morals. Carnochan says that in Gulliver’s travels Swift’s satire serves as a counterpoint to the "Lockean notion of reflection" ( Carnohan 142), and the view that man is a rational being. The ego is like a mirror and symbolizes vanity and self reflection. He points out that “it may sharpen reality or it may delude us" (Carnochan 176). In Gulliver’s travels, the mirror image or the ego is use to create a sense of inflation of Gulliver’s pride in Book One. However in book two and three his pride is deflated. In the end, Gulliver’s self knowledge proves to be more problematic to him than his vanity. Having felt like a giant among the lilliputians and tended to by hundreds of servants, Gulliver reaches the land of the Brobdingnagians.The Brobdingnagians are giants averaging 60ft each. Among them Gulliver is inconsequential and unlike lilliputian land, here he becomes a plaything of a ten year old.
Soon after Gulliver learns the language of the Brobdingnagians, the king asks him if he is a Whig or Tory and then laughs. For the king, it really does not matter what Gulliver is as he is so small and inconsequential. Hearing stories of England the King also decides that the country is a lousy place. This is a great blow to Gulliver’s ego. In front of the lilliputians he was a giant as he considered himself to be moralistic and humane. But in the land of the Brobdingnagians his role is reversed and he becomes the midget as the Brobdingnagians are morally superior to him and also work hard. However Gulliver’s ego cannot deal with this blow and he tends to find fault with their humanity. Their enormous size disgusts him. He is especially revulsed by the huge breasts of the women. In focusing his attentions on their very human nature, he damages his own self. Having developed a revulsion for breasts and the skin of the Brobdingnagians, Gulliver finds that he is no longer attracted to his wife. Thus his self awareness becomes more problematic than his vanity in the story. Gulliver is also a proud man. He thinks that treacherous politics of England is normal and doesn't want to admit to the King that it is bad. He lies to save face. But the king sees through his lie and calls the English as odious vermin. Gulliver calls the King and his men physically gross only because he realizes that he can never be morally superior as they are. It would take men years to reach the moral utopia of the Brobdingnagians and Gulliver would rather find fault with them than accept the truth. In the end, gulliver’s own frailty is revealed. His ego becomes the better of him and constantly strives to find fault with the rest, be it the lilliputians or the brobdingnagians so that he could feel bigger and better about himself.
Swift analyzes the human ego through satire in Gulliver’s travels. Although it was a satire on the politicians of England at that time, it could very well apply to the rest as well. A psychoanalytic criticism could focus on Swift’s personal influence in his work, trying to see Swift through Gulliver or focus on what Swift is trying to say about human behavior through a character. Analysis of Swift through Gulliver would make it too narrow and traditional. However an analysis of Gulliver on the basis of text alone would reveal much more than just the ego and human behavior. The text when unburdened of the author is a veritable treasure trove through which various things can be analyzed.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id. New York: Createspace. 2010.
Felman, Shoshana. ed. Literature and Psychoanalysis: The Question of Reading: Otherwise. Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins UP. 1977.
Carnochan, W.B. Lemuel Gulliver's Mirror for Man. Berkeley: U of California P, 1968.
Karpmann B. Neurotic traits of Jonathan Swift as revealed by Gulliver's Travels. Psychoanal Rev. 29 (1942) :65-84.
