RATIONALISM AND THE SATIRICAL ALLEGORY OF SWIFT'S

STRULDBRUGGS IN GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

In the episode of the Immortals, Jonathan Swift's ideas are

metamorphosed into grotesque creatures, in order both to attack
what he considered were man's most conspicuous vices, as far as it
was consonant with the Scriblerus project , and to censure a group
of his contemporaries whom he believed to be particularly depraved
in their exaltation of reason: the moderns, especially the Deists and
rationalists, whose love of reason -- probably deriving from the
rationalism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- is criticized
by Swift.

In book III Swift's target is somewhat abstract: pride in reason. Swift

opposed excessive pride in reason. Disbelief, he said, is the
consequence of presumptuous pride in reasoning, and immorality is
the consequence of disbelief. So thus, according to Swift, rationalism
verges on Deism; Deism on atheism, and atheism on immorality
.Along the lines of this appreciation, Gulliver, who assumes that
experience brings both wisdom and morality, may be considered to
be an implicit allegory or mouthpiece for the belief of the free-thinkers
or Deists, who, in accordance with the views of J. Leeds Barroll,
advocate the idea that human efforts in themselves, without the help
of religion or revelation, could lead to progress, to wisdom, and to
virtue.

Gulliver vents the human dream of immortality, sure that immortality

will confer immense experience and, therefore, immense wisdom. He,
hearing of the Immortals, cries out "as in a Rapture", exclaiming upon
the wisdom and happiness which they must have achieved. Then,
Gulliver assumes without hesitation that the Immortals will be
virtuous, wise, and venerated by others. He is, thus, calling to tell his
hearers how he would plan his life if he were a Struldbrugg, so as to
bring the greatest possible benefit to himself and his country.
Converserly, Swift counteracts Gulliver’s naïve dream by presenting
the Struldbruggs as a counter-image.

Those contemporaries of Swift who believed in progress emphasized

the incremental, cumulative quality of the individual's capacity of
reasoning and knowledge, and it should be explicitly manifested by
Fontenelle, whose image of "the universal maturing man", who
grows increasingly wise and skilled as time passes, is wittingly\wittily
derided by Swift in his episode of the Struldbruggs. Following this
strand of thought, in this chapter, Swift also satirizes the theory that
"experience is the best teacher."
He discredits man's accumulated experience, as accumulated
experience does not make the Struldbruggs either happy or wise.
Moreover, in her article "Pride, Progress, and Swift's Struldbruggs,"
Roberta Sarfatt Borkat claims that this episode was a satire on the
deceptive self-assurance of the non- orthodox in the human power to
become "enlightened." Bearing in mind that Swift's view is orthodox,
as he regards man in the general Christian tradition, in Borkat's

opinion: "The Struldbruggs stand as a climax to the satire on pride in

the intellect, pride in progress, pride in unaided human abilities"
(129). Subsequently, in presenting Gulliver's fantasies about what he
would achieve as an Immortal, Swift was commenting on the
distortion of Reason attached to the philosophizing of the free-
thinkers or Deists, which, according to Swift, is congruent with the
immoral propensity of men "to apply the God-given gift of Reason
foolishly and obsessively."

In order to bring in a reading that assumes some allusion to a

Christian homiletic tradition, it becomes essential to focus on the
Struldbruggs as the very epitome of the reductio ad absurdam of
Gulliver's desire for immortality. As a matter of fact, the senile
Struldbruggs stand for a double satire on this belief, serving not only
as ironic examples contrary to Gulliver's expectations, but also as an
ironic remark upon Fontenelle's image -- a remark consistent with the
satire on man's pride, in terms of "general satire", and the pride of
the Moderns, if we make an attempt to unravel its private, disguised
Scriblerian meaning and specific allegorical interpretation.

It is true that the Struldbruggs have immortality, but they do grow

old. They degenerate: their memories fail; they become senile; they
are the walking dead, alive in body but dead in mind. As they age,
they grow melancholy, and senile; they become peevish; they decay
and are weak, and forgetful. In their later years, they are chiefly
moved by envy of the passions of the young and the death of the old.
These creatures lack hope, kindness, generosity, affection, simplicity,
honesty and innocence.

The Struldbruggs are not at all like Gulliver imagines them to be.
Behind the disguise of his narrative, Swift is satirizing the pettiness of
human nature in general. Men, he believed, were generally ridiculous,
and petty; greedy, and proud. In fact, the Immortals, though free from
the fear of death, are yet as full of fears as any other men, however
long they may live. For them, the prospect of endless life does not call
forth visions of endless improvement in wisdom and virtue. So thus,
we will realize, at last, that humanity is always the same and that
there is no escape from our vices and trivialities.

Swift's theory is that man's reason is never to be exalted, since

enthusiasm for reason only swells up man' s proud rationalism. In this
sense, we should lend force to Robert P. Fitzgerald's assertion that
"even the laudable desire to use human Reason for virtuous
achievement should not become obsessive or an end in itself."
Fitzgerald highlights the idea that Swift is using “immortal” in its
common metaphoric sense, taking to be metaphorical what Swift
takes to be a literal concern with immortality. However, from my own
point of view, as shown by Maurice J. Quinlan in "Swift's Use of
Literalization as a Rhetorical Device", both lines of appreciation
should be considered to be concomitant with one another, as Swift
uses the literalization of the image of the abiding Struldbruggs as a
powerful rhetorical tactic by turning "the metaphorical immortality of
those who have fame into literal immortality."

Laying stress upon the fun of Gulliver's naiveté and the deflation or
disillusionment of his dreams, rather than upon the Struldbruggs, we
should be dealing with the idealistic, or utopian figure of the young or
inexperienced coming to understand the realities of the world. "The
actual spectacle of the Struldbruggs is a shock" (Borkat, p. 133). This
shock of recognition is one of Swift’s most valuable satiric tools, and
brings Gulliver back to reality. Paradoxically, by means of the
distortion of Fontenelle's image, Swift has subtly added a qualitative
twist to Gulliver's gullibility, which is considered to be a major turning
point in Gulliver's individual development, as well as a
"Brobdingnagian" step forward to his incremental maturing process.
 Cites from the primary source (Wordsworth Classics ed.)

"Happy nation, where every child hath at least a chance for being
immortal! Happy people who enjoy so many living examples of
ancient virtue, and have masters ready to instruct them in the
wisdom of all former ages!" (156; ch. 10).

"That, if it had been my good fortune to come into the world a

Struldbrugg; would from my earliest youth, apply myself to the study
of arts and sciences, by which should arrive in time to excel all others
in learning. would entertain my self in forming and directing the
minds of hopeful young men, by convincing them from my own
remembrance, experience and observation, fortified by numerous
examples of the usefulness of virtue in publick and private life. These
Struldbruggs and would. remark the several gradations by which
corruption steals into the world, ..., by giving perpetual warning and
instruction to mankind; which, ..., would probably prevent that
continual degeneracy of human nature, ..." (157; 10)

"They are despised and hated by all sorts of people: when one of
them is born, it is reckoned ominous, ... " (160; l0)

"They have no remembrance of anything, and entirely lose their

memories. In talking, they forget the common appellation of things,
and the names of persons, even of those, who are their nearest
friends and relations … " (160; 10).

"He said they commonly acted like mortals, until about thirty years
old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected; they
had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many
more. They were not only opinionative, peevish, covetous, morose,
vain, talkative; but incapable of friendship, and dead to all natural
affection. The diseases they were subject to, still continue without
increasing or diminishing … " (159-60; 10).

"Envy and impotent desires, are their prevailing passions. But those
objects against which their envy seems principally directed, are the
vices of the younger sort, and the deaths of the old. By reflecting on
the former, they find themselves cut off from all possibility of
pleasure; and whenever they see a funeral, they lament and repine
that others are gone to a harbour of rest, to which they themselves
never can hope to arrive." (159; 10).

"The reader will easily believe, that from what had heard and seen,
my keen appetite for perpetuity of life was much abated. grew
heartily ashamed of the pleasing visions had formed; … " (161; 10)
Inmaculada Adán Cordoncillo