On Gulliver’s "Desire To See"

Jonathan Swift was a famous writer of the eighteenth century. His representative work Gulliver’s Travels occupies an important position in the history of English literature.Much attention has been given to the author’s biographical experiences, his political background, and the work’s satirical art and so on. But few critics have studied this novel from the perspective of gaze. This thesis applies the theory of gaze as well as Freudian psychoanalysis to the interpretation of the psychology of the protagonist, especially of the effect gaze has on Gulliver’s subjectivity and the process of his alienation.In the novel, Gulliver is a gazer as well as a gazed. Being an intellectual intruder, Gulliver unconsciously observes every aspect of those countries he traveled to. His glasses are emblematic of his fervent "desire to see". When Gulliver is the gazer, everything is in his control. He can shape every aspect of the world at will. So his characters, those remote inhabitants all become grotesque. And females are especially disgusting because of his prejudice against them. However, as a foreigner, he also puts himself under the eyes of those natives. When he is the gazed, he loses the right to justify himself. In those inhabitants’eyes, he is a freak of nature. And his attempt to advocate his European culture also turns out to be a stillborn plan. As a result, both his identity and his values are affected, even discredited by those local cultures.And the collapse of his European values causes his alienation and eventually makes him a victim of the gaze. He cannot accept his mirror images which does not present the ideal ego he wishes to have. And he has problems in his identity and interpersonal relationship. All in all, Gulliver’s subjectivity constructed in the process of gazing is lost again under others’ gaze.Through the analysis of Gulliver’s gaze and his being gazed, this thesis demonstrates the protagonist’s psychological world and its changing process. By exposing the problems of European societies through the eyes of Gulliver and depicting the dilemma of the protagonist, Swift displays his speculations and worries about the society.