An Experimental Journey In Search Of An Ideal Utopia:Gulliver’s Travels

As a realistic writer in the 18 th century,Swift wrote many classic satires,but what truly made him world-famous was a novel of travel genre—Gulliver’s Travels.Since its first publication in Britain in 1726,this work has been sought after by readers.The organic combination of fictional fantasy and real reality adds unique artistic charm to the work and leaves readers unlimited room for imagination.However,it is precisely this narrative maze that makes the interpretation of this work more complicated and more controversial.The controversy about the novel centers on the fourth part,the land of the Houyhnhnms.Scholars’ interpretation can be roughly divided into two types: one regards Houyhnhnmland as a utopia in Swift’s mind;the other views Houyhnhnmland as a satirical object.However,these two single linear interpretations seem to simplify the connotation of the novel greatly.The fourth part of the story is not the only utopian element in the book.Tracing back to the pedigree of European utopia,we will find that the countries created by Swift allude to the images in classical European utopian literature: the science-driven flying Island originates from the New Atlantis of Bacon;the Houyhnhnmland,ruled by classical reason,inherited from Plato’s Republic.However,quite different from classical utopian literature,Gulliver’s Travels combines the vision of utopia with the reality,turning Bacon’s modern scientific utopia and Plato’s ancient political utopia in his creation of the country where Gulliver really travels,and embodies the varieties of utopia in literature with in an experimental exploration.In the exotic travel from the modern science castle to the classical city-state,Swift exposes the infeasibility of the New Atlantis and the superiority of the Republic to readers through the perspective of Gulliver and points out a way for readers to turn back to the classical from the abyss of modernity.It is also the path of classical cultural education,which was born out of the interweaving of Swift’s “classic thought” and his era.While everyone is applauding Gulliver for finding the ideal country,Swift deconstructs the perfect state with the details woven into the text and implies another path of salvation beyond utopia.The ultimate goal of Swift is not to compare the advantages of ancient and modern utopias,but to explore what kind of mode is suitable for the long-term development of humankind.From Gulliver’s different attitudes towards the flying Island and the Houyhnhnmland,it is easy to see Swift’s preference for the classics,but Gulliver’s ending indicates the extent of Swift’s preference.At the end of this journey of searching for ideal utopias,Swift’s real intention is revealed.Whether it is a scientific or classical utopia,the utopia with absolute rationality cannot be a bright future for humankind to stride forward,because it eliminates human emotions and desires.Desire is an innate and indispensable part of human beings as emotional animals.What we need to do is not to obliterate desire but to edify our humanity with classical culture,so that the desire under the edification of classical culture can become restrained emotions and can be transformed into real virtue.Reason guided by such virtue is regarded by him as a recipe for salvation in the 18 th century.