Misanthropy is a nature of man in which a man detests and hates other people. A man who detests and hates other human being is called misanthrope.
Gulliver’s Travels is the masterpiece of Jonathan Swift. In this book, he describes about the voyages of different lands like Lilliput.
In his first voyage, he goes to the land named Lilliput. Where he meets the human beings who are only six inches in height.
In his fourth voyage, he goes to the land of Houyhnhnms. Where he meets the race of rational and reasoned horses whose servants are Yahoos. Yahoos are presented as human being. It is a proof of his misanthropy that he employs the word ‘Yahoo’ for mankind. Actually, the word ‘Yahoo’ is used for heinous, uncivilized, wicked and vicious people.
In a letter of Swift that he wrote to his friend Alexander Pope he says,
“I hate and detest that animal called man”
The quotation that has given above is a proof of Swift’s misanthropy. In this line of letter, Swift claims that he does not like human being.
His rejection to live with Yahoos on asking of his master shows his fierce attitude towards mankind. He says,
“I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the appellation of Yahoo, an odious animal, for which a had so utter and hatred”
Swift’s misanthropy reaches the climax when Gulliver says,
In fourth voyage, Gulliver especially singles out “pride” as the greatest defect of mankind. When Gulliver has become absolute and uncompromising hater even of his own family, it shows the extreme misanthropy of Jonathan Swift. For example Gulliver says,
“I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me”
All these things show that Swift was a misanthrope.
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