Author: Claudia Won

Justification of a Decrepit King

O Regan, Goneril,

Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—

Oh, that way madness lies. Let me shun that.

No more of that. (3.4.20-23)

 

King Lear is trying to justify his action for disregarding Cordelia by controlling himself to not go mad on his two treacherous daughters. When he basically relegates Cordelia to King of France by not giving her share, he is blinded to see the true, faithful love of his youngest daughter. He, also, rants to Kent when he displays his distress to the king. Although it is reasonable for the king to feel enraged against a servant’s rude remarks, the king only shows this to anyone who scold him of his illogical action towards Cordelia.

In both Act II and III, he tries to get his mind together when he encounters Duke of Cornwall’s punishment towards Kent. Unlike his outrage against Kent’s criticism, the king at least shows some effort to be reasonable when his daughter and Duke of Cornwall doesn’t show up: “O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!/Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow./Thy element’s below.—Where is this daughter?” (2.4.49-51) or “To suffer with the body. I’ll forbear,” (2.4.102). Also, even if he curses his two daughters, he doesn’t degrade them completely. The inconsistency in the display of his fury assists him to justify his irrational response to Cordelia. It seems as if he is trying to make up for his unjustifiable behavior by being a weak, senile father to his two daughters in front of them, and he loses his mind when they are not around. He, himself, is confused at why he treated Cordelia brutally.

Culture and difference

Readings for Wednesday and Friday allowed me to think about Swift’s ideas on cultural difference that was prevalent in Gulliver’s encounter.

First, I was surprised to see Gulliver’s respect shown to the Liliputians, considering Europeans acknowledgment of their superiority over group of people who weren’t Protestant or who wasn’t European during this time period. However, Gulliver’s astonishment of Liliputians’ rather civilized society, compared to their littleness, can be a haughty remark about the different culture that he first encounters because it meant that he didn’t expect them to be a sophisticated society. Then, part 2 of the book describes Gulliver’s encounter with Brobdingnag. He feared their monstrous figure at first because of a presumption that large meant harmful. Swift reverses the notion by portraying their kindness, especially with Glumdalclitch’s lavish care and generosity towards Gulliver. I could see that Swift was open-minded and were rational like how Gulliver constantly referred himself as of rational creature because he accepts his prejudices and doesn’t show hostility towards Liliputians or the people of Brobdingnag but respects the differences.

The depiction of farmer’s enslavement of Gulliver as an entertainer to their fellow people reminded me of whites making comedy out of blacks. This certainly shows Swift’s understanding of the power exploiting the weak, vulnerable people. Gulliver’s constant mentioning about the similarities of his appearance to the Liliputians and the Brobdingnagians to him portrays the arrogance in superiority that humans don’t acknowledge. Obviously, Swift hated human’s irrational actions.

Lastly, Swift used the term ‘race’ or Chinese to describe the Brobdingagians’ actions. Surprisingly, Count de Buffon, a French naturalist, first used the term ‘race’ in the book Histoire Naturelle, published in 1749, to suggest innate differences among groups of people. The term might not be used in the same concept to rationalize hierarchy, but considering that Gulliver’s Travel was published in 1726, Swift was ahead of his time. Additionally, Swift was fully aware of the attires of Chinese as he described Brobdingagians’ attires.

It seemed to me that Swift wasn’t misanthropic, but philanthropic in the sense that he understood the limitation of human’s intellect and morality, and thus accepted the fact that humans are different and start on a different level of playing field instead of equal level. Humans, therefore, need assistance to live harmoniously with each other.