Utopia in Gulliver Travels and Paradise Lost Essay

The Inconceivable Utopia in Gulliver Travels and Paradise Lost In Jonathon Swifts Gulliver Travels and in John Miltons Paradise Lost, the reader is presented with two lands representing utopias. For Swift this land is an island inhabited by horse like creatures called Houyhnhnms who rule over man like beasts called Yahoos. For Milton, the Garden of Eden before the Fall of man represents Paradise. In it, Adam and Eve are pure and innocent, untested and faithful to God. The American Heritage Dictionary defines utopia as an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. And while Houyhnhnm Land and the Garden of Eden may seem like ideally perfect places, they are not. Indeed, they contradict our†¦show more content†¦The prospect of utopia, that is, an unchanging static society, has little appeal compared to the prospect of trying to reach such an exalted existence. And its this idea of progress that we often associate with the idea of utopia. Appealing as it may seem, an utopia is a double edged sword. It is both the end result of our desires and an end to those desires. Because ending our desire goes against our human nature, the notion of utopia can no longer exist to the human mind. Therefore, neither the Garden of Eden nor the island of the Houyhnhnms is an utopia because both societies are unchanging. In them, both progress and desire is forbidden. In Book IV of Gullivers Travels, Gullivers ship is mutinied and he is forced into exile to a strange island. On this island he first encounters a rare breed of animal. He describes them, Their heads and breasts were covered with a thick hair, some frizzled and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs (2403). These creatures are Yahoos, an inferior species thats very human in nature and in physical form. Next Gulliver meets the Houyhnhmns, rational horses who rule over the human like Yahoos. These two types of creatures symbolize both extremes of human nature, that of reason and emotion. The Yahoos are described as detestable beings driven by passion and emotion while the Houyhnhmns are reveled by Gulliver because of theirShow MoreRelatedBritish Literature Essay1614 Words   |  7 Pagespilgrims who travel to Canterbury and they were saying stories each other, each one said four stories, but in tact there are only 23 tales. William Shakespeare – is the biggest author of this period Christopher Marlowe – might became another Shakespeare but he had been killed, lived only short life, he wrote many plays – â€Å"The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus†, â€Å"the Jew of Malta†, perhaps he also wrote Henry VI. – which Shakespeare revised and completed Sir Thomas More: he wrote â€Å"Utopia† – a vision