This paper will discuss Part Four of Gulliver's Travels. The discussion will highlight some specific passages in the text which show how Gulliver's character evolved from the beginning chapters, to the middle chapters, and, finally, at the close of the book.
In the first chapter of Gulliver's Travels: Part Four, the author has set out on another voyage as captain of a ship. After his men conspire against him and confine him to a cabin, they then set him on the shore of some unknown land. Gulliver travels into the countryside, walking "very circumspectly for fear of being surprised, or suddenly shot with an [a]rrow" (Swift 211).
While some readers may think that Gulliver was just a little paranoid because of his recent abandonment by his crew members, a more likely interpretation of Gulliver's careful attitude is that he was walking in parts unknown to him. As an experienced traveler, Gulliver's attitude was that of any explorer treading on foreign soil. Within the same chapter, Gulliver continued with the same attitude, stating that he was afraid that the inhabitants of the land where he suddenly found himself alone might not welcome a stranger. Although he was hungry, he was especially careful not to "kill or maim any of their [c]attle" (Swift 213). Gulliver feared that, if he killed any animals belonging to the local people, they could turn against him.
The first change in Gulliver's character occurs in the first chapter, after he meets two Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms, he surmises, are property of the Yahoos, the local apelike natives. Before Gulliver learns their own name for themselves, he thinks that the Houyhnhnms are horses (Swift 217). Because the two horses were so well-mannered in the way they conferred among themselves before approaching Gulliver, he concluded that their owners might not be savage killers like he had first anticipated. In fact, Gulliver concludes that the inhabitants of this country ...