The eighteenth century is generally characterized as an era devoted to reason and to ôenlightenmentö in which manÆs primary strivings were for rationality, objectivity, and progress. If one carefully reads selected texts from the period, however, a somewhat different portrait emerges. In this essay, two works of fiction û Jonathan SwiftÆs GulliverÆs Travels and Daniel DefoeÆs Moll Flanders û will be examined to argue that underneath the veneer of rationality in this age, a world filled with chaos and uncertainty along with a spirit of wildness and exuberance was very much present. Where indicated, critical commentary will be employed to support this view.
In SwiftÆs GulliverÆs Travels, there is a constant movement back and forth between the real and the unreal, the normal and the absurd, which has been described by Joseph Horrell (1964) as SwiftÆs satirical rendition of the world that he himself knew. The books are about qualities of mind or rationality, but suspended within these seemingly rational world views as attributed to the Brobdingnagians, the Lilliputians, the Yahoos, and the Houyhnhnms is a satirical comment on mankind.
Gulliver lives in his travels, among races of creatures who either mirror manÆs best or worst characteristics. The rational man of these travels is the horse-like Houyhnhnm while the irrational man is the Yahoo. Horrell (1964) suggests that it is in the horse-like creatures encountered in the final book of GulliverÆs Travels that Swift created a rational definition of man.
The book presents arbitrary and monstrous combinations that may be amusing but which do not challenge even a semblance of belief (Stephen, 1968). The reader is advised by Swift (1960) that it is important to look through both ends of the telescope to see the grossness of manÆs passions as well as their pettiness. Swift (1960) also makes the case that the world created by mankind, though seemingly rational ...