Sexual Frustration, Sublimation and Aggression in Gulliver's Travels
Or, Size Does Matter
Timothy Sexton, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 23, 2006
In the voyage to Brobdingnag section of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the title character can clearly be seen engaging a common psychological theory over 150 years before it was technically defined. The
story manifestly presupposes the Freudian concept of sublimation of repressed sexual frustration into behavior redirected toward another goal with the intent to prove the initial sexual merit through other means.
Norman O. Brown recognizes Swift's foresight and goes on to explicitly state that "Swift did anticipate the doctrine of sublimation" (44). Brown expresses wonder at how Swift was able to anticipate the doctrine (44), and though Swift's intention isn't absolutely critical to this interpretation of the story, the idea that Swift wouldn't have been familiar with the concept of sublimation as it existed during his time would be the real surprise.
Gulliver's voyage to Brobdingnag is a thematically coherent pre-Freudian exploration of Gulliver's sublimating his sexual frustration and humiliation into his vision of the higher goal of proving to the King his own unquestioned masculine worth climaxing in his aggressively sexually charged revelation of the secrets of the invention and uses of gunpowder.
Etymological evidence strongly supports the possibility that Swift was acquainted with sublimation as a motivating factor that at the time was quite similar in definition to its meaning in current Freudian terminology. The intrinsic meaning of the word sublimation according to the Oxford English Dictionary is "the chemical action or process of subliming or converting a solid substance by means of heat into vapour, which resolidifies on cooling." By the seventeenth century, however, the word was also being defined as an "elevation to a higher state or plane of existence; transmutation into something higher, purer, or more sublime" (Loewald 12).
In A Tale of a Tub Swift writes that a "certain great prince" dealing with sexual frustration was moved by a "vapour" that rose to his brain and caused him to turn aside "all peaceable endeavors" and instead aggressively "dream of nothing but sieges, battles and victories" (2313-2314). In psychoanalytical terms sublimation "denotes some sort of conversion or transmutation from a lower to a higher, and presumably purer, state or plane of existence—be it the transmutation of a material substance or of an instinct and its objects and aim" (Loewald 12-13).
The modern psychological definition is almost identical to the definition with which Swift would have been familiar. Of key importance is the understanding that often the sublimated action involves aggressive behavior—the psychological equivalent of the heat that converts solids into vapor—that underlies the supposed purer goal. Aggressive-ness as it relates to the pursuit of a higher goal is demonstrated in the case of Swift's prince who was suspected by others of raising his mighty armies for such elevated purposes—some would say—of strengthening his reformed religion or of recapturing Palestine from the Turks (2313).
Admirable ends from one perspective, certainly, but also utilizing severely aggressive means. In Gulliver's Travels, sublimation is examined in much more detail, resulting in Gulliver also exhibiting sexual frustration that he sublimates into the pursuit of admirable goals that end up intertwined with violence by the end.
Gulliver's description of himself in Lilliput heightens his sense of sexual potency and power because of his physical size relative to the natives, inflating his ego precisely because the size of his penis instills awe among the little people. In a very telling passage from the first voyage Gulliver describes how he would "stand like a Colussus, with my Legs as far asunder as I conveniently could" while the army of Lilliput would march underneath him, taking the opportunity to look up his breeches, affording the soldiers "some Opportunities for Laughter and Admiration" (25).
The description of himself as a Colussus connotes, of course, not just something large and powerful, but something akin to the Colussus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Combined with the
"Admiration" he instills in the soldiers who gaze upon his magnificent member, it's obvious that Gulliver is extremely pleased with the view of himself in Lilliput as the supreme exemplar of sexual potency. But how can Gulliver deliver on this sexual capacity when it seems physically beyond consummation? What is the point of sexual power when it cannot be used?
In a passage in which the purpose for writing it is quite relevant but not entirely clear, Gulliver is able to both further boost his ego and also circumvent the problems posed by these questions when he delivers to the reader an inference that even if he wasn't capable of acting sexually with Lilliput women, at least he was found attractive and sexually desirable by them.
The description of the alleged affair with the Treasurer's wife no doubt proves comical to everyone but Gulliver, who doth protest too much against his having engaged in a feat of intercourse which would be physically impossible. That being the case, it seems probable that despite his protestation Gulliver doesn't really relate this story to clear the name of a woman the reader will never know, but rather includes it in the narrative to aggrandize his sexual appeal.
This seems to be a reasonable interpretation, but Gulliver's motivation for including the story of the impossible affair is nonetheless open to debate. Charles Hinnant spends an entire book arguing that Gulliver's Travels is concerned primarily with purity and defilement and comes to the conclusion that the Treasurer's anger isn't even directed at the specific charge of infidelity, but rather at the "pollution of forbidden contact" (24) between Gulliver and his wife. Robert Hunting recognizes that Gulliver protests too much against the insinuation, but then dismisses Gulliver's not mentioning the critical size difference as Gulliver simply "being naive" (100).
The sexuality underlying the obsessiveness with tubes and balls and size and hard elements and battering down walls in this brief passage is strikingly obvious.
The capitalization choices used in this edition of the Second Book of Gulliver's Travels leave no doubt as to the significance of the sexual connotations inherent in Gulliver's aggressive double-edged sales pitch. Looked at with these connotations in mind, Gulliver isn't just offering a mere weapon, he's offering to supply the King with the knowledge of how to build a potent two-hundred-foot long phallus that will give the King absolute power over his dominion (Boyle 37).
The King—obviously comfortable with his own sexuality—refuses Gulliver's offer with actual indignation and horror. Once again Gulliver is humiliated, his attempts to sublimate sexual frustration into his conception of a noble goal come to an ignoble end. Gulliver's only hope to reestablish his sexual worth is to leave the land of the giants, and his exit from Brobdingnag is done in short order immediately following this final failure to prove his manhood.
Gulliver's adventures in Brobdingnag act as a direct comment upon his adventures in Lilliput and this contrast is very marked in response to Gulliver's sexuality. Whereas in Lilliput Gulliver is unquestionably looked upon as an impressive sexual figure, in Brobdingnag he is subject to one sexual humiliation after another. This humiliation at the hands of the giant Brobdingnagian females eventually led him to deny the quite obvious sexual desires that they instilled in him. Denial of desires can lead either to unresolved repression or the sublimation of those baser desires to a higher goal.
Gulliver chooses the latter, attempting to prove his sexual worth as a man by proving his intellectual capacity far exceed what the Brobdingnagian King thinks him capable. Upon this failure, Gulliver's sublimation takes the not unexpected turn toward proving his manhood through aggression.
Aggressive tendencies are a hallmark of sublimation. As Norman O. Brown points out, "the psychoanalytic theory of sublimation leads on to the theory of the universal neurosis of mankind" (48). The end result of Gulliver's sublimation is his attempt to provide the King with the secrets to the ultimate product created by the neurosis of mankind: the weapon by which we can undo all sexuality by wiping all the odious little vermin off the surface of the earth.
Or, Size Does Matter
Timothy Sexton, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 23, 2006
In the voyage to Brobdingnag section of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the title character can clearly be seen engaging a common psychological theory over 150 years before it was technically defined. The
story manifestly presupposes the Freudian concept of sublimation of repressed sexual frustration into behavior redirected toward another goal with the intent to prove the initial sexual merit through other means.
Norman O. Brown recognizes Swift's foresight and goes on to explicitly state that "Swift did anticipate the doctrine of sublimation" (44). Brown expresses wonder at how Swift was able to anticipate the doctrine (44), and though Swift's intention isn't absolutely critical to this interpretation of the story, the idea that Swift wouldn't have been familiar with the concept of sublimation as it existed during his time would be the real surprise.
Gulliver's voyage to Brobdingnag is a thematically coherent pre-Freudian exploration of Gulliver's sublimating his sexual frustration and humiliation into his vision of the higher goal of proving to the King his own unquestioned masculine worth climaxing in his aggressively sexually charged revelation of the secrets of the invention and uses of gunpowder.
Etymological evidence strongly supports the possibility that Swift was acquainted with sublimation as a motivating factor that at the time was quite similar in definition to its meaning in current Freudian terminology. The intrinsic meaning of the word sublimation according to the Oxford English Dictionary is "the chemical action or process of subliming or converting a solid substance by means of heat into vapour, which resolidifies on cooling." By the seventeenth century, however, the word was also being defined as an "elevation to a higher state or plane of existence; transmutation into something higher, purer, or more sublime" (Loewald 12).
In A Tale of a Tub Swift writes that a "certain great prince" dealing with sexual frustration was moved by a "vapour" that rose to his brain and caused him to turn aside "all peaceable endeavors" and instead aggressively "dream of nothing but sieges, battles and victories" (2313-2314). In psychoanalytical terms sublimation "denotes some sort of conversion or transmutation from a lower to a higher, and presumably purer, state or plane of existence—be it the transmutation of a material substance or of an instinct and its objects and aim" (Loewald 12-13).
The modern psychological definition is almost identical to the definition with which Swift would have been familiar. Of key importance is the understanding that often the sublimated action involves aggressive behavior—the psychological equivalent of the heat that converts solids into vapor—that underlies the supposed purer goal. Aggressive-ness as it relates to the pursuit of a higher goal is demonstrated in the case of Swift's prince who was suspected by others of raising his mighty armies for such elevated purposes—some would say—of strengthening his reformed religion or of recapturing Palestine from the Turks (2313).
Admirable ends from one perspective, certainly, but also utilizing severely aggressive means. In Gulliver's Travels, sublimation is examined in much more detail, resulting in Gulliver also exhibiting sexual frustration that he sublimates into the pursuit of admirable goals that end up intertwined with violence by the end.
Gulliver's description of himself in Lilliput heightens his sense of sexual potency and power because of his physical size relative to the natives, inflating his ego precisely because the size of his penis instills awe among the little people. In a very telling passage from the first voyage Gulliver describes how he would "stand like a Colussus, with my Legs as far asunder as I conveniently could" while the army of Lilliput would march underneath him, taking the opportunity to look up his breeches, affording the soldiers "some Opportunities for Laughter and Admiration" (25).
The description of himself as a Colussus connotes, of course, not just something large and powerful, but something akin to the Colussus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Combined with the
"Admiration" he instills in the soldiers who gaze upon his magnificent member, it's obvious that Gulliver is extremely pleased with the view of himself in Lilliput as the supreme exemplar of sexual potency. But how can Gulliver deliver on this sexual capacity when it seems physically beyond consummation? What is the point of sexual power when it cannot be used?
In a passage in which the purpose for writing it is quite relevant but not entirely clear, Gulliver is able to both further boost his ego and also circumvent the problems posed by these questions when he delivers to the reader an inference that even if he wasn't capable of acting sexually with Lilliput women, at least he was found attractive and sexually desirable by them.
The description of the alleged affair with the Treasurer's wife no doubt proves comical to everyone but Gulliver, who doth protest too much against his having engaged in a feat of intercourse which would be physically impossible. That being the case, it seems probable that despite his protestation Gulliver doesn't really relate this story to clear the name of a woman the reader will never know, but rather includes it in the narrative to aggrandize his sexual appeal.
This seems to be a reasonable interpretation, but Gulliver's motivation for including the story of the impossible affair is nonetheless open to debate. Charles Hinnant spends an entire book arguing that Gulliver's Travels is concerned primarily with purity and defilement and comes to the conclusion that the Treasurer's anger isn't even directed at the specific charge of infidelity, but rather at the "pollution of forbidden contact" (24) between Gulliver and his wife. Robert Hunting recognizes that Gulliver protests too much against the insinuation, but then dismisses Gulliver's not mentioning the critical size difference as Gulliver simply "being naive" (100).
The sexuality underlying the obsessiveness with tubes and balls and size and hard elements and battering down walls in this brief passage is strikingly obvious.
The capitalization choices used in this edition of the Second Book of Gulliver's Travels leave no doubt as to the significance of the sexual connotations inherent in Gulliver's aggressive double-edged sales pitch. Looked at with these connotations in mind, Gulliver isn't just offering a mere weapon, he's offering to supply the King with the knowledge of how to build a potent two-hundred-foot long phallus that will give the King absolute power over his dominion (Boyle 37).
The King—obviously comfortable with his own sexuality—refuses Gulliver's offer with actual indignation and horror. Once again Gulliver is humiliated, his attempts to sublimate sexual frustration into his conception of a noble goal come to an ignoble end. Gulliver's only hope to reestablish his sexual worth is to leave the land of the giants, and his exit from Brobdingnag is done in short order immediately following this final failure to prove his manhood.
Gulliver's adventures in Brobdingnag act as a direct comment upon his adventures in Lilliput and this contrast is very marked in response to Gulliver's sexuality. Whereas in Lilliput Gulliver is unquestionably looked upon as an impressive sexual figure, in Brobdingnag he is subject to one sexual humiliation after another. This humiliation at the hands of the giant Brobdingnagian females eventually led him to deny the quite obvious sexual desires that they instilled in him. Denial of desires can lead either to unresolved repression or the sublimation of those baser desires to a higher goal.
Gulliver chooses the latter, attempting to prove his sexual worth as a man by proving his intellectual capacity far exceed what the Brobdingnagian King thinks him capable. Upon this failure, Gulliver's sublimation takes the not unexpected turn toward proving his manhood through aggression.
Aggressive tendencies are a hallmark of sublimation. As Norman O. Brown points out, "the psychoanalytic theory of sublimation leads on to the theory of the universal neurosis of mankind" (48). The end result of Gulliver's sublimation is his attempt to provide the King with the secrets to the ultimate product created by the neurosis of mankind: the weapon by which we can undo all sexuality by wiping all the odious little vermin off the surface of the earth.
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