What happens in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels?
In these four chapters of Part IV, Gulliver dives deeper into the philosophy of Houyhnhnm society as he becomes more alienated from humanity. He provides a lengthy account of European civilization to his Master—covering wars, laws, medicine, and commerce—but the horse listens with a calm and devastating lack of understanding, unable to find any rational purpose in Gulliver's descriptions. As his shame for his own kind grows, Gulliver starts to fully embrace the Houyhnhnms and feels a visceral disgust towards the Yahoos, whose human-like appearance he can no longer ignore. A female Yahoo's sexual advance brings this realization to the forefront. Meanwhile, the Grand Assembly of Houyhnhnms discusses whether the Yahoos should be wiped out or simply gelded, and Gulliver's Master informs him that the assembly has urged him to get rid of his strange Yahoo. The order to expel Gulliver comes. Heartbroken, he constructs a canoe from Yahoo skins and tallow, says a ceremonial goodbye to his Master—who condescendingly raises a hoof to Gulliver's mouth—and sails away in tears, feeling more sorrowful about leaving the horses than he ever did about departing from his wife and children.
Analysis
Swift's skill in these chapters unfolds through a blend of controlled irony and escalating inversion. The Master Houyhnhnm’s polite confusion regarding European institutions isn’t naïve; it acts as a Socratic reflection. Every explanation Gulliver provides ends up condemning humanity more effectively than any direct satire could. Swift largely refrains from offering his own commentary, allowing the horse’s rational bewilderment to convey the message. This approach is both deadpan and unyielding.
The crisis of the Yahoo-as-human theme culminates in the scene where a female Yahoo assaults Gulliver, which is grotesque because his horror mirrors his own wounded pride. He’s torn between feeling insulted by being seen as an animal and being terrified by what that desire reveals. Swift deliberately leaves this ambiguity unresolved.
Gulliver's farewell to his Master serves as the emotional centerpiece: the prose slows down, becomes ceremonial, almost mournful—only to be punctured by the detail of the raised hoof. This gesture represents the highest honor the Houyhnhnms can give, while also reminding Gulliver that he is merely a tolerated oddity to them. Here, Swift's satire turns inward, as Gulliver's ecstatic gratitude for the hoof-touch reveals more about his own diminished self-worth than about the horses.
The canoe made from Yahoo skin stands as a final grotesque symbol—Gulliver literally wraps himself in the skin of his own kind to escape them. This embodiment of bodily disgust that has run through Part IV finds its most tangible expression here.
Key quotes from Part IV
“I expected every Moment, that my Master would accuse me of those Enormities whereof his Servant had given him a faithful Account: But he was pleased to say, that he hoped I had sufficient Reason to justify myself from the Imputation of those Vices which were laid to my Charge.”
Gulliver braces for condemnation after his Master hears a full report of European civilisation, revealing how thoroughly Gulliver has internalised the Houyhnhnm standard of judgment.
“The Houyhnhnms have no Word in their Language to express any thing that is Evil, except what they borrow from the Deformities or ill Qualities of the Yahoos.”
Gulliver explains the Houyhnhnm linguistic system to the reader, encapsulating Swift's satirical equation of humanity with moral ugliness.
“I took a second Leave of my Master: But as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss his Hoof, he did me the Honour to raise it gently to my Mouth.”
The farewell scene in which Gulliver's abasement and the horse's benign condescension are rendered simultaneously tender and devastating.