For hundreds of years great thinkers have debated the idea that a functional utopian society could be created. From Sir Thomas More to the Brooks Farm experiment, many have tried, and all have failed to accomplish this goal. Sir Thomas More believed that utopia was an imaginary island with a perfect political and social system. The inhabitants of places like the Brooks Farm planned to create such a community as a way to help members realize their full spiritual and moral potential. Since then, followers of this type of thought have dwindled, but the idea of a utopia continues on in the works of writers. In book four of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift creates the utopian society of the Houyhnhnms to show how such an ideal is impossible for mankind to achieve.
In the story the main character, Lemuel Gulliver, finds himself stranded on an island inhabited by horses called Houyhnhnms. Right away Swift hints at the idea that the society these horses live in might be a utopia when Gulliver mentions, "The word Houyhnhnm, in their Tongue, signifies a Horse, and in its Etymology, the Perfection of Nature" (p 217). Soon Gulliver discovers many more aspects which show that the Houyhnhnms live in what appears to be a perfect existence. Gulliver notes at one point that throughout his time on the island he was never sick and that the horses themselves lead long and healthy lives. In his conversations with his master he finds that the horses themselves have no knowledge of any of the vices that exist in human society. They have no understanding of what it means to lie, cheat, or steal, as well as complete ignorance of such evils like power, greed and war. Gulliver tries to explain these things to his master but finds that, "like one whose Imagination was struck with something never seen or heard before, he would lift up his Eyes with Amazement and Indignation" (p 225). .
Swift makes a point to show that, like the members of the Brooks Farm, the Houyhnhnms privilege the collective group over the individual.
