Why does Gulliver avoid his family after his final voyage?

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Illustration of Lemuel Gulliver lying on the ground, tied down by tiny Lilliputians, with crowds and small buildings in the background, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. — Gulliver’s Travels Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput, illustration from an edition of Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*.

After his final voyage to the land of the Houyhnhnms, Lemuel Gulliver returns to England deeply disillusioned with humanity. Having encountered the Houyhnhnms—a race of horses characterized by their reason, virtue, and communal harmony—Gulliver develops a profound disdain for his fellow humans, whom he identifies as being no better than the brutish, greedy, and filthy Yahoos.

Gulliver’s rejection of his family and human society stems from his intense identification with the Houyhnhnms and his belief that humans are incapable of achieving the virtuous rationality he witnessed among the horses. This behavior suggests that Gulliver himself has become imbalanced, as he finds himself unable to tolerate the company of people, choosing instead to spend his time conversing with horses.123