Gulliver’s Travels recounts
the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained
as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails. In a
deadpan first-person narrative that rarely shows any signs of self-reflection
or deep emotional response, Gulliver narrates the adventures that
befall him on these travels.
Gulliver’s adventure in Lilliput begins when he wakes
after his shipwreck to find himself bound by innumerable tiny threads
and addressed by tiny captors who are in awe of him but fiercely
protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use violence
against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks.
But overall, they are hospitable, risking famine in their land by
feeding Gulliver, who consumes more food than a thousand Lilliputians combined
could. Gulliver is taken into the capital city by a vast wagon the
Lilliputians have specially built. He is presented to the emperor,
who is entertained by Gulliver, just as Gulliver is flattered by
the attention of royalty. Eventually Gulliver becomes a national resource,
used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom
the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper
way to crack eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted
of treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace with his urine
and is condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver
escapes to Blefuscu, where he
is able to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England.
After staying in England with his wife and family for
two months, Gulliver undertakes his next sea voyage, which takes
him to a land of giants called Brobdingnag. Here, a field worker discovers
him. The farmer initially treats him as little more than an animal, keeping
him for amusement. The farmer eventually sells Gulliver to the queen, who
makes him a courtly diversion and is entertained by his musical talents.
Social life is easy for Gulliver after his discovery by the court,
but not particularly enjoyable. Gulliver is often repulsed by the
physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many
times magnified by their huge size. Thus, when a couple of courtly
ladies let him play on their naked bodies, he is not attracted to
them but rather disgusted by their enormous skin pores and the sound
of their torrential urination. He is generally startled by the ignorance
of the people here—even the king knows nothing about politics. More
unsettling findings in Brobdingnag come in the form of various animals
of the realm that endanger his life. Even Brobdingnagian insects
leave slimy trails on his food that make eating difficult. On a
trip to the frontier, accompanying the royal couple, Gulliver leaves
Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked up by an eagle and dropped
into the sea.
Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by
pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by
theoreticians and academics oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi.
The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems
totally inane and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly
out of touch with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver
is able to witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such
as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much
less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and
the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove
that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from
there back to England.
Finally, on his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as
captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement
in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated
by Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish
humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about
learning their language, and when he can speak he narrates his voyages
to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated
with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened
by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their
noble culture. He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared
body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo, and
he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave.
He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where
he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well,
though Gulliver cannot help now seeing the captain—and all humans—as
shamefully Yahoolike. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with
a claim that the lands he has visited belong by rights to England,
as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism.
