*Bristol

*Bristol. Port town in southwestern England, where the down-on-his-luck, good-natured Lemuel Gulliver begins his travels. A solid English citizen, Gulliver represents England’s optimistic, rationalistic, and scientific philosophies, which Swift abhorred. A Church of England cleric, Swift maintained that England should look back to the ancient Greeks and Romans and to the Christian Church teachings for guidance and inspiration.

Lilliput

Lilliput (leel-lee-pewt). Island southwest of Sumatra that is the first strange land Gulliver visits after his first ship, the Antelope, is wrecked on its coast. Lilliput is Swift’s satirical representation of the pettiness and small-mindedness inherent in church and state; its inhabitants are barely six inches tall, and features of its landscape are correspondingly tiny. Because of his immense size relative to the Lilliputians, Gulliver feels like a king and becomes an important court minister. In the manner of England’s opposing political parties, two factions of Lilliputians—the Whigs and the Tories—govern the island’s capital city of Mildeno. Despite Gulliver’s enormous size, and his ability to see everything, his shortcomings and his inability to view human nature properly become clear. While attempting to explain England’s politics to the ruler of both Lilliput (and later Blefescu) Gulliver voices Swift’s hatred for humanity in general and England’s Whig Party in particular.

Blefescu

Blefescu (bleh-feh-skew). Island empire that is Lilliput’s northern neighbor and archenemy; its inhabitants, like Lilliput’s, are six inches tall. While Lilliput represents eighteenth century England, Blefescu represents eighteenth century France, England’s traditional enemy. By the eighteenth century, both England and France had been fighting wars on and off for centuries for both political and religious reasons. Reminiscent of the channel that separates England from France, a channel eight hundred yards wide separates Lilliput from Blefescu. Gulliver wades across this channel, captures Blefescu’s entire fleet of warships, and delivers them to Lilliput. He comes to understand the cruelty of the Lilliputians only after they begin using him as a war machine against Blefescu.

Brobdingnag

Brobdingnag (brohb-deeng-nag). Long peninsula off California in the North Pacific that is the second strange land visited by Gulliver. In book 2 he continues his satire on Enlightenment ideals and English society in Brobdingnag, a land that accentuates human grossness because of the inhabitants’ stupendous size. After a short return to England, Gulliver boards the ship Adventure bound for India, but it is blown off course and winds up on Brobdingnag, whose people are twelve times larger than ordinary human beings. Rats are the size of lions and eat grain that grows forty feet high. Gulliver becomes a sort of pet to the giant queen. Through their dialogues, Gulliver begins to see the foolhardiness of the English court and England in general which Brobdingnag represents.

Laputa

Laputa (lah-pew-tah). Circular-shaped floating island about ten thousand acres in area that hovers over the terrestrial island of Balnibari; also called the Flying Island by Gulliver. His experience in this land makes obvious just how dangerous are his rationalistic, scientific, and progressive views. On another of his ocean voyages, pirates from a Chinese vessel attack his ship and place him on a rocky island, from which intellectuals who inhabit Laputa rescue him. In their free-floating domain, these scholars literally have their heads in the clouds and do not stand on solid ground.

Balnibari

Balnibari (bal-nee-BAR-ee). Island between Japan and California in the North Pacific over which Laputa floats. It is ruled by an absent-minded king who endorses impractical projects put forth by his Grand Academy.

Glubbdubdrib

Glubbdubdrib (glahb-DUHB-drehb). Also known as the Island of Sorcerers, a small island, about fifteen hundred miles southwest of Balnibari, that Gulliver reaches by boat. The island is ruled by magicians, who have the power to bring back the dead. There a magician introduces Gulliver to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

Luggnagg

Luggnagg (lahg-nag). Large island located about three miles southeast of Japan, with which its people conduct trade. This island’s king shows Gulliver the immortal Struldbrugs, who represent the ultimate outcome of the Enlightenment’s theory of the perfectibility of man. After a short trip to Japan—another real land then little known in Europe—Gulliver heads home to England.

Houyhnhnm-land

Houyhnhnm-land (wheen-num-land). Island in the South Seas on which Gulliver is marooned by the crew of the ship that he captains. Swift’s satire, established in the land of the little people and the giant people in books 1 and 2, is continued in the land of the Houyhnhnms in book 4, in which the author demonstrates the eventual results of the rationalistic philosophy that permeated English thought during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

While everything in Houyhnhnm-land is in correct human proportions, the setting is that of the familiar English countryside. Thus, its impact on the English reader was greater. After Gulliver leaves Portsmouth in 1710, destined for the South Seas, he is cast adrift during a mutiny and washes up on a land where intelligent horses—the Houyhnhnms—are the masters, and slow-witted silent humans—Yahoos—the beasts of burden.

The land of the Houyhnhnms is presented as a utopia with decency, benevolence, and civility ruling every horse’s actions. Here, Gulliver finds no wars and no courts and passes his time in contemplation and light labor. However, love of family is also unknown because the Houyhnhnms regard it as unnecessary, though marriage is regarded as rational, necessary purely to maintain the population. The birth rate is maintained impeccably and scientifically so there is no poverty, but the Houyhnhnms’ overwhelmingly rationalistic ethos results in life being dull and meaningless.

The land of the horses exemplifies the eighteenth century philosopher John Locke’s philosophy that argues that the human mind is a blank slate controlled and developed entirely by impressions made by the environment. Ashamed of being thought a Yahoo, the rational-minded Gulliver lives in perfect contentment among the Houyhnhnms until his master, a horse, throws him out: Gulliver is, after all, in the horses’ estimation, nothing but a filthy Yahoo, and his existence as a talking, thinking human among them is entirely irrational. By now a miserable and bitterly disillusioned misanthrope, Gulliver sails back to England, where he has no chance of ever finding a truly rational man. He lives out the rest of his life in misery, forced forever, he believes, to live among filthy Yahoos.

During Gulliver's stay in Lilliput, the most celebrated part of the work, Swift illustrates a common childhood dream—a world scaled for tiny people, with the tallest standing only about six inches tall. In Lilliput, a child's fascination with dolls or toy soldiers comes to life as Gulliver assumes the role of a benevolent giant among a small people who have grandiose notions of their self-importance. Conversely, when Gulliver arrives in Brobdingnag, he finds himself among giants, making him feel like a Lilliputian. In both settings, Gulliver must rely on his ingenuity to survive. Not only does he manage to provide himself with food, clothing, and shelter—all of which demand creativity and bravery—but he also learns the languages and customs, using them to his benefit.

Gulliver's final two voyages are less popular and more unsettling than the initial ones. In these journeys, Swift becomes increasingly critical of human nature, causing the reader to lose confidence in Gulliver as a symbol of reason. Despite this, Swift's creativity and humor make these journeys captivating and intellectually stimulating. For example, in the land of the Houyhnhnms, humans are dominated by horses, a concept that challenges eighteenth-century norms, much like Planet of the Apes did for the twentieth century.

Through Gulliver's accounts of these societies, Swift offers examples of various human traits ranging from the despicable to the admirable. Initially, he presents these traits from a distance, allowing the reader to feel detached and laugh at the absurdities of the Lilliputians or Brobdingnagians. Gradually, the reader recognizes that many of the negative traits of these peculiar races are also human traits. Although Swift specifically satirizes eighteenth-century English society, his critique is universal. A reader familiar with England's political history will find Gulliver's Travels particularly enriching. At the same time, an astute reader will grasp Swift's commentary on human nature while enjoying the fantastical world he has crafted.

Point of View

Lemuel Gulliver narrates the tale of Gulliver's Travels himself, but as a first-person narrator, he isn't entirely reliable. Although Gulliver is meticulous with the specifics of his voyages and is known for his honesty, he often misses the bigger picture. Swift intentionally portrays Gulliver as naive and occasionally arrogant for two main reasons. Firstly, this encourages readers to question the ideas presented in the book. Secondly, it allows readers to find humor in Gulliver's obliviousness to the absurdity of his narrow-mindedness. For instance, he appears quite foolish when praising the virtues of gunpowder to the peace-loving Brobdingnagians. Additionally, by the novel's conclusion, readers can observe that Gulliver has become a misanthrope, despising humanity, yet in his voice and the introductory letter to his publisher, he remains proud and arrogant, believing humans are Yahoos. As readers become accustomed to questioning Gulliver's perceptions, it becomes evident that his misanthropy is tied to his arrogance. Humans can't achieve perfection, and by holding ourselves to that impossible standard, we risk hating humanity, a truth Gulliver fails to grasp. Swift asserted that it was Gulliver, the character he created, who was misanthropic, not himself.

Setting

Although the fantastical lands depicted in Gulliver's Travels might seem implausible today, modern readers should remember that these settings wouldn't have appeared so far-fetched to Swift's contemporaries. Written in the 1720s, the novel features Gulliver traveling to regions that were still unexplored or scarcely known at the time. For example, the book predates the discovery of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, where Brobdingnag is said to be located. It also comes before the development of an effective method for measuring latitude, making accurate navigation and exploration challenging for sailors. During this era, travelogues, or accounts of journeys to foreign lands, were immensely popular, and the public was used to hearing about new geographical discoveries. Thus, Gulliver's adventures to unknown territories, while unusual, would have seemed similar to the exotic tales of lands in America, Asia, and Africa. Mimicking the travelogues it satirizes, Gulliver's Travels even includes maps of Gulliver's voyages to add a sense of authenticity to the narrative.

Structure

Structurally, Gulliver's Travels is segmented into four distinct parts, preceded by two introductory letters. These letters, penned by Gulliver and his editor Sympson, inform us that Gulliver is fundamentally a good person who has been profoundly transformed by the extraordinary voyages that follow. Part I details Gulliver's adventure to Lilliput, home to tiny inhabitants; Part II takes him to Brobdingnag, land of giants; Part III explores several islands and nations near Japan; and Part IV transports Gulliver to the country of the Houyhnhnm. The first two parts create contrasts that allow Swift to critique European politics and society. The third part, which is divided into four sections set in Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, and Luggnagg, satirizes human institutions and thought processes. The initial sections critique science and scholars, the Glubbdubdrib section examines history, and the Luggnagg section reflects Swift's anxieties about aging. The final section shifts from critiquing human achievements to analyzing the inherent flaws in humanity itself.

Utopia

The concept of an ideal society, complete with flawless institutions like government, schools, and churches, originated with the ancient Greeks and was later explored in Thomas More's Utopia (1516). Numerous writers before and after Jonathan Swift have entertained the idea of utopia, with some contemporary authors crafting novels about dystopias—utopian visions gone awry—such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Both Orwell and Huxley admired Gulliver's Travels.

In Brobdingnag, Gulliver encounters a near-utopia where war and oppression are nonexistent. Swift integrates many ideas from the social theorists of his time in this section. However, Swift's impatience with utopian theories also surfaces. Since the Brobdingnagians are human-like, their utopia is not entirely perfect. They can be callous, treating Gulliver as a pet or toy, and their society still includes poor beggars. In Luggnagg, Gulliver learns of a race of immortal men and envisions their immense wisdom, believing this would make their society orderly and their people content. Sadly, eternal life does not prevent the ravages of old age, rendering the immortals pitiable and repulsive. Swift nearly creates a perfect utopia with the Houyhnhnm but implies that humans can never truly belong in an ideal society due to their inherent flaws. Thus, humans can only aspire to perfection, never fully attaining it.

But would we truly desire that? The Brobdingnagian society, though flawed, is inhabited by wise and humane individuals. In contrast, the Houyhnhnm society lacks grief, deceit, greed, lust, ambition, and opinion, but it also lacks the concept of love as we understand it. All Houyhnhnms love each other equally. They select their partners based on genetics rather than love or passion, and they raise their children communally, loving all the children equally. Gulliver aspires to transcend the human condition and become a Houyhnhnm, but Swift suggests that such a transformation is neither achievable nor necessarily desirable.

Allegory

An allegory is a narrative technique where characters or events in a fictional work symbolize real-life people, places, events, or ideas. In Gulliver's Travels, particularly in Part I, many of Gulliver's experiences correspond to actual historical events from Swift's era. For example, the religious and political conflict between the Big Enders and Little Enders reflects the real-world disputes between Protestants and Catholics, which led to several wars. Lilliput represents England, while Blefuscu symbolizes England's longtime adversary, France. The duplicitous Treasurer Flimnap is a caricature of the Whig leader Sir Robert Walpole, and the Empress's outrage at Gulliver for extinguishing a palace fire with his urine parallels Queen Anne's complaints about Swift's "vulgar" writings. These numerous allegories add layers of satire that Swift's contemporary readers would have appreciated and have provided critics with ample material for analysis over the years.

Swift's expert use of satire is what has made Gulliver's Travels an enduringly delightful work. Satire allows readers to feel that the criticism is directed at everyone except themselves. What would typically be a boring and uncomfortable lesson can become enjoyable and fulfilling when presented as satire. However, this does not mean that Gulliver's Travels is entirely comfortable to read; readers will likely feel uneasy when they recognize their own flaws being mocked. Swift's choice of the travelogue genre perfectly complements his satirical observations. Travel narratives were especially popular in the eighteenth century, a time when parts of the world remained unexplored and could plausibly be home to the exotic creatures and cultures Gulliver encounters. Therefore, Swift could blend reality, fantasy, and satire with relative freedom.

The first two books of Gulliver's Travels are tightly structured. Initially, Gulliver views humanity through the wrong end of a telescope, and then he finds himself under intense microscopic examination. In contrast, the third book is more disjointed and episodic, with no clear connection to the other three books. Although Gulliver is among his own race in this book, he acts more as an observer and less as a participant compared to the other books. The fourth book, though the most unsettling, follows the pattern of the first two by requiring Gulliver to adapt to and live within an unfamiliar culture.

The conclusion of Gulliver's Travels presents challenges. After his first three voyages, Gulliver returns and resumes his life without any apparent changes from his experiences. However, following his return from the land of the Houyhnhnms, he is a transformed man, refusing to acknowledge his connection to the human race. At this point in his life, he supposedly writes about his travels, having come to loathe all humans as detestable Yahoos. Yet, the warm, personable Gulliver who describes the Lilliputians, Brobdingnagians, and the people of Laputa is not the same Gulliver who despises humanity. The reader's final image of Gulliver is a sorrowful one. He has become a man who shuns human contact due to his blind adoration of a race of horses.