Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels: Summary, Characters & Quiz Take Quiz | Related Videos In this lesson, youll learn about Lemuel Gulliver and the unusual characters he meets on his adventures as he travels to the different lands of Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels. End the lesson with a quiz to test your knowledge. Summary Gullivers Travels is the story of the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver , a married surgeon from Nottinghamshire, England who has a taste for traveling. Gullivers adventures begin in Lilliput when he wakes up after his shipwreck to find himself bound by the tiny threads of the Lilliputians . They shout at him and poke him with their tiny arrows, and then construct a wagon to carry him into the capital city to present him to the emperor. The emperor decides to use Gulliver as a weapon in the war against the Blefuscu , whom the Lilliputians hate because of perceived differences concerning the proper way to eat eggs. A fire breaks out in the royal palace, and Gulliver extinguishes the fire by urinating on it. As a result of having urinated on the royal palace, he is tried and convicted of treason and sentenced to be shot in the eyes and then starved to death. But, he escapes to Blefuscu, where he finds a boat, is able to repair it, and sets sail for home, England. After staying in England with his wife and family for two months, Gulliver sets off on his next adventure, which takes him to a land of giants called Brobdingnag. Here, he is found by a farmer, who puts him in a cage to amuse himself. The amusement doesnt last long, and the farmer decides to sell him to the queen, who he must entertain with his musical talents. Gulliver does not escape his captors and their ill treatment until the king and queen decide to take him on a trip, and his cage is plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea, where he manages to find his ship and sail back to England. After another two months with his family, Gulliver sets sail again and gets marooned by pirates on a small island. As hes sitting on this island, he sees a shadow passing overhead. It is a floating island called Laputa, inhabited by theoreticians and academics who rule over the land below, called Balnibarbi . He signals the Laputans for help and is brought up by rope. Here the inhabitants are impractical and out of touch with reality, often engaging in inane research and ruining their farms and buildings with newfangled reforms. Gulliver also visits Glubbdubdrib , an island of sorcerers, where he gets to meet the ghosts of famous historical figures, and Luggnagg, an island with an absolute king who rules over a population of senile immortals. Eventually, he makes his way to Japan and then sails back to England once more; this time, for five months, before he sets out again. On his fourth, and final, adventure, Gulliver sails out as a captain in his own right. But his sailors mutiny against him and maroon him on a distant island. This island is populated by rational-thinking horses, called Houyhnhnms, who rule over the Yahoos , brutish humanlike creatures who serve them. Gulliver learns the Houyhnhnms language and spends many satisfying hours in conversation with them; so much so that when they tell him he must leave, he is devastated. He leaves obediently, knowing that it is his resemblance to the Yahoos that is at the heart of it; they are just like him, except that Gulliver has learned to clip his nails, shave his face, and wear clothes. He makes a canoe and paddles to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship that returns him to England and his family. Once Gulliver returns to his family, however, he can only see them as brutish Yahoos. He can barely stand to be in the same room with them. He longs for the Houyhnhnms and spends at least four hours a day talking to his two stallions in their stable. The story ends with Gullivers claim that the lands he visited belong by rights to England even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism. Characters Lemuel Gulliver : The narrator and protagonist of the story. Although Gullivers vivid and detailed storytelling makes it clear that he is intelligent and well educated, his perceptions are naïve and gullible. Gulliver never thinks that the absurdities he encounters are funny and never makes the satiric connections between the lands he visits and his own home. Mary Burton Gulliver : Gullivers wife, who he seems to have no affection for, either during his brief returns to England or later in his travels. The most important facts about her in Gullivers mind are her social origin and the income she generates. William Prichard: The master of the Antelope, the ship on which Gulliver travels at the beginning of his first journey. When the Antelope sinks, Gulliver is washed ashore on Lilliput. Lilliputians and Blefuscudians : Two races of miniature people whom Gulliver meets on his first voyage. Lilliputians and Blefuscudians are prone to conspiracies and jealousies, and are quick to take advantage of Gulliver in political intrigues of various sorts. The two races have been in a longstanding war over the proper way to eat eggs. The emperor : The ruler of Lilliput. Like all Lilliputians, the emperor is fewer than six inches tall. Because of his tiny size, his belief that he can control Gulliver seems silly, but his willingness to execute his subjects for minor reasons of politics or honor gives him a frightening aspect. He is proud of possessing the tallest trees and biggest palace in the kingdom and of spending a fortune on feeding the captive Gulliver. Flimnap : The Lord High Treasurer of Lilliput, who has a jealous hatred for Gulliver when he starts believing that his wife is having an affair with him. Reldresal : The Principal Secretary of Private Affairs in Lilliput, who explains to Gulliver the history of the political tensions between the two political parties in the realm, the High-Heels and the Low-Heels. Both parties are named for the high or low heels of the shoes they wear to court. Tramecksan : The High-Heels, a Lilliputian political group whose policies are more agreeable to the traditions of Lilliput. Although the High-Heels are greater in number than the Low-Heels, their power is less. Slamecksan : The Low-Heels, a Lilliputian political group from which the king has ordained all governmental administrators must be selected, much to the resentment of the High-Heels of the realm. Brobdingnagians : Giants that Gulliver meets on his second voyage. The Brobdingnagians treat Gulliver as a plaything. When he tries to speak seriously with the king of Brobdingnag about England, the king dismisses him and refers to the English as odious vermin. The farmer : Gullivers first master in Brobdingnag. The farmer puts Gulliver on display around Brobdingnag, and his exploitation of him as a laborer nearly starves Gulliver to death. The queen: The queen of Brobdingnag, who is so delighted by Gullivers beauty and charms that she agrees to buy him from the farmer for 1,000 pieces of gold. The queen seems to care about her new pet, asking Gulliver whether he would consent to live at court and inquiring as to the reasons for his cold good-byes to the farmer. The king : The king of Brobdingnag, who, in contrast to the emperor of Lilliput, is well versed in political science. The kings relationship with Gulliver is limited to serious discussions about the history and institutions of Gullivers native England. Laputans : Absentminded intellectuals who live on the floating island of Laputa, encountered by Gulliver on his third voyage. The Laputans are so inwardly absorbed in their own thoughts that they must be shaken out of their meditations by special servants called flappers, who shake rattles in their ears. Lord Munodi: A lord of Lagado, capital city of Balnibarbi, the underdeveloped land beneath Laputa. Munodi hosts Gulliver and gives him a tour of the country on Gullivers third voyage. Munodi is a rare example of practical-minded intelligence both in Lagado, where the applied sciences are wildly impractical, and in Laputa, where no one even considers practicality a virtue. Houyhnhnms: Rational horses that Gulliver meets on his fourth, and final, voyage. They maintain a simple, peaceful society governed by reason and truthfulness - they do not even have a word for lie in their language. They are the masters of the Yahoos. It is through the Houyhnhnms that Gulliver is led to re-evaluate the differences between humans and animals and to question humanitys claims to rationality. Yahoos : Unkempt humanlike beasts who are not capable of government and are kept as servants to the Houyhnhnms, pulling their carriages and performing manual tasks. The men are characterized by their hairy bodies and the women by their low- hanging breasts. They are naked, filthy, and extremely primitive in their eating habits. Don Pedro de Mendez: The Portuguese captain of the ship that takes Gulliver back to England after he is forced to leave the land of the Houyhnhnms.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 15:53:28 +0000
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