Hello and welcome to the Discourse. All four parts or books of Gulliver’s Travels were published in the year 1726. The title of the first book of Gulliver’s Travels was A Voyage to Lilliput. In the first part, Jonathan Swift introduces the protagonist Lemuel Gulliver resembling a common man. Being an everyman, Gulliver is a gullible, yet honest person who cannot tell lies and always stands for right. Swift then uses Gulliver’s account of events for his satire that included a mockery of the English government, the English court, the Royal Society, Science, Religion, and contemporary literary works too.
Characters of A Voyage to Lilliput:
Lemuel Gulliver is a British surgeon living with his wife Mary Burton Gulliver and his children. Gulliver has no emotional life and his wife plays little role in the whole story. Richard Sympson is a cousin of Gulliver who edits his travel book. The Lilliputians are the inhabitants of the strange island that Gulliver reaches after a shipwreck they are extremely small creatures just 6 inches tall. The Lilliputian Emperor is friendly and generous with Gulliver as he exploits Gulliver’s might to defeat his enemies but when Gulliver refuses to participate in the war against Belfuscians, the king grows petulant, cold, and vengeful. The Lilliputian Queen is an adamant lady who never forgives Gulliver for urinating on her chamber despite knowing that it saved her life. Filmnap is the treasurer of the Lilliputian king who dislikes Gulliver as he suspects that Gulliver is having a secret affair with his wife. Skyresh Bolgolam is the admiral of Lilliput and he also dislikes Gulliver. Redresal is the Principle secretary of Lilliput who is friendly towards Gulliver. He suggests putting out Gulliver’s eyes as a “gentler” alternative to death. However, there are many supporters of Gulliver. A man of the court warns him about the court’s plan to put out his eyes. Belfuscians are similar creatures of short heights who live on the neighboring island of Lilliput. The Belfuscian King takes Gulliver in after he escapes from the Lilliputians and helps him prepare for his voyage back to England.
Summary of A Voyage to Lilliput
The book begins as Richard Sympson introduces Lemuel Gulliver, his cousin as a truthful, honest, and trustworthy citizen of England. He vouches for the honesty of Gulliver and says that his fellow townsmen would often emphasize something’s truth by saying “it was as true as if Mr. Gulliver had spoken it.” He informs that he is editing the travel account of Gulliver for people’s entertainment. Gulliver isn’t too happy with the edited version of his sea travel account as he admonishes Richard Sympson for adding a passage praising the English Queen Gulliver says that though he respects the English Queen he would never have praised her in that manner. He further accuses the edited version of his sea travel as libelous and says that nobody trust’s its veracity. The edited work of Richard introduces Gulliver as a common man of England who is a surgeon. Though other surgeons are making good money, Gulliver is suffering penury because he is too honest and cannot tell lies and cheat patients to make money. Thus, he decides to change his profession and become a ship surgeon to earn money. He learned mathematics and navigation at an early age because he always wished to go on long sea travels. He joins the ship of Captain Robinson for a six-year trip to the sea. However, he faces a shipwreck on his very first sea travel and he is the only survivor who reaches the shore of an unknown island and passes out due to exhaustion.
When Gulliver awakens, he finds himself lying on his back. As he tries to stand up, he realizes that he has been tied with innumerable tiny threads and he is unable to move. He feels something moving on his chin and when he observes, he finds that he is surrounded by strange ‘human-like’ creatures who are just six inches long. Being a meticulous person, Gulliver has a habit of giving exact measurements. Gulliver is surprised and he roars out trying to free himself. He succeeds in freeing his left arm but then the tiny creatures start shooting arrows at him until he lies calmly. The tiny creatures then loosen some of the threads and offer him food and a beverage to drink. Gulliver wishes to grab some of them and crush them but he restrains himself while the tiny creatures dress his wounds. Being too exhausted, Gulliver falls asleep again and the tiny creatures load him on a large carriage and take him to a tall old temple which is the tallest building in their city. Gulliver is tied to the temple. The emperor along with the whole crowd of citizens comes to see him. Everyone is astonished by seeing this humongous giant who looks like them. While Gulliver becomes a piece of the exhibition, some onlookers try to shoot him down. They are captured by the soldiers and then the Emperor orders them to be handover to Gulliver. Gulliver threatens them and shows them his pocket knife and then releases them. Everyone gets impressed by Gulliver’s generosity. The emperor and his Principle secretary Redresal become friendly to Gulliver whom they call the ‘man mountain.’ Gulliver starts learning the lilliputian language. The emperor discusses the matter of state management with Gulliver and shows how his officials are chosen from the crowd. The contestants and courtiers perform rope dances and competitions of thread-jumping and the member who wins the competition gets a higher position. Thus, the Lilliputian state uses tests of physical power and agility (rather than tests of moral power and reason) to determine who will hold its governmental offices. Then the Emperor asks Gulliver to stand upright while he orders his army to march through Gulliver’s legs. He orders the soldiers to treat Gulliver decently “upon pain of death.” The emperor is not concerned that Gulliver is so big and powerful that he could easily stamp everyone to death. However, he is concerned about Gulliver’s discomfort because he treats him as his property now. Gulliver is still tied up and restrained and he begs for liberty. The emperor discusses this with his council and they decide that Gulliver can be freed if he signs the papers of allegiance. The papers of allegiance contain certain terms such as Gulliver will not leave the kingdom or enter the metropolis without permission, that he will not trample the fields or the Lilliputians, that he will carry Lilliputian messengers on urgent errands, that he will be an ally against the Blefuscians in warfare. Gulliver reads the paper and agrees to them. He is freed as soon as he signs them. As a freeman, Gulliver decides to see Mildendo the metropolis of Lilliput. He observes the Emperor’s palace and then Redresal visits him and informs him about the two great dangers the Lilliputians face. The first great evil is the inner struggle of the Lilliputian court between the Tramecksan (high-heeled shoe-wearers) and Slamecksan (low-heeled shoe-wears). The emperor favors the Slamecksan people but the Tramecksan people are greater in number and there are dangers of rebellion. The second great evil is the danger of an impending invasion from Belfuscu, “the other great empire of the universe.” Gulliver realizes that no Lilliputian believes him about the other world of normal human beings. The animosity with Belfuscu is rooted in a disagreement over whether to break eggs on the bigger or smaller end. Some Lilliputians too believed that the egg should be broken from the bigger end and these Big-Endians have joined Belfuscian forces while Lilliputians believe that the egg should be broken from the smaller end. This difference has caused many wars between the Belfuscu and Lilliput. It is an allegory to the religious wars of Europe. Gulliver conceives a plan to cross the channel between Lilliput and Belfusu and steal the warships of Belfuscu, making them weak. He manages to do so while Belfuscian soldiers attack him with arrows. The Emperor is too happy by this and offers the title of ‘Nardac’ to Gulliver which means the greatest warrior. Later on, the Lilliputian Emperor asks Gulliver to help him in enslaving the Belfuscians. Gulliver, however, rejects this and says that it will be immoral and this annoys the Lilliputian Emperor. Moreover, Lilliputian admiral, Skyresh Bolgolam is also jealous of Gulliver because of his title. Treasurer Filmnap also becomes Gulliver’s enemy because he thinks that his wife is too much interested in Gulliver. Meanwhile, the Belfuscu king is too impressed by Gulliver’s strength and he realizes that Belfuscu cannot confront Lilliput now. He sends messengers of peace who are very warm towards Gulliver and invites him to Belfuscu. The emperor reluctantly allows Gulliver to visit Belfuscu while Bolgolam and Filmnap start spreading rumors that Gulliver is siding with the Belfuscian king. One night, there is a fire in the palace and the Lilliputians request Gulliver to go help stop it. The fire was due to a careless maid who fell asleep reading a novel by candlelight. Gulliver, having no instrument to put out the fire, extinguishes it by urinating on it. Though he has saved the palace, Gulliver knows that he has also broken the law by urinating in the palace. Still, he feels better when he receives word that the emperor is ordering Gulliver to be pardoned. However, the Lilliputian Queen feels disgusted and she is not ready to pardon Gulliver.
Gulliver describes the social life of Lilliputians and their legal system. If a person is found innocent by trial, the accuser is sentenced to death and the innocent person is paid generously for the inconveniences suffered. Fraud and ingratitude are likewise capital crimes punished by death. Citizens who follow the law throughout their lives have the title snilpall (which means ‘legal’) added to their name and are accorded privileges. He notices that while the Emperor appoints persons of agility at higher positions without considering their moral values, Lilliputians in general hire a person considering that person’s morals more than they do his abilities. He notices that all children including girls are raised by professors and servants in public nurseries and girls are raised to be equally brave and smart as boys are, there is no discrimination over gender. Gulliver is still unaware if he will be pardoned or punished for urinating in the palace. He plans his visit to Belfuscu but on the same night, a man from court visits him and informs him that the council had decided to punish him by death Redresal, being a friend of Gulliver stood in his defense but he could do nothing. The council first decided to execute him instantly but then they were worried about the flesh that will rot. Thus, the council has decided to put out his eyes and then subsequently slowly starve him to death. The man of the court tells him that the Lilliputian council will execute the punishment within three days and leaves Gulliver to decide for himself. Gulliver decides to save his life by running away to Belfuscu. He leaves a note that he’s left early for his trip to Blefuscu.
Gulliver is warmly welcomed in Belfuscu and Gulliver notices that the Belfuscian king and people, in general, are more moral than the Lilliputians. From the Belfuscian shore, Gulliver notices an abandoned canopy, a human boat, and retrieves it. The Belfuscian king helps him in mending the canopy. Meanwhile, the Lilliputian Emperor realizes that Gulliver has run away. He sends a messenger to the Belfuscian king to hand over Gulliver to them. The Belfuscian king politely rejects the notice and answers back that Gulliver has been friendly to the Belfuscian people and hence they won’t return him back. Then the Belfuscian king arranges for sufficient food and drinks to be stored in the canopy and hastens his departure for England. Gulliver continues to strive to return back to his world and eventually is picked by an English merchant ship. He returns to his home and tells the story of Lilliput to his wife and children but none of them actually believe him. Then he shows them a few tiny animals of Lilliput that he took with him. He stays with the family for two months and then decides to return to the sea again.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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