Hello and welcome to the Discourse. After returning from Lilliput and Belfuscu, Gulliver spends two months with his family. He becomes restless soon and on 2nd June 1702, he sets sail on the ship The Adventure with Captain John Nicholas. The ship is headed to Surat, India while going through the Cape of Good Hope and Madagascar. However, the ship never reaches its destination as Captain Nicholas and his crew face a violent storm. As happened in past, Gulliver survives the storm and is ashore on an unknown island. Gulliver had distinct memories of Lilliput where he was an all-powerful giant with exceptional fighting skills. Despite being sympathetic, helpful, and just towards those minute human-like creatures of Lilliput and Belfuscu, Gulliver couldn’t understand the awe, fear, excitement, and jealousy of Lilliputians towards him. But this was going to change pretty soon as he is on another unknown island to explore. Jonathan Swift again uses this setup to satirize and criticize the English government and society in general and suggests that perspective extends beyond size to opinion. Each society can have different opinions about the same subject though they follow the same pattern. The main point of contention in Book 2 is Gunpowder which represents power. However, Swift satirizes the newly acquired power of Gunpowder and suggests that the negative effects of gunpowder would far outweigh the positive ones in his society.
Characters of A Voyage to Brobdingnag:
The Borbdingnagians are the inhabitant of the new island that Lemuel Gulliver reaches after a violent storm. Gulliver is caught by the farmer who is a common citizen of Brobdingnag. He keeps Gulliver as his pet vermin and starts exhibiting him while making money through him. Gulliver is obedient toward the farmer and calls him his master. Glumdalclitch is the daughter of the farmer who likes Gulliver as a pet and takes care of him. The farmer’s other child is a toddler who threatens Gulliver as he plays with him but Glumdalclitch comes to his rescue at a time. The Brobdingnagian queen purchases Gulliver from the farmer and grows very fond of him. She takes proper care of Gulliver. The Brobdingnagian King is surprised by knowing that this little vermin can talk sense and starts discussing matters of governance with Gulliver while examining the ways and systems of humans in their world. The Brobdingnagian prince is amused by Gulliver and considers him a cute little vermin. The Dward is a clown to cheer the Brobdingnagian queen who becomes jealous of Gulliver because the queen grows more fond of Gulliver than the dwarf who happened to be the smallest man on the court before Gulliver’s arrival.
Summary of A Voyage to Brobdingag:
The Adventure is a stronger ship but when it reaches somewhere north of Madagascar, an enormous storm damages it. The crew disembark the ship on a lifeboat in search of a shore. As they reach the shore, they separate to look for fresh water. A huge monster attacks the crew and they run away on the boat while leaving Gulliver stranded on the island. Gulliver runs deeper into the island to save himself but soon he realizes that he is caught in greater danger as he sees giant grass and humongous corn around him. Gulliver further observes a group of monsters carrying giant scythes in their hands as they work in the field. Gulliver is terrified as he remembers his days in Lilliput. He realizes how the Lilliputians might have felt when he arrived there. He was the only giant in that land of miniatures but here, he is surrounded by a whole crowd of monsters. He realizes that there is no absolute truth, nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison. Everything is dependent on the comparison, that is, perspective.
While working in the field, a reaper almost steps on Gulliver and he cries out loud to save himself. Another reaper notices that sound and picks up Gulliver in his hand. The reaper curiously examines Gulliver and then gently puts him in his pocket and takes him to show to his master, the farmer. The farmer is surprised by seeing this vermin that produces some strange sounds. Gulliver is afraid and he offers all his gold to them to save his life as these giants can easily crush him. But the giants don’t recognize the worth of gold and return it to him. These monsters converse in some strange language that Gulliver cannot understand. The farmer wraps gulliver in his handkerchief and takes him to his home. At home, the farmer shows Gulliver to his surprised family members. He offers Gulliver some food as the family takes dinner. The farmer’s toddler son is curious about this strange vermin and he picks Gulliver up who frighteningly shouts to save himself. The farmer notices Gulliver and he twists the ears of his son while rescuing Gulliver. Then Gulliver requests the farmer through signs to forgive his son and let his ear be freed. Since then, Gulliver starts addressing the farmer as his Master. He then sees two mice running in the house and he fears that even these giant mice can easily kill him. He kills one of the mice with the help of his sword and then he encounters a huge cat which terrifies him. Gulliver is disgusted by the complexion of the farmer’s wife but then he realizes that it is because of her huge size in comparison to himself. He remembers how Lilliputians found him ugly, frightening, and disgusting while he found them beautiful and lovely. The farmer’s nine-year-old daughter Glumdalclitch is fond of Gulliver and she takes proper care of him. She treats him diligently, washes him, and stitches a pair of new dresses for him. Gradually, Glundalclitch starts teaching the Brodingnagian language to Gulliver. Everyone in the society of farmers is curious about this new little creature. One of the neighbors the farmer suggests to him that he can make good money by exhibiting his pet vermin in the local market.
At the market, the farmer puts Gulliver on a desk, and Gulliver bows to everyone while answering questions asked by Glumdalclitch. Then he shows a game of his sword. A boy from the crowd throws a hazelnut at Gulliver but he dodges the hazelnut and survives. The boy is then beaten by others. The show proves to be a financial success and the farmer decides to take Gulliver to different places for exhibition on a country-wide tour. The farmer decides to stage 10 shows in every big city.
While the farmer makes good money on this tour, Gulliver suffers because of travel, lack of food, and too much workload as he has to perform 10 times every day. On his last performance, the Brobdingnagian queen observes Gulliver and gets excited by him. She decides to buy this new kind of vermin for her pleasure. The farmer thinks that Gulliver has turned too weak and thin and may die pretty soon and thus, he sells Gulliver to the Queen. Gulliver requests the farmer and the queen to let Glumdalclitch be with him and the farmer agrees to it. As the farmer leaves, Gulliver tells the queen how the farmer kept him under the burden of overwork and hopes that the queen will take good care of him. The queen is impressed by Gulliver’s fine talks and sensibility. She shows him to the Brobdingnagian king At first, the king doubts that Gulliver is a piece of clockwork but soon realizes that Gulliver is a living sane creature that can use logic. The king summons his advisors and philosophers to examine Gulliver who declares that he is a freak of nature, an extremely minute man. The king orders a special chamber to be made for Gulliver and Glumdalclitch where they could live comfortably. The king and queen love to dine with Gulliver and Glumdalclitch. Gulliver would often tell stories of men in England and how they live. The prince of Brobdingnag is amused by Gulliver and one day he comments “how contemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects as [Gulliver].”
While life is comparably good for Gulliver in the Brobdingnagian palace, he is pestered by the dwarf of the palace who used to be the Queen’s favorite before Gulliver arrived. Being jealous of Gulliver, he would often torture him in various ways. Once he stuck Gulliver in the hollow of a marrow bone and once nearly drowned him in a pitcher of cream. Gulliver is also pestered by house flies which are huge in size. They will often excrete food and lay their eggs everywhere. While the giants cannot see them, Gulliver sees the filth and eggs of houseflies and it disgusts him. He is also afraid of giant wasps who once attacked him with their stingers. Gulliver managed to remove the stinger from him and kept it as a memory.
Gulliver observes that the country of Brobdingang is situated on a rocky peninsula and based on his memories of where he lost his ship and crew members, he guesses that Brobdingnag must be situated somewhere between Japan and North America. Glumdalclitch is still the best caretaker of Gulliver who would often take Gulliver on countryside expeditions in a specially made box for Gulliver. On one such expedition, Gulliver notices some beggars. He sees lice crawling on their body that they couldn’t see themselves. He notices that the architecture of Brobdingnag isn’t as impressive as that of England. The dwarf continues to create troubles for Gulliver which increase because of Gulliver’s size. One day, the dwarf shook off an apple tree so forcibly that many apples fell on Gulliver who nearly drowned and dead under the apples but somehow managed to survive. In another instance, Gulliver was nearly crushed by a falling hail. Even dogs try to take a bite of Gulliver and giant birds would often try to gulp him away.
The maids of the queen are very careful towards Gulliver and they treat him like a baby. They will often get naked and urinate in front of him and play with him while keeping him on their naked bodies. Gulliver is disgusted by the strong, magnified odor of their bodies. He could observe the uneven skin of their bodies and their breasts too appear to be ugly to him because of the enormity of the flaws of their skin. One day, the pet monkey of the Queen mistakes Gulliver to be a baby monkey and takes him to the top of a tree, forcibly feeding him her milk. The soldiers then captured the monkey and killed it. While each of these accidents was lethal for Gulliver who gets shocked to his core every time, Glumdalclitch, the Queen, and the King find these accidents laughable. This further frustrates Gulliver who starts finding ways to return back to his world of normal size.
Gulliver continues to entertain the queen and weaves a purse for her out of her own hair. He also produces a normal size mouth organ to play music and entertain the court. The king would often enquire him about the ways of governance in England. As Gulliver delivers more information about life and governance in England, the King gets impressed by his explanations, and one day, he picks up Gulliver in his hands and comments while appreciating Gulliver, “you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice…qualify…a legislator; that laws are best…applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.” The king comments that the kings, priests, military officers, judges, and senators in England are chosen without merit. As Gulliver doesn’t like such criticism, he starts not to answer King’s question to which the king comments that it appears as if the Englishmen are “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin.”
Gulliver doesn’t mind such criticism as he feels that the king’s seclusion and ignorance of the rest of the world has left him narrow-minded and prejudiced in ways that Europeans “are wholly exempt” from. Gulliver tells the king about the invention of Gunpowder and how it has made Englishmen very powerful. However, the king is disgusted about such a thing and calls it an ‘inhuman idea’ that he cannot appreciate. Gulliver then tells the king about the science of politics and the importance of keeping secrets but the king ridicules it too and says that secrets should be kept from anyone but a country’s enemies and “confined the knowledge of governing…to common sense and reason, to justice and lenity.”
Gulliver notices that Brobdingnagians excel in “morality, history, poetry, and mathematics,” but they apply mathematics only to those things that will be useful for their lives and never indulge themselves in abstractions. The legal system of Brobdingnag is also fairly simple and the law is interpreted by everyone in the same manner. The Brobdingnagian army is not professional but it is very disciplined and is comprised of ordinary tradesmen, farmers, and grocers led by aristocrats. However, Brobdingnag never faced an invasion. The army is there to keep peace and avoid civil wars.
Gulliver faces many accidents during his two-year stay in Brobdingnag and then he faces another accident. One day, Glumdalclitch and the Queen decide to take Gulliver to the beach. He is left behind on the beach under the protection of a pageboy while the Queen goes away to enjoy the water. The page gets distracted and suddenly, a giant bird appears and takes away Gulliver’s carrier box with Gulliver inside it. Some other birds confront this bird in the sky and after some tussling, the bird drops the box into the sea. Gulliver gets terrified as he is confounded in the box. He waves his handkerchief and cries for help. After some time, he is picked up from the sea and then he observes that he has been saved by the crew of an English ship. Gulliver is shocked at seeing so many pygmies as he has been accustomed to seeing the giants of Brobdingang. He explains his ordeal to the ship captain and informs him how he was picked up by a giant bird. But nobody believes him. Gulliver then shows them the artifacts of Brobdingnag that he collected and the mouse-skin trouser that Glumdalclitch sewed for him. The captain now believes him and suggests that he should write up his adventures for all to read.
Finally, he reaches back to London and meets his family. His wife requests him to give up his fancy of sea travel and stay at home forever. However, Gulliver soon leaves home to the sea once more.
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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