Gulliver in Brobdingnag

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: Reading Notes, Part II

"Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World: Part 2, A Voyage to Brobdingnag."

Brobdingnag situated by Gulliver and by map in first edition as a peninsula on west coast of North America, well above known California settlements of Monterrey and Mendocino (and thus, it is fun to imagine, quite possibly the Long Beach peninsula of Washington State).

Encountering giant Brobdingnags, Gulliver muses on changes in status brought by size and power alone: "in this terrible agitation of mind, I could not forebear thinking of Lilliput . . . Where I was able to draw an Imperial Fleet in my hand, and perform those other actions which will be recorded forever in the chronicles of that empire, while posterity shall hardly believe them, although attested by millions. I reflected what a mortification it must prove to me to appear as inconsiderable in this nation as one single Lillupitian would be among us."

From living myth in Lilliput to insignificant morsel, Gulliver's initial status in Brobdingnag that of an animal; the farmer plucks him from amid the furrows and examines him as he would a weasel. "What could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me."

Immediate reaction of farm family is to treat Gulliver like an animal or plaything despite his human characteristics and behavior -- the mother shrieks as if he were a toad or shrew; the son dangles and plucks at him the way all children are mischievous "toward sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs"; and the infant sticks the tiny Gulliver in her mouth.

It is the young daughter who sees Gulliver's personhood (though she seems to enjoy dressing and undressing him as if he were a doll) and he comes into her care until the plan arises to exhibit him at the town fair for money arises. The daughter realizes Gulliver is to be taken away from her just as "last year, when they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was day, sold it to a butcher."

Gulliver exhibited by the farmer far-and-wide, performing English mannerisms such as flourishing his sword and doffing his hat for the eager crowds. Resonance here with how natives were brought back to Europe by explorers as curiosities.

Gulliver's name in Brobdingnag is Grildrig (Little Man).

Gulliver sold to Queen, who finds him appealing. King at first cannot decide if he is an animal or clever clockwork. He becomes a part of the royal household, quickly earning the resentment of the Royal Dwarf, now supplanted as a curiosity.

Gulliver's size allows him to see how disguisting household flies are with their feces and secretions. He is horrified to see Queen devour entire birds, bones and all, though he devoured Lilliput's tiny viands in similar fashion.

Magnitude of Brobdingnagians makes apparent the imperfections of their flesh -- mottled, pitted -- just as miniature Lilliputians seemed physically perfect and charming.

Equivalent to looking through a microscope, Gulliver sees true nature of the world: "the most hateful sight of all was the lice crawling on their clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin with my naked eye, much better than a European loise through a microscope, and their snouts with which they rooted like swine."

"Gulliver's Travels" as an ocular adventure. His great size in Lilliput allows him to see the pettiness of human society; his tiny size in Brobdingnag reveals the grossness and beastliness of human existence.

More disgust, this time ofalcatory: "The Maids of Honor . . . would often strip me naked from top to toe, and lay me at full length in their bosoms; wherewith I was much disgusted; because to say the truth a very offensive odor came from their skins."

Pre-Darwinian moment: a monkey at the Castle mistakes Gulliver for "a young one of his own species," runs off with him and rocks him like a baby while feeding him from his own provender.

The king interrogates Gulliver on the affairs of England. Gulliver provides a panygeric, but after close questioning the King states: "from the answers I have with much pains wringed and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

Attempting again to assert superiority of English society, Gulliver describes his world's munitions and offers to construct such devices for Brobdingnag. The king is horrified that such murderous, inhuman machines could be viewed as a sign of a nation's greatness and finds Gulliver's offer repellent, calling him an "impotent and groveling insect."

Regarding such denunciation, Gulliver opines to his reader that the King has "narrow principles and short views" in his rejection of a technology which would make him "absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people."

The Brobdingnag King's political philosophy: "he gave it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together."

Gulliver reads a work of Brobdingnag philosophy that suggests humans must have once been of greater stature. A devolution from Brobdingnagians (x10)through Europeans to Lilliputians (-10)?

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