Gulliver’s Travels Characters

Lemuel Gulliver

Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon on a ship, has a penchant for adventure, especially voyages to far-off lands. We experience the story through the lens of Gulliver’s encounters with people from various civilizations. Presented as a patriotic person dissatisfied with his domestic life, Gulliver finds himself gradually transformed by each encounter in the book.

His record of his encounters is largely factual. In fact, his accounts seem characterized by a special disconnect from emotions. Notably, his name is a play on his naive, gullible nature.

The Emperor

The king of Lilliput is fierce despite his diminutive physical stature. He rules his kingdom with aptitude and control. He is generous, welcoming, and tolerant of Gulliver—that is, until he refuses to help the king enslave the Blefuscians. The queen of Lilliput finds Gulliver’s refusal utterly unforgivable, even though he helps the kingdom in other ways.

The Laputian King

The Laputian King rules over Lagado, a hovering mass of land that never touches the ground. He is full of abstract ideas. His levitating kingdom mirrors his own preoccupation with the highly conceptual.

Glumdalclitch

Glumdalclitch is the young daughter of a farmer in Brobdingnag, land of the extremely tall people. She is Gulliver’s caretaker, and even though she is only nine years old, she towers over him. She also helps him learn the language spoken in Brobdingnag.

Lord Munodi

Lord Munodi is the ruler of Lagado, a land where science is pursued for strange and often unachievable ends. This pursuit of the unachievable in turn impoverishes the land, thus exemplifying what Swift saw as the pointlessness of some of the scientific undertakings of his time.

Yahoos

Yahoos are the savages living in the land of Houyhnhnms; they are known for their irreverence. Their unkempt bodies and free approach to sexual matters are some of their prominent characteristics. At his arrival, Gulliver finds himself extremely disgusted by the Yahoos.

Houyhnhnms

Houyhnhnms are horses who run a rational society; they live together as a community. They are also peaceful and intelligent, and the Yahoos regard Houyhnhnms as their masters. Gulliver finds the community endearing, and this is also one of the few places he finds difficult to leave. The time he spends with the horses makes him question whether humans really are the epitome of civilization and rationality.

Gulliver’s Houyhnhnms Master

Initially suspicious of Gulliver’s presence, the Houyhnhnms master warms up to his presence when Gulliver learns their language. To the master, Gulliver appears to be another savage Yahoo. Gulliver, on the other hand, is moved by the master’s intelligence and rationality.

Don Pedro de Mendez

Don Pedro de Mendez is the captain who steers Gulliver away from the Houyhnhnms’ domain and back to Europe. Don is a generous soul, but Gulliver is unable to look past his similarities with the Yahoos.

Brobdingnagians

The Brobdingnagians are known for their extremely large physical stature. They are constantly surprised by Gulliver, who, in comparison, looks like a mere toy to them.

Lilliputians and Blefuscudians

Lilliputians and Blefuscudians are a set of people at war with each other over the proper way of eating eggs. Gulliver helps the two parties reach an amicable settlement. However, he invites the wrath of the king of Lilliputians when he refuses to help them enslave their enemies.

Laputans

On his third voyage, Gulliver meets the Laputans who are intellectual, but removed from any reality or practicality. They need servants to wake them up from their reverie and thoughts.

Mary Burton Gulliver

She is Gulliver’s wife; she does not accompany Gulliver on his adventures. She is confined to the domestic instead. Gulliver is unable to express his emotions even as he processes his experiences; he is also unable to reciprocate her happiness upon his return from the voyages.

Richard Sympson

Richard Sympson, Gulliver’s editor and publisher, is a delightful stylistic choice on Swift’s part: the preface to the Gulliver’s Travels is written by Sympson. He is the one who makes Gulliver’s irrelevant, complicated, and excessively fact-based work worthy of publication.

James Bates

Gulliver is James Bates’ apprentice in surgery. Bates’ death is one of the factors that spurs Gulliver into taking up adventurous travel. He is unable to maintain Bates’ business after his death and decides that traveling might be a better alternative.