Chapters 5-8

This chapter sheds light on the various possibly fatal obstacle races Gulliver has to endure on a daily basis. He recounts being kidnapped by a monkey who mistakes Gulliver to be a baby monkey. He discusses the various ways in which the queen’s dwarfs torture him. He also writes about the curious maids who explore him with fascination, and use him as a toy over their own bodies. He shares the disgust he feels about these violations. Gulliver tries, but fails to maintain his dignity in these circumstances.

Gulliver gifts the queen a purse made of her own hair and entertains the court with human-sized musical instruments. He begins to teach the king some uniquely English modes of polity and governance, which fills the king with questions and disbelief. The king ends the classes with the observation that Englishmen seem poisonous, horrible, selfish, and dishonorable. Gulliver, however, cautions readers that the king’s views are not accurate, but based on ignorance and, more importantly, “prejudice” against Englishmen. He adds that the king had refused to consider keeping secrets from his own subjects even under extenuating circumstances; the king had also refused to explore the destructive potential of gunpowder, Gulliver adds. Interestingly, Gulliver reveals that the Brobdingnagians tend to prefer literature that is masculine and straightforward. They also see mathematics as a highly practical field; that is, mathematics is valuable only if it is useful.

Gulliver is picked up by a bird and dropped into the ocean, where a ship’s captain rescues him and nurses him back to health. Gulliver finds this human world strange and small compared to the kingdom he had just spent two years in. His family requests that he not set sail again, but Gulliver ignores their request.

Analysis

Gulliver’s size dehumanizes him to everybody in the kingdom, including animals. The royal family’s reaction toward Gulliver’s misery is one of mirth; even his caretaker has a similar reaction, although, it must be said, they do try to sympathize with him. The idea of perspective is once again foregrounded when Gulliver discusses English modes of polity and governance. Gulliver shares these details out of pride for what he sees as his country’s glorious achievements, whereas the Brobdingnagian king sees that the English seem to have acted dishonorably and selfishly. Even though Gulliver attributes this to the king’s ignorance, the king’s challenge to the English ways of governance is valid. In Gulliver’s apology for having included the king’s criticism and the details of defecation, Swift comments that English propriety is mainly pretense.

After returning to England, he finds “regular,” human-sized people to be too short and small. This is another instance of Swift shaking up the idea of “absolutes” by focusing on the question of “perspective.”