Brobdingnag

Gulliver’s second travel to Brobdingnag analyzes how government and people can view themselves above all else. It is said that self-preservation innately is the first law of nature; but to what point is there too much focus on oneself? Swift attempts to exploit this overly enthusiastic view of self through Gulliver’s travel to an island of giants. Here the people are twelve times the size of Gulliver – the exact opposite of the proportion of the Lilliputians. Brobdingnag is a peaceful place that ironically threatens Gulliver the most out of his travels.

The natural perception is for people of enormous size to be brutes; the size of the government is proportional to the tyranny that it inflicts upon its people; however,
in the reality of the novel, the Brobdingnags despise acts of violence and are peaceful in nature. Melinda Rabb discusses Gulliver’s attempt to impress the King of Brobdingnag by offering him a method of creating gunpowder ; the king is disgusted by the act and insist that violence is unnecessary; ironically, he threatens to take Gulliver’s life if he mentions such evil things again (338).

The Brobdingnags use their size to their advantage not through violence, but through overwhelming control. They do not need to act violently because they have absolute command. Gulliver may be treated with kindness but at court he is still enslaved and initially used for the profit of the farmer. The strong, overpowering size of the Brobdingnags is used to their advantage in a controlling manner and in relation to England, is also disguised by kindness. English people do not perceive the cruel acts as overpowering and threatening ; the conflict between parties is symbolized by monkeys and crude, naked women in the novel. Fink presents the point that “To [the eighteenth-century English] political parties were factions, and the development of factions of any kind being considered inimical to the maintenance of the balance in a mixed state, they were at all costs to be prevented” ( 156). However, “Brobdingnag is a partyless state, and the point is emphasized when, after one of Gulliver’s expansive accounts of England to the King, the monarch picks him up and in a fit of laughter asks whether he was a Whig or a Tory” (Fink 157).

Christian Santos's interpretation of Brobdingnag presented as a travel poster (Click poster for a larger image) --------------------------------- <--Back to home Get a Plot Summary View Concept Map

The debate of perception verses reality persists in Brobdingnag; the manifestation of size equaling strength does not hold true although size equaling power does. As far as power and size are concerned, readers must look beyond the actual text to find the deeper meaning Swift tries to convey.  Although the peace and joy found in Brobdingnag give it the appearance of a utopia, like all other societies, it is not perfect which is a recurring theme throughout the novel.