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Gulliver’s Travels Summary by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels Summary Chapter Wise

Gulliver’s Travels recounts the adventures of an Englishman, Lemuel Gulliver, who trained as a surgeon, but took to the seas when his business failed. In an unemotional first-person narrative, that rarely shows any signs of self-reflection or deep emotional response, Gulliver narrates the adventures that befall him on his travels.

Gulliver’s adventure in Lilliput begins when he wakes, after his shipwreck, to find himself bound by innumerable tiny threads and addressed by tiny captors who are in awe of him but fiercely protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use violence against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks. But overall, they are hospitable, risking famine in their land by feeding Gulliver, who consumes more food than a thousand Lilliputians combined could.

Gulliver is taken into the capital city by a vast wagon the Lilliputians have specially built. He is presented to the emperor, who is entertained by Gulliver, just as Gulliver is flattered by the attention of royalty. Eventually, Gulliver becomes a national resource, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way of cracking eggs. However, things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace with his urine and is condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he is able to find and repair a boat and set sail for England.

After staying in England with his wife and family for two months, Gulliver undertakes his next sea voyage, which takes him to Brobdingnag, a land of giants. Here, a field worker discovers him. The farmer treats him as little more than an animal, keeping him for amusement, and eventually, selling him to the queen, who looks upon him as a diversion and is entertained by his musical talents. Social life is easy for Gulliver after his discovery by the court, but not particularly enjoyable.

Gulliver is often repulsed by the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many times magnified by their huge size. He is generally startled by the ignorance of the people here—even the king knows nothing about politics. More unsettling findings in Brobdingnag come in the form of various animals of the realm that endanger his life. Even Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy trails on his food that make eating difficult. On a trip to the frontier, accompanying the royal couple, Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked by an eagle and dropped into the sea.

Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island, inhabited by theoreticians and academics, oppresses Balnibarbi, the land below. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical, and its residents, too, appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from there, back to England.

Finally, on his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated by Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about learning their language and when he masters it, he narrates his voyages to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their noble culture.

He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo and he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave. He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well, though now, Gulliver cannot help but see the captain—and all humans—as shamefully Yahoo-like. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with the claim that the lands he has visited belong, by rights, to England, as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism.