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Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 2 Chapter 7
Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Part 2 Chapter 7
The narrator’s love of his country is described. He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected. The king’s great ignorance in politics and the learning of that country very imperfect and confined is written about here. The laws, and military affairs, and parties in the state are explained.
Gulliver was disturbed by the king’s evaluation of England, which he decided arose from his ignorance of the country.
To remedy this, Gulliver offered to teach the king about England’s magnificence. He tried to tell him about gunpowder, describing it as a great invention and offering it to the king as a gesture of friendship, whereby the king could reduce all his subjects to slavery.
The king was horrified by the suggestion. He rejected such a bloodthirsty and inhumane proposal, warning the ‘impotent and grovelling insect’ (Gulliver) that he would be executed if he ever mentioned gunpowder again. Gulliver was taken aback, thinking that the king had refused a great opportunity. He thought that the king was unnecessarily scrupulous and narrow-minded for not being more open to the inventions of Gulliver’s world.
Gulliver turned to giving an account of the customs and government of his hosts. The Brobdingnagiari army was a national guard or militia; there w ere no professional soldiers. As for government, it was extremely simple. There were no refinements, mysteries, intrigues, or state secrets. Government depended upon common sense, mercy, and swift justice. Gulliver found the people of Brobdingnag in general to be ignorant and poorly educated.
Brobdingnagian learning consisted only of morality, history, poetry and practical mathematics. The Brobdingnagians could not understand abstract reasoning or ideas. Their laws could contain only twenty-two words and had to be absolutely clear. No arguments could be written about them. They knew the art of printing but did not have many books, and their writing was simple and straightforward. One text described the insignificance and weakness of Brobdingnagians and even argued that at one point they must have been much larger.