Study Guide
Gulliver’s Travels Video based on the novel by Jonathan Swift
Literary term: Satire - a work which uses humor, irony, and sarcasm to ridicule vices,
stupidities, and abuses.
Characters:
Lemuel Gulliver: English narrator who is a very decent sort of person, hopeful, simple, fairly direct,
and full of good will. He is a scientist, a trained doctor and keen observer of the world around him.
He hires on as a ship’s doctor who finds himself shipwrecked and through many different means
transported from one bizarre land to another.
Much of what Gulliver observes is good and much of what he thinks and does, is the opposite
of what Swift thinks.
His experiences cause him to become, in the end, embittered toward people and the
world.When he returns home after living with the Houyhnhnms, he is repulsed by human contact and
has to learn how to tolerate his own kind again.
Mary: Gulliver’s wife who is housekeeper for Dr. Bates when Gulliver returns
Thomas: Gulliver’s eight- year old son whom Gulliver knew nothing about since Mary did not know she
was pregnant when Gulliver left
Dr. Bates: takes over Gulliver’s practice, buys his house, and wants to marry Mary
Lilliput: First land Gulliver visits, which satirizes religious rituals and conflicts which often start
wars
Characters from Lilliput:
Drunlo: finds Gulliver on the beach and through Gulliver’s influence, becomes a high official in the
court and saves Gulliver’s life when he hears the emperor and his cabinet plotting against him;
Gulliver gives him his gold ring when he leaves Lilliput
Emperor of Lilliput: small-minded, cruel ruler who doesn’t know the real reason for the country’s
rivalries
Empress of Lilliput; spoiled, young wife of the emperor who is scared of Gulliver; then, when she is
saved from fire by Gulliver, she becomes a laughingstock because of the method he uses to put out
the fire
Brobdingnag: satirizes the English government
Queen of Brobdingnag: through her Jonathan Swift expresses his true views of the way things are
done in England
Glumdivitch: little peasant girl who takes care of Gulliver
Grildrig: dwarf who had been the queen’s favorite before Gulliver came along ; hates and tries to kill
Gulliver
Characters and terms from Laputa, the floating island: satirizes pseudo intellectualism
Rajah: so intelligent that he had no common sense; he has his “head in the clouds”
Prince Munodi: son of the Rajah and Empress Munodi who is considered to be stupid by his father
but in reality was the only truly intelligent person on the island
Academy of Lagado: scholars who “know all the answers” but whose ridiculous , unrealistic theories
bring ruin upon Empress Munodi’s land
Other Characters
The Sorcerer of Glubbdubdrib: historian who promises Gulliver to take him to the port from which
he can sail for England but actually drugs him every night and uses his blood to call up real people
from the past, such as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Cleopatra, and Sir Thomas More.
Strulbruggs: have achieved immortality through a potion they drink, but still suffer from all the
afflictions of the aged such as blindness and palsy
The Land of the Houyhnhnms: satirizes humanity
Houyhnhnms:(means perfection of nature) very intelligent, very moral, talking horses
Mistress: Houyhnhnm who befriends Gulliver and tells him in the end that he is more Houyhnhnm than
Yahoo
Yahoo: man in his most crude and bestial form
About the author
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667 to English parents.He is considered to be one of
England’s greatest satirists. He wrote caustic political and social satire aimed at the English people,
representing mankind in general, and at the Whigs in particular.He was ordained a priest in the
church of Ireland. He later became the dean of St. Patrick’s cathedral. He did not write for money
or fame. He wrote to improve human conduct. It is said that he hated Man, but loved individual men
Words from Gulliver’s Travels that is now part of our vocabulary.
Lillipution: tiny; very small
Yahoo: crude; bestial