Gulliver’s Travels Video Guide
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Main 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
Characters from Lilliput: First land Gulliver visits, which satirizes religious rituals and conflicts which often start
wars
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
Characters from 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
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Guided Questions:
The story of Dr. Lemuel Gulliver begins…
1. What is the woman in white being pressured to do at the beginning of the film?
2. What is in the small bag the lady in white is given?
The flashbacks begin…get ready for the story to switch between settings….
Adventure 1:
3. The man seems to have a flashback to which place?
4. What do the small people, the Lilliputians do to the giant Lemuel Gulliver?
5. The Lilliputian soldiers first believe that Gulliver is a what?
6. How do the Lilliputians transport Gulliver?
7. What is the Emperor like?
8. Why are Bigenders the enemies of the Lilliputians? What is the origin of their feud?
9. How does Gulliver prove to be a hero to the Lilliputians?
10. After Gulliver embarrasses the empress (by extinguishing the fire), how does the king consider punishing
him?
11. Where does Dr. Bates take Gulliver? How does he convince him to go?
Adventure 2:
12. What is unusual about the land of the Brobdingnags?
13. Who finds Gulliver?
14. How does the family try to make money off of Gulliver?
15. What position does the queen give to Gulliver?
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16. What do you notice about the ruler of the Brobdingnags?
17. How do the Brobdingnags govern themselves?
18. Why does Gulliver introduce gunpowder to the Brobdingnags, and how is this demonstration received?
19. What happens to Gulliver one day while he is at the beach with Glum?
20. When the bird drops Gulliver, where do he and the box land?
Adventure 3:
21. What is unusual about Laputa?
22. What seems to characterize the people of Laputa?
23. Who is Prince Munodi?
24. What is the Rajah predicting will happen?
25. Why does Gulliver want to “reverse the lodestone”?
26. Why does Gulliver want to find the “Academy”? What type of place is it?
27. What might the “Academy” represent in real-life societies?
At this point, Gulliver travels around the land of Luggnagg. These places represent societies intrigued with
the Period of Enlightenment (The Restoration): Love of intellectual and scientific attitudes and practices.
28. Why is the old man mashing cucumbers?
29. Who does Gulliver meet in the Room of Answers?
30. Back in England, where is Gulliver placed?
31. When Gulliver is drugged and sleeping at night, what does the king do to him?
32. Who does Gulliver end up summoning through a mirror? Why?
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33. In the land of the Struldbrugs, a lady speaks to Gulliver from a golden eye. What is unusual about the
Struldbrugs?
34. What is wrong with the people near the waters of immortality?
35. Does Gulliver drink from the waters of immortality? Why or why not?
36. How does he leave the ship?
Adventure 4: The Houyhnhnms (pronounced “how-WIN-ems”) and the Yahoos:
37. Gulliver, back in England , is taken to a court hearing. What does he call the people there?
38. Describe the Yahoos.
39. Describe the Houyhnhnms.
40. Who is “Mistress”?
41. What does the Houyhnhnm Council decide about Gulliver?
42. How does Mary answer when Dr. Bates asks her if Mary believes Gulliver’s stories?
43. What does Tom’s evidence prove?
44. Lem, Mary, and Tom return home. How does life continue for the Gulliver family?
45. Does he find peace? What can Gulliver still not tolerate by the end of the story?
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