Gulliver Travels Chapter 2 Summary
Gulliver Travels Chapter 2 Summary
Gulliver Travels Chapter 2 Summary
the country. He is left on shore, is seized by one of the natives, and carried to a farmer's
house. His reception, with several accidents that happened there. A description of the
inhabitants."
Gulliver heads out to sea again on June 20, 1702. His ship is called the Adventure, with Captain
John Nicholas.
About a year passes as they jump around the world, but finally (as you might expect) the Adventure
hits a storm that leaves them totally confused about where they are.
On June 17, 1703, the sailors of the Adventure spot land and row ashore with Gulliver.
The landing party spots a monster in the distance, a giant man about 60 feet high. All the sailors
dash to their rowboat and start rowing hell for leather back to the Adventure – accidentally leaving
our friend Gulliver behind on the island (which, by the way, is the island of Brobdingnag).
Gulliver finds a road through a field of corn that stands at least 40 feet high. As he walks along,
he finds that the corn is being harvested by guys carrying extremely large scythes.
Gulliver runs through the corn, but he's having trouble making any progress because everything is
so huge that he can't make his way past the leaves and branches of the corn plants.
Finally, Gulliver gives up and lies down in the furrows between the corn rows, thinking of his wife
and children. He thinks he's going to be eaten by these giants.
Still, when one of the reapers comes close to Gulliver, he realizes that the guy might step on him
and squash him by accident, so Gulliver screams as loud as he can.
The reaper sees him and picks him up. Gulliver clasps his hands in a praying gesture, which the
guy seems to understand.
The giant puts Gulliver in his jacket pocket and goes to his employer, a farmer.
The farmer (whom Gulliver starts to call his Master) examines Gulliver closely, and realizes that
he seems to be a thinking creature and not just an animal.
They try to speak to each other, but neither can follow the other's language.
Gulliver's new master takes Gulliver home and shows him to his wife, who screams as though
Gulliver is a mouse or a snake or something. Soon she gets used to him, though, and comes to like
him.
Gulliver's master has a kid around 10 years old.
Gulliver worries that the kid is going to tear him apart, since kids can be rough with animals. So,
he sucks up to the boy by kissing his hands.
Gulliver's mistress (his new master's wife) has a cat, but Gulliver figures that, if he shows it no
fear, the cat will not attack him. This proves to be true: it totally ignores him.
After dinner, a nurse brings in the mistress's baby. She gives Gulliver to the baby as a plaything
and the child almost bites Gulliver's head off. It's only through Gulliver's quick thinking that he
gets the child to drop him.
The child starts to wail and, to quiet him, Gulliver's mistress starts to breast feed the child.
Gulliver goes into a pretty lengthy description of how revolting her breasts look at this size – 6
feet tall and 16 feet around, with a nipple as big as his breast.
Gulliver decides that even the loveliest women only look good because we don't see them
magnified – if you look too close, everyone's skin looks rough.
After all this excitement, Gulliver's mistress puts Gulliver to bed on her handkerchief.
After two hours, Gulliver wakes up.
He sees two rats crawling towards him up the curtains and freaks out – they're both as big as a
large dog to Gulliver.
Gulliver gets a lucky shot and manages to kill one with his sword; the second rat runs away in fear.
The mistress comes in and sees Gulliver covered with blood and the dead rat.
She picks Gulliver up and washes him off.
Finally, he manages to indicate to her that he needs to take care of a call of nature, so she takes
him out into the garden to do his business.
Gulliver apologizes to the reader for dwelling on his peeing habits, but he claims that they will be
helpful to the philosopher seeking to apply lessons from his experience to public and private life.
(We're pretty sure this is a joke.)
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary
"A description of the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a market-town, and then to
the metropolis. The particulars of his journey."
Gulliver's mistress has a 9‐year old daughter who sews well and is generally really smart. She makes
Gulliver some clothes and also starts teaching him the Brobdingnagian language.
Gulliver calls this girl Glumdalclitch, his little nurse, and she names him Grildrig.
Rumors are spreading through the whole area that the farmer, Gulliver's master, has found a strange little
creature that seems to imitate human beings perfectly.
One of the master's neighbors comes by and suggests that he would make a huge profit by showing
Gulliver at the local market for a fee.
The next market day, Gulliver's master follows this guy's advice and starts advertising for people to come
and see his tiny human.
Gulliver does tricks and repeats what phrases he knows of the Brobdingnagian language for the
entertainment of local audiences.
After a long day of these performances, Gulliver's master promises to bring him back the next market day.
Gulliver is so profitable that his master decides to take him on a tour of the cities of the kingdom.
Gulliver travels under the care of Glumdalclitch. She knows how much it tires Gulliver to be displayed at
markets like this, so Glumdalclitch often complains to her father of her own exhaustion to get him to travel
slowly.
After ten weeks of travel and eighteen different large towns, Gulliver's master, Glumdalclitch, and Gulliver
himself all arrive at the central city, Lorbrulgrud.
Gulliver's master rents a large room and sets up a stage for Gulliver's performances.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
"The author sent for to court. The queen buys him of his master the farmer, and presents
him to the king. He disputes with his majesty's great scholars. An apartment at court
provided for the author. He is in high favour with the queen. He stands up for the honour
of his own country. His quarrels with the queen's dwarf."
All of this performing is having a terrible effect on Gulliver's health, and his master can see that he's getting
sick.
Gulliver's master resolves to make as much money as he can off Gulliver before Gulliver dies.
One day, the Queen of Brobdingnag arrives at his apartment and offers to buy Gulliver for a huge sum of
gold.
Gulliver agrees with the Queen's wishes as long as he can ask one tiny favor: he wants the Queen to
employ Glumdalclitch as Gulliver's nurse.
The Queen agrees to his master's price and Gulliver's request, and his master leaves Gulliver to the Queen.
The Queen notices how cold Gulliver's farewell to his (now former) master is, and asks for an explanation.
Gulliver tells her that his former master exploited him, and suggests that, under Her Majesty's august
protection, he might still be able to recover his former strength after all of this bad treatment.
The Queen brings Gulliver to the King of Brobdingnag and asks Gulliver to explain again how his former
master treated him.
The King of Brobdingnag thinks that Gulliver is a mechanical toy, and that he is parroting a story to the
royal couple that is not true.
He orders three scholars to come by his court and examine Gulliver to see what they can make of him.
The scholars decide that Gulliver is a lusus naturae – a freak of nature.
Gulliver interrupts to tell them that he comes from a country with millions of people like him and of his
size.
The scholars dismiss him, but the Brobdingagian King slowly starts to think that Gulliver is telling the truth.
The King tells the Queen to keep watching over Gulliver, which she does with great pleasure – she really
likes him.
The Queen outfits Gulliver with his own tiny pieces of furniture and itsy‐bitsy dishes and silverware, so
that he can sleep and eat comfortably.
Gulliver comes to dine with the royal family every Wednesday, where he gives descriptions of European
manners, customs, religion, and philosophy to the Brobdingnagian King.
The Brobdingnagian King laughs as he asks Gulliver if he is a Whig or a Tory?
(The Whigs and the Tories were Britain's eighteenth‐century equivalent of the Democrats and the
Republicans. The Whigs supported restrictions on royal power, while the Tories wanted the conservation
of the king's authority. Check out this article for more on these two political parties. Also, see our
"Character Analysis" of the Lilliputians for a specific look at Swift, the Whigs, and the Tories).
Gulliver gets all offended because the Brobdingnagian King uses Gulliver's account of English customs as
proof of human vanity: we all think our own politics and religion are so important, but from a wider
perspective, they really aren't.
But with time, Gulliver starts to see himself more and more from the Brobdingnagian perspective: tiny
and funny‐looking.
What does still really tick Gulliver off is that there is a small person (only 30 feet tall!) in the Queen's
service who totally rags on Gulliver because he has finally found someone smaller than he is. This person
plays a number of practical jokes on Gulliver.
The Queen is surprised at Gulliver's fearfulness, and asks if all the people of his home country are such
cowards?
Gulliver really can't help his fears: even the Brobdingnagian insects are as large as fat birds compared to
him.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
"The country described. A proposal for correcting modern maps. The king's palace; and
some account of the metropolis. The author's way of travelling. The chief temple described."
The island is 6,000 miles long and between 3,000 and 5,000 miles wide. It's a whole continent right smack
dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, between California and Japan.
The kingdom of Brobdingnag sits at the southern end of the island, surrounded on three sides by ocean
and on one side by impassable mountains.
The country has 51 cities, the largest of which is Lorbrulgrud.
The king's palace in Lorbrulgrud is a mass of buildings about 7 miles around.
Glumdalclitch takes Gulliver on frequent outings into the city, accompanied by her governess (a woman
who acts as both caretaker and private tutor for young kids).
When Gulliver goes on these outings, he is placed in a special box for travel, with windows on three sides
to allow him to look out.
Whenever they travel through the city, passersby always stop to look at Gulliver – he has become very
famous.
Gulliver and Glumdalclitch go out to see the primary temple of the city, which is both beautiful and 3,000
feet in height – about three‐fifths of a mile.
(To give you a sense of scale, this makes the steeple of this temple almost three times the height of the
Empire State Building.)
Believe it or not, Gulliver is disappointed – he expected the temple to be taller.
Gulliver tells us that the king's kitchen is also amazing: it's 600 feet high (just under half the height of the
Empire State Building).
Gulliver is also most impressed by the sight of the Brobdingnagian King's military guard on parade, in
detachments of 500. The horses are, of course, enormous – around 60 feet high.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
"Several adventures that happened to the author. The execution of a criminal. The author
shows his skills in navigation."
Gulliver's life in Brobdingnag is pretty happy except that his tiny size makes him so vulnerable to danger.
1. When Gulliver is walking under an apple tree, the Queen's dwarf shakes the tree, causing about
12 apples to drop. These apples almost brain Gulliver.
2. Gulliver is sitting on a plot of grass when a sudden hail shower nearly crushes him to death with
balls of ice about 1,800 times the size of European hail.
3. The worst danger of all comes when Glumdalclitch leaves Gulliver in the palace gardens while she
is talking to her governess. A small white dog gets loose in the garden and carries Gulliver
(fortunately, very carefully) to the feet of her master, the head gardener. The gardener returns
Gulliver to Glumdalclitch.
Glumdalclitch gets really terrified for Gulliver's safety after this, and decides not to let him out of her sight.
Gulliver is kind of bummed, because he likes being able to go on walks by himself – even though he is a
bit accident prone.
On these walks alone, Gulliver observes that even the birds of Brobdingnag are not afraid of him; they
come very close to him looking for worms.
He catches one but it pecks him almost to death – he's saved at the last minute by a servant, who kills the
bird.
(A historical side note: here, Gulliver starts to tell us about Glumdalclitch and the Queen's maids of honor.
The meaning of the phrase "maid of honor" has definitely changed over time; after all, the Queen is not
about to get married. In eighteenth century England, maids of honor were junior attendants to the Queen
– like fancy servants, only of higher rank than actual servants.)
These maids of honor like to have Gulliver come and play with them.
They frequently press his whole, tiny body against their bosoms – where Gulliver has a chance to observe
that they smell really bad to him, because there's just so much of them.
The worst thing about being near these maids of honor is that none of them think of Gulliver as a real
human being, so they regularly take off their clothes and even pee in front of him.
He is disgusted by their huge moles, big pores, hairy skins – he can see all of their imperfections totally
magnified, and it is nasty.
Gulliver witnesses an execution in Brobdingnag: a criminal is beheaded, and the fountain of blood is huge.
The Queen knows that Gulliver is familiar with boats, so she has both a boat and a trough of water three
hundred feet long made for him. He often goes to this trough to row or sail, to the amusement of the
Queen and her ladies.
Once, one of the servants who is supposed to fill Gulliver's trough with water accidentally lets a frog loose.
The frog nearly tips over Gulliver's boat.
But the worst danger Gulliver finds in Brobdingnag is from a monkey.
Glumdalclitch leaves Gulliver in her closet while she's out on some business, but the day is warm and the
closet window is open.
This monkey swings in from outside and finds Gulliver.
It mistakes Gulliver for a baby monkey, grabs him, carries him out of Glumdalclitch's rooms, climbs to a
roof nearby, and starts stuffing Gulliver with treats from a bag the monkey is carrying.
A small crowd gathers to try and get the monkey to free Gulliver, but they're also laughing hysterically at
the sight of Gulliver being force‐fed by his adoptive monkey parent.
Finally, the monkey drops Gulliver and runs away.
Glumdalclitch nurses him back to health.
Gulliver goes to visit the King to thank him for his kind thoughts during Gulliver's recovery.
The King asks Gulliver how he felt while being held by the monkey.
Gulliver claims that, if he hadn't been so frightened at seeing the monkey, he would have scared the beast
away with his sword as soon as he saw it.
All of the King's courtiers start laughing at how ridiculous Gulliver is: he could never have stabbed that
monkey with his sword, because he's way too cowardly.
In fact, Gulliver is always appearing like an idiot in front of the court.
He has an adventure with a cow pat that Glumdalclitch immediately tells the Queen to make her laugh.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
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"Several contrivances of the author to please the king and queen. He shows his skill in
music. The king inquires into the state of England, which the author relates to him. The
king's observations thereon."
Once or twice a week, Gulliver attends the King's levee, a kind of reception held every morning when a
King gets out of bed.
He collects the hairs that drop from the King's twice‐weekly shave to make himself a comb.
Gulliver also uses some of the Queen's hair from her brush to make a set of chairs (like cane chairs) that
the Queen keeps as curiosities.
Glumdalclitch plays the spinet, which is like a miniature piano – miniature to Glumdalclitch, but huge to
Gulliver.
Gulliver knows that the King is fond of music, so he makes himself some clubs to use to shove the keys of
the instrument down, but it's such hard work that he can't play properly.
The Brobdingnagian King asks Gulliver to give him an exact account of English government, because the
King wants to know if there is anything worth imitating there.
Gulliver starts off by explaining that his home is an empire uniting England, Ireland, Scotland, and
plantations in America under one king.
This kingdom is governed by a Parliament made up of two Houses (much as the American Congress
includes both the Senate and the House of Representatives). (Check out this link for more on the history
of the English Parliament.)
The first is the House of Peers, now called the House of Lords, an assembly of members of the landed
aristocracy.
The second house is the House of Commons, elected freely by the people.
Gulliver adds some information about England's law courts, treasury, armed forces, religion, and recent
history.
After listening to all that Gulliver has to say, the Brobdingnagian King asks him several tough questions,
including: how lords are educated to suit them for government? How do lords make laws without taking
into account personal interest or greed? How does the government make sure that its elected officials are
in it for the good of the state and not for their own glory or profit?
The King goes on to ask about the court system: does religion or politics ever factor into legal decisions?
How can judges presume to interpret laws that they don't make?
As for taxes, the King finds it very strange that a state can run out of money and borrow money like a
private person.
And how about differences in political and religious feeling – why should these private opinions be a
matter of public knowledge or concern at all?
Furthermore, what's all this about gambling? Doesn't this give people a method of making (or losing) lots
of money with no work of their own?
As for Gulliver's accounts of recent English history, it all just sounds like a pile of murders, massacres, and
revolutions to the King of Brobdingnag.
In fact, even though Gulliver has tried really hard to convince the King of the greatness of his home
country, the King concludes that England is governed by a pack of corrupt, unqualified, greedy thieves.
The King of Brobdingnag believes that most Englishmen must be "the most pernicious race of little odious
vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth" (2.6.18) – in other words, a
disgusting, evil bunch of little creeps.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
"The author's love of his country. He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king,
which is rejected. The king's great ignorance in politics. The learning of that country very
imperfect and confined. The laws, and military affairs, and parties in the state."
Gulliver sits and listens to the King's intense criticism of England. He keeps quiet (he says) because it would
be ungrateful of him to contradict the King, his benefactor.
He also reassures us that we should forgive the Brobdingnagian King for his criticism of England – how
could the King know better, when his own country is so remote from all other nations of the world?
To prove how ignorant and foolish the King is, Gulliver tells us, the readers, that he offered to show the
King how to make gunpowder to subdue his enemies.
The Brobdingnagian King listens to Gulliver's description of guns and is totally horrified. He makes Gulliver
promise never even to mention these weapons to him again.
Gulliver exclaims to the reader about the foolishness of the Brobdingnagian King, who has let this great
opportunity for power slip through his fingers.
Gulliver also criticizes Brobdingnagian education, which focuses on practical applications of knowledge
rather than on abstract mysteries.
No law in Brobdingnag can be longer than 20 words.
They also don't have very many books.
He comments on the clarity of their writing style: they never use too many words, and everything appears
in simple language.
The King's army is well‐disciplined because all of its soldiers are farmers and tradesmen who serve under
their own landlords and chief citizens.
Gulliver wonders why the King bothers to have armies at all if there are no other countries nearby.
It turns out that Brobdingnag has had a number of civil wars between nobles, who want power, the
people, who want freedom, and the king, who wants total authority.
In the aftermath of these civil wars, all three of these – the nobles, the people, and the king – have agreed
that they need a militia to keep the peace.
Gulliver's Travels Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
"The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers. The author attends them. The
manner in which he leaves the country very particularly related. He returns to England."
Gulliver really wants to go home.
He has now spent two years in Brobdingnag, and though his life has been comfortable, he wants to return
to a place where he doesn't have to worry about being stomped to death by a puppy.
He and Glumdalclitch are going on a tour of the south coast of the kingdom with the Brobdingnagian King
and Queen.
Both Gulliver and Glumdalclitch have colds, but Gulliver's is mild.
He manages to persuade Glumdalclitch to let him go down to the beach with a servant.
This servant carries Gulliver's traveling box down to the beach. Once they get to the beach, Gulliver
decides to take a nap, so he shuts the entrance to his box and climbs into his hammock.
He wakes up when he feels a sudden jolt.
It would seem that the servant left Gulliver's box on the beach while going off for whatever reason, and
that the box has now been snagged by an eagle.
The eagle flies high and then drops Gulliver's box; Gulliver feels by the bobbing of his box that he is at sea.
Gulliver feels really bad for Glumdalclitch, who is doubtless going to be blamed for his loss by the Queen.
He notices that water is slowly leaking into his box, so he's getting pretty worried for himself, too.
He hears something scraping at the two staples attached to the side of his box that has no windows, and
wonders what it is.
Gulliver calls out, and a voice answers that his box has been lashed to the side of a ship.
A sailor saws a hole in the side of his box and Gulliver emerges, very weak.
Gulliver has been so long in Brobdingnag that he has lost perspective on regular humans – he's surprised
to be surrounded by such small people, even though they are his own height.
The sailors salvage some of the contents of Gulliver's box.
The captain of the ship, Thomas Wilcox, asks Gulliver to tell him where he has been.
The captain thinks that Gulliver is (a) crazy, and/or (b) a convict who has been sent to sea in a giant box
as punishment.
To prove the truth of his story, Gulliver shows the captain his comb, made from the beard stubble of the
King of Brobdingnag, as well as his pants, which are made of mouse skin.
The captain agrees that Gulliver is telling the truth,
He asks Gulliver if the King or Queen of Brobdingnag were hard of hearing, because Gulliver keeps
shouting. After all, Gulliver has spent the last two years yelling to make himself heard by Brobdingnagian
giants.
The ship arrives back in England on June 3, 1706, 9 months after Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag.
He keeps acting as though he expects to see 60‐foot people around him, so Gulliver's whole family thinks
he has gone nuts.
Gulliver's wife tells him never again to go to sea, but there are two more parts left to Gulliver's Travels, so
we think he's not going to listen to her.