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Gulliver´s Travels - Major characters (3_major_characters-gt.doc)

Gulliver´s Travels - Major characters

Lemuel Gulliver: Gulliver is a trained surgeon and sea captain who travels throughout the world on several voyages, learning about different cultures and customs. He is married to Mary Burton with two children (who consequently grow up without him), and spends some sixteen years and seventeen months in his adventures, and ultimately returns home a changed man. His first voyage leaves him shipwrecked and alone in Lilliput, a land where he is a giant compared to everyone else. After his escape from Lilliput and the neighboring Blefuscu, Gulliver returns to England, only to depart once again to find himself lost in the land of Brobdingnag. Brobdingnag is a land of giants, where Gulliver is the relative size of a Lilliputian. After happy times there, he fears his life and is lifted away by a bird, until he is found floating in the ocean by an English sea captain. After his second return to England, Gulliver leaves home again to discover the floating island of Laputa and its continental cities below in Balnibari. He visits Luggnugg and Glubbdubbdrib, discovering secrets of past histories and cultures, and the horrors of immortality. On his fourth an final journey, Gulliver is sprung upon the Houyhnhnms, a ruling society of horses, where people are the lower, inferior, slavelike species. These inferiors - yahoos - are dirty, detestable creatures who bear a striking resemblance to Gulliver. Gulliver spends some three to four years with these horses and falls in love with their society and reason, never wanting to leave. When he is expelled from the island, he returns to England altered. He no longer cares to look upon his family, and spends all his time with the two horses he buys to keep in his nearby stable. These four adventures change Gulliver forever, bringing him new perspectives on the laws of humanity and stark commentary on the ways of European life. Lemuel Gulliver himself narrates the story of Gulliver's Travels, but this first-person narrator is not completely reliable. Though Gulliver is very exact with the details of his travels, and we know him to be honest, sometimes he doesn't see the forest for the trees. Swift deliberately makes Gulliver naive and sometimes even arrogant for two reasons: first, it makes the reader more skeptical about the ideas presented in the book. Second, it allows the reader to have a good laugh at Gulliver's expense when he doesn't realize the absurdity of his limited viewpoint. He certainly sounds foolish when extolling the qualities of gunpowder to the peaceful Brobdingnagians „Doufal jsem, že se ještě více zavděčím Jeho Veličenstvu, a tak jsem mu vyprávěl o tom, jak byl před třemi až čtyřmi sty lety vynalezen jistý prach.“ (pg.87). Also, at the end of the novel, the reader can see that Gulliver has turned into a misanthrope. Also we can hear in his voice that he is proud and arrogant. „Troufají si ti ubozí živočichové myslit, že jsem klesl tak hluboko, abych hájil svou pravdomluvnost? Sám jsem Jahu, ale v celé zemi Hvajhnhnmů je známo, že jsem pod vedením a příkladem svého skvělého učitele dokázal za dobu dvou let......zbavit se toho pekelného zvyku lhát, vykrucovat se, podvádět a mluvit licoměrne, který je tak zakořeněn v samé duši celého mého plemene, zvlášte Evropanů.“ (pg.10)

Lilliputians: The Lilliputians are the miniscule people from the land of Lilliput. They initial fear Gulliver, for his size is so overpowering. However, with the help of the emperor and few others, Gulliver befriends these people by helping them at war with their enemy, Blefuscu. However, after using so many of their resources and performing lude acts in public, he is forced to flee the country for Blefuscu, and eventually home to England.

The Emperor of Lilliput: Although the emperor initially helps Gulliver by ordering clothing, food, and lodging for him, he eventually turns against Gulliver. He orders an edict with several laws pertaining to Gulliver, grants him his freedom, is thrilled when Gulliver helps Lilliput defeat Blefuscu, but is outraged when Gulliver will not use the Blefuscu-ans as slaves.

Brobdignags: The Brobdingnags are the giant people of the land of Brobdingnag. They are the size that Gulliver is in Lilliput, and view Gulliver as a toy, a doll, a exhibition. He looks like a little bug, but acts like a person. Although they are kind to him, Gulliver knows he must leave their land for fear of death.

Laputans: The Laputans are the people in the land of Laputa, who life their lives in mathematical contemplation and cannot communicate without the help of a flapper.

Yahoos: The yahoos are a detestable species that infect the Houyhnhnm countryside and metropolis. They are brutish, dirty, foul, immoral, and repulsive to not only the Houyhnhnms, but also Gulliver. However, these yahoos are the equivalent of human beings, and Gulliver is, therefore, considered a yahoo in the land. After seeing them, Gulliver is disgusted to all extremes and cannot bear the site of humans after his time in the land.

Houyhsnhms: Houyhnhnms are the equivalent of horses in the land of Houyhnhm. They are the noble, beautiful, clean, and honest species, and look to the yahoos as inferior slaves. Gulliver is enamoured of these species, these horses, and learns all about their culture and how it is ruled by reason, and reason alone. He even begins to act like them, and when he is forced to leave the land, he is broken-hearted.