Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
Table of Contents
Chapter 6 to Chapter 8
Part II
Chapters VI-VIII
Summary
Gulliver fashions himself a comb from hair that drops from the king’s shavings. Gulliver also uses snippets of the king’s hair to make two chairs for the queen. During a musical performance that he attends, Gulliver plays the spinet—a small harpsichord—for the court. However, the harpsichord is still too large for Gulliver to play conveniently. He decides to use sticks to help him, but he is only able to hit sixteen keys.
Gulliver attempts to convince the king that England is considered a significant country to the rest of the world; however, the king is convinced that the English are “odious Vermin.”
Chapter VII
Summary
Gulliver is unsettled with the king’s impressions of England. Gulliver attempts to tell the king about gunpowder and decides to give gunpowder to the king as an offering. However, the gesture backfires. The king is as disgusted with the gunpowder as Gulliver is with the king’s inability to see the power and usefulness of new inventions. The king’s closed-mindedness symbolizes the Brobdingnagians as a whole; Gulliver is unimpressed with their lack of knowledge and the impracticality of their culture. For example, although they know how to print, their culture does not have many books.
Chapter VIII
Summary
Gulliver has lived in Brobdingnag for two years, and he longs for his freedom. However, the king wishes for Gulliver to procreate. Gulliver contemplates that if he has any children, they will most likely be caged or kept as pets.
When taken to the south coast of Brobdingnag, he and Glumdalclitch get sick. Gulliver complains that he needs more fresh air, so a page takes him to the shore in the box that the Brobdingnags use to cart him around. Gulliver requests that the page allow him to...
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