Moral Superiority in "Gulliver's Travels"

Paper Summary:

The use of size to illustrate moral superiority is examined in Part Two of "Gulliver's Travels". Gulliver's powerlessness, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness are discussed, and specific examples and quotes from the text are used to back the writer's arguments for the theme.

From the Paper:

"In Part Two of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the reader is thrown into a world where everything is twelve times larger than the normal size of things in the real world. Swift uses this difference in size as a metaphor for moral and physical superiority or greatness. The physical superiority of the Brobdignagians is very obvious from the start, and gradually the moral superiority of these people becomes evident. Lemuel Gulliver is the object of satire, representing the British sense of pride in their country and the human ego in general. Swift uses this extreme difference in size to expose Gulliver's powerlessness, prejudice and narrow-mindedness. So it is through this use of size that Swift expertly mirrors Gulliver's mind in his physical appearance in Brobdingnag."

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