Part I, Chapters 1-4: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. Where does Gulliver meet the Emperor?

2. How is Gulliver fed?

3. Why does the Lilliputian government go to such trouble to feed and shelter
Gulliver if he is so dangerous because of his size?

4. What does the inventory of Gullivers belongings tell the reader about the
differences between Lilliput and England?

5. How does Gulliver ingratiate himself to the Emperor?

6. Why does Gulliver cooperate with the Lilliputians?

7. What are some of the shows Gulliver sees and participates in, and how do high
government officials participate in them?

8. What is the purpose of the agreement between Gulliver and the Lilliputians?

9. Who is Gullivers worst enemy at the Lilliputian court?

10. What are the main problems of Lilliput, as described to Gulliver by Reldresal?

Answers
1. Gulliver meets the Emperor for the first time in the house where he is being kept.

2. To feed Gulliver, the villages around the capital provide six beeves (oxen), forty
sheep, and a proportionate quantity of other foods and beverages.

3. The Lilliputian government goes to great trouble to provide for Gullivers needs
because he can be used as an ally against the enemy country, Blefuscu.

4. The inventory of Gullivers belongings tells the reader both about the difference of
scale between the...

(The entire section is 405 words.)

Part I, Chapters 5-6: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. What is the great service performed by Gulliver to the Emperor of Lilliput, and
what is his reward?

2. Does Gullivers influence continue to increase?

3. What is the first event that gets Gulliver into trouble?

4. How does putting out the fire in the palace get Gulliver into deeper trouble?

5. How does Gulliver interrupt the narrative in Chapter Six?

6. How does Gulliver explain the difference between the ideal laws of Lilliput and its
present corrupt condition?

7. How are children brought up in Lilliput?

8. What was Gullivers daily life like in Lilliput?

9. What was the specific reason Flimnap gave in his conference with the Emperor for
discharging Gulliver?

10. How did Gulliver vindicate a great lady?

Answers
1. Gulliver removes the fleet of Blefuscu by wading and swimming there and taking
the ships to Lilliput with ropes, preventing an invasion of Lilliput. He is rewarded by
being made a Nardac, Lilliputs highest title of honor.

2. Gullivers influence declines, despite his services, because of intrigues.

3. The first event that gets Gulliver into trouble is his refusal to cooperate in the total
conquest of Blefuscu, which antagonizes the Emperor.

4. Gulliver gets into deeper trouble because he has polluted the palace by putting out
the fire by urinating on it.

5. Gulliver interrupts the narrative in Chapter Six by describing the laws and customs
of Lilliput.

6. According to Gulliver, conditions began to decline in Lilliput during the reign of the
grandfather of the current Emperor, when officials were first required to perform
acrobatic feats. Things have gotten even worse in recent years.

7. In Lilliput, according to Gulliver, children are brought up in public nurseries and

schools, not by the parents. They are brought up carefully, according to their sex and
social condition.

8. Gullivers daily life in Lilliput included making furniture for himself out of large
trees, and being clothed and fed on a large scale by the Lilliputians.

9. Flimnap advised the Emperor to discharge Gulliver because the expense of

supporting him was a strain on Lilliputs economy.
10. Gulliver vindicated Flimnaps wife by declaring that when she visited him she was
accompanied by several other people.

Part I, Chapters 7-8: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. How does Gulliver hear of the charges against him?

2. What are the main charges brought against Gulliver by the Lilliputians?

3. What is the original proposed punishment of Gulliver, and what is the final
punishment?

4. Who brings about the compromise regarding Gullivers punishment?

5. How does Gulliver escape from the Lilliputians?

6. How does the Emperor of Blefuscu receive Gulliver?

7. How does Gulliver leave Blefuscu?

8. How does Gulliver get to England?

9. How long does he stay in England?

10. What enables him to go on his second voyage?

Answers
1. Gulliver is informed of the charges against him by a considerable person at
Court who owed Gulliver a favor.

2. The main charges brought against Gulliver by the Lilliputians are polluting the
palace by urinating on it, refusing to destroy Blefuscu by taking all its ships, having
conversations with its ambassadors, and planning to go there.

3. The original proposed punishment of Gulliver is death; the final punishment, to

which the Lilliputians sentence him, is blinding followed by gradual starvation.

4. The Principal Secretary for Private Affairs of Lilliput, Reldresal, Gullivers friend,
brings about the compromise by which Gullivers life is to be spared.

5. Gulliver escapes from Lilliput by wading and swimming to Blefuscu, putting his
clothes in a Lilliputian ship which he tows with him.

6. The Emperor of Blefuscu receives Gulliver with hospitality, refusing to send him
back to Lilliput.
7. Gulliver finds a real boat on the island and has it fitted out, enabling him to leave
Blefuscu.

8. Gulliver gets to England after his boat is picked up by an English ship returning to
England from Japan.

9. Gulliver stays in England for two months before embarking on his second voyage.

10. Gulliver is enabled to go on his second voyage without leaving his family
unsupported financially because he inherits an estate from his uncle.

Part II, Chapters 1-2: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. How does Gulliver get to Brobdingnag?

2. Why is he abandoned by his shipmates there?

3. Who picks him up?

4. Where is he taken?

5. How do people of gigantic size appear to Gulliver?

6. How does Gulliver struggle with Brobdingnagian animals?

7. Who in Brobdingnag befriends him most closely?

8. What does the farmer plan to do with Gulliver?

9. Why does Gulliver dislike the farmers plans?

10. Where is Gulliver taken toward the end of Chapter Two?

Answers
1. Gulliver gets to Brobdingnag because his ship is blown off course.

2. Gullivers shipmates escape without him from Brobdingnag because they are
frightened by the giants there.

3. The farmers servant literally picks up Gulliver.

4. The farmers servant takes Gulliver to the farmer.

5. To Gulliver, people of gigantic size appear ugly, since their bodily flaws are
immensely magnified.
6. Gulliver refuses to be frightened by the farmers cat and fights a bloody battle with
Brobdingnagian rats.

7. The farmers daughter, known to Gulliver as Glumdalclitch, or little nurse, is the

Brobdingnagian who befriends Gulliver most closely.

8. The farmer plans to publicly exhibit Gulliver for money.

9. Gulliver feels insulted by the idea of being exhibited as a curiosity.

10. Toward the end of Chapter Two, the farmer takes Gulliver in a box to the capital
city of Brobdingnag.

Part II, Chapters 3-4: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. To whom does the farmer sell Gulliver?

2. What does the King of Brobdingnag discuss with Gulliver?

3. What do the Brobdingnagian philosophers think Gulliver is?

4. What does the King of Brobdingnag think of England?

5. How does Gulliver react to the Kings comments on England?

6. Who is Gullivers enemy at the court of Brobdingnag?

7. How large is the palace of Brobdingnag, according to Gulliver?

8. How is Gulliver transported around the kingdom?

9. What is the most hateful sight in Brobdingnag, according to Gulliver?

10. What insects bother Gulliver in Brobdingnag?

Answers
1. The farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen of Brobdingnag.

2. The King of Brobdingnag discusses the customs and institutions of England with
Gulliver.

3. The Brobdingnagian philosophers think Gulliver is a sport of nature.

4. The King of Brobdingnag thinks that the small size of the English shows how
contemptible human pretensions are, since they have titles of honor political parties,
and the like.
5. Gulliver reacts at first with resentment at the Kings attitude toward England, but
then realizes that he himself would seem ridiculous to someone so many times
larger than he was.

6. Gullivers enemy at the court of Brobdingnag is the Dwarf, who resents no longer
being the smallest person at court.

7. According to Gulliver, the palace of Brobdingnag is a heap of buildings seven

miles around.

8. Gulliver is transported around the kingdom in a box (actually there were two boxes
of different sizes).

9. The most hateful sight in Brobdingnag, according to Gulliver, was that of gigantic
lice on peoples bodies.

10. Gulliver is bothered in Brobdingnag by gigantic flies.

Part II, Chapters 5-6: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. What do the Maids of Honor do in front of Gulliver and why?

2. How does their action affect him?

3. How does Gulliver escape from a monkey?

4. What is the Kings reaction to Gullivers escape?

5. How does Gulliver react to the Kings reaction?

6. What does Gulliver do after watching the King of Brobdingnag shave?

7. How does Gulliver try to perform musically in Brobdingnag?

8. What does the King of Brobdingnag think of Gullivers description of England?

9. Why does he hold this attitude?

10. What is the Kings attitude to religious freedom?

Answers
1. The Maids of Honor undress before Gulliver, not being ashamed any more than if
he were a small animal.

2. Gulliver finds the magnified physical imperfections of the Maids disgusting.

3. Men with ladders are sent to the roof of a building to rescue Gulliver from the
monkey.

4. The King thinks Gullivers narrow escape from death at the hands of the monkey
is amusing.

5. Gulliver feels, when the King is amused at Gullivers account of his narrow
escape, like an awkward social climber.

6. After watching the King shave, Gulliver uses some bristles of the Kings hair and
some wood splinters and makes a comb.

7. Gulliver tries to play a sixty-foot-long spinet (piano-like instrument).

8. The King of Brobdingnag, after hearing Gullivers description of England, thinks,

despite Gullivers patriotism, that the English are the most pernicious race of odious
little vermin that Nature ever suffered (allowed) to crawl upon the surface of the
earth.

9. The King holds a very negative opinion of the English because of their political
and moral corruption.

10. The King thinks that people should hold harmful religious views in private only,
not in public.

Part II, Chapters 7-8: Questions and Answers

Study Questions
1. Why does Gulliver tell the King of Brobdingnag about gunpowder?

2. What is the Kings reaction to what Gulliver tells him about gunpowder and
firearms?

3. What does Gulliver think of the King of Brobdingnags ideas about government?

4. What are the Brobdingnagian books like according to Gulliver?

5. What is the Brobdingnagian army like according to him?

6. Why do they have an army, since there are no external enemies?

7. Why is Gulliver unhappy at the beginning of Chapter Eight?

8. Where is Gulliver when he is about to leave Brobdingnag?

9. How does he leave Brobdingnag?

10. How does he...

(The entire section is 269 words.)