Sympathetic Characters in Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels provides the account of Lemuel Gulliver, who encounters a number of different cultures and peoples during his sea travels. Gulliver's journey is one of self-discovery as he must adjust to the different people, cultures, and ways of life he encounters in different geographic locations. As Gulliver informs us, "My hours of leisure I spent�when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people as well as learning their language" (Greenberg 71). During his travels, Gulliver encounters many individuals and different groups of people, from the Lilliputians and Houyhnhnms to the Brobdingnagians and Struldbuggs. While there are a number of sympathetic individuals and cultures portrayed in the novel, it is the King of Brobdingnag who appears the most sympathetic and ideal character in the novel.

There are a number of sympathetic characters or cultures portrayed in Gulliver's Travels. Among these must be counted the Houyhnhnms, a breed of beings that resemble horses. The Houyhnhnms are a rational and civil culture that Gulliver respects for their virtues and lack of capacity for evil. As MacKeracher (17) notes, "The Houyhnhnms were the most well-adjusted of any �peoples' Gulliver had met�He describes their society as emanating �entirely from the dictates of reason' where �friendship and benevolence. Decency and civility' are prized about all else." Despite their virtues, the Houyh

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e of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth" (Swift II). The King of Brobdingnag believes in a citizen army, though the culture has no known enemies. Firearms and gunpowder are unknown by the Brobdingnagians, something that Gulliver finds ludicrous, especially the King's rejection of his suggestion they should use gunpowder. The laws of the Brobdingnagians are simple and there is little litigation. If someone murders another, they are beheaded, plain and simple. Nevertheless, the King does rule Brobdingnag with a firm hand and the state does represent a hierarchy of ruling classes and commoners. As Rawson (284) points out, "The work's handful of examples of good humans, or good Yahoos, like Glumdalclitch, or the King of Brobdingnag, or Lord Munodi, or that evidently unforgettable hero of soft-school interpreters, the Portuguese captain, also have a claim to rank." The culture of the Brobdingnagians is also admirable. They believe in history, ethics, poetry and have a special reverence for mathematics skills as an individual strength. Printing does exist but the King maintains the biggest library and Brobdingnagians only believe in works that, like their laws, have a simple styl

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