What Does Milendo Represent in Gullivers Travels?
What Does Milendo Represent In Gulliver’s Travels
In the first adventure of Gulliver’s adventures, he finds himself bound up by people less than 6 inches tall. These diminutive individuals mirror their small-mindedness; they engage in silly customs and pointless debates. Additionally, the people of Lilliput believe themselves to be the greatest people on Earth, resenting anyone who disagrees with them.
Gulliver journeys to Mildendo, the capital city of Lilliput, where he discovers it is only 500 feet square and can accommodate 500,000 people. Luckily, he is saved from captivity by residents of Lilliput who give him a new name and take him back home to their country.
Reldresal informs Gulliver of a rebellion within the kingdom and its support from Blefuscu, an empire located far south of Lilliput. Additionally, Reldresal describes to him how people in Lilliput are divided between factions known as Tramecksan and Slamecksan: Tramecksans have high heels while Slamecksans wear lower ones; further distinguishing them from each other. Moreover, Reldresal believes the Slamecksan to be more powerful and virtuous than their counterparts.
Gulliver visits Brobdingnag in the second part of his journeys. Here he meets a race of giants that inhabit Brobdingnag. The emperor of this kingdom, who is descended from Gulliver’s grandfather, offers him a position as a Nardac (person of high rank). Although she initially disapproves of living with Gulliver in her quarters, she eventually accepts his offer and pays him handsomely for his services.
On his third voyage, Gulliver visits Laputa, which he refers to as “the great empire of the universe.” Here, people are primarily engaged with mathematics and music but lack practical application; instead they gaze upward at the sky instead of down towards earth.
Gulliver’s fourth adventure takes him to the Houyhnhnms, an intelligent race of horses who are cleaner and more reasonable than their humanoid counterparts, the Yahoos. Although these people are less virtuous than those in England, Gulliver finds them quite pleasant nonetheless.
Gulliver uses Gulliver’s matter-of-fact tone to mock the religious war between France and England, referring to it as a “long series of quarrels over eggs.” This could refer to Catholics and Protestants disagreeing over communion, or it might refer to Anglican church versus Roman Catholic church rivalry over what constitutes sacrament.
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