Gulliver's Travels Chapter 2 Summary

Summary

Gulliver is conducted up to the flying island’s palace and is immediately struck by the strange physiognomy and habits of the inhabitants: heads tilted, one eye turned inward, the other upward, and garments embroidered with astronomical and musical motifs. He notices attendants carrying bladders filled with peas or pebbles—flappers—who tap a speaker’s mouth and the listeners’ right ears to rouse attention, and who also keep contemplative Laputians from stumbling. The party repeatedly forgets what they are doing while escorting him, only to be recalled by their flappers.

In the throne chamber Gulliver finds the king absorbed in a mathematical problem; a flapper awakens him and the court, and Gulliver’s refusal to be tapped makes them think him dull. The king orders Gulliver lodged and taught the language. Over several days Gulliver learns words and short sentences, studies Laputan diagrams and musical instruments, and organizes a dictionary. He is fitted for clothes by mathematical measurement, which produces ill-shaped garments. The king later moves the island toward Lagado; during the voyage the court plays instruments to match “the music of the spheres.” Subjects below send petitions by strings and are occasionally hoisted provisions by pulleys.

Gulliver observes that Laputians think exclusively in mathematics and music: they describe beauty by geometric terms and cut food into mathematical shapes. They are dexterous on paper but clumsy in practice, poor reasoners except within their disciplines, and prone to political gossip despite their scientific pretensions. They live in constant anxiety about celestial dangers—the sun’s decay, comets, and eventual annihilation—making them perpetually disquieted. Gulliver also notes the women’s vivacity and preference for outsiders from below, and that Laputan husbands, absorbed in thought, often fail to notice their wives’ affairs. After about a month, Gulliver can converse with the king on mathematical topics, but the king shows little curiosity about Gulliver’s worldly travels and limits questions to mathematics.

Key events

1. Gulliver arrives and observes Laputian physiognomy and attire.
2. Explanation and demonstration of the flapper’s role in Laputan society.
3. Entrance to the throne room where the king is absorbed in a problem.
4. Gulliver is lodged, taught the language, and compiles a dictionary.
5. Laputa moves toward Lagado; court plays instruments to match celestial music.
6. Gulliver notes Laputian habits: geometric language, practical clumsiness, and celestial anxieties; women favor outsiders.

Analysis

This chapter builds the satirical portrait of Laputa by concentrating on social customs that invert expected priorities: abstract science and musical theorizing dominate daily life while practical matters and common sense are neglected. Swift uses vivid physical detail (tilted heads, one eye skyward) and the bizarre device of the flapper to show how intellectual absorption becomes social dysfunction. The court scene dramatizes the theme of misplaced authority—powerful men are ruled by abstract problems and require mechanical stimuli to function in ordinary interaction—so political and domestic orders are subtly undermined. Gulliver’s role as observer and learner lets Swift both mock and investigate the island’s mentality: the language-learning sequences highlight how thought is shaped by vocabulary and technical categories, while the mathematical cuisine and architecture dramatize the gap between theory and practice. Recurring motifs—music of the spheres, celestial catastrophes, and petitions on strings—foreshadow later episodes about the consequences of impractical governance and speculative arrogance. Narratively, the chapter advances plot (Gulliver’s accommodation and linguistic access) while deepening thematic contrast between abstract knowledge and human needs, and it refines Gulliver’s voice as a reporter whose empirical curiosity exposes cultural absurdities without yet imposing explicit judgments.

Important quotes

“Their heads were all reclined, either to the right, or the left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith.”

NarratorInitial physical description that signals Laputians’ constant absorption in abstract thought and their inattention to the world below.

“The business of this officer is, when two, three, or more persons are in company, gently to strike with his bladder the mouth of him who is to speak, and the right ear of him or them to whom the speaker addresses himself.”

NarratorDefines the flapper’s role and shows how Laputians require physical stimulus to communicate, revealing social consequences of their preoccupation.

“He said that, the people of their island had their ears adapted to hear “the music of the spheres, which always played at certain periods, and the court was now prepared to bear their part, in whatever instrument they most excelled.””

NarratorExplains the court’s prolonged performance and underscores the Laputian fusion of music and cosmology as a central cultural belief.

Characters in Chapter 2

• Lemuel Gulliver
• the king
• his majesty
• my tutor
• the flapper
• the people of the island
• the women