Gulliver's Travels Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

After obtaining his liberty, Gulliver requests and receives permission to visit Mildendo, the capital of Lilliput, with strict orders not to harm the inhabitants or their houses. He describes the city's compact dimensions: low walls, narrow streets, densely populated roofs and garrets full of spectators. The city is a precise square with two main streets and numerous alleys; Gulliver notes the capacity, house heights, and market provision. The emperor’s palace sits at the center, guarded by low enclosing walls and successive small gates between courts. Because the inner gates and buildings are too low for him to cross without damaging them, Gulliver spends three days cutting down trees in the royal park to fashion two stools, which he uses to step across the courts and view the royal apartments and the empress and princes through open windows.

A fortnight later Reldresal, the principal secretary for private affairs, visits Gulliver and converses while Gulliver holds him in his hand. Reldresal praises Gulliver’s release but explains the empire’s troubles: a bitter domestic faction split between Tramecksan (high heels) and Slamecksan (low heels), and an ongoing war with Blefuscu. He explains the origins of that conflict — a seemingly trivial but passionately contested difference over which end of an egg to break — and how it has produced rebellions, exiles, and foreign involvement. Reldresal reports losses of ships and lives and describes the threat of invasion. The secretary concludes by stating the emperor’s trust in Gulliver’s strength and asking that Gulliver consider defending the emperor’s person and state, to which Gulliver replies he will defend the empire against invaders though he will avoid taking sides in domestic party disputes.

Key events

1. Gulliver gains permission to visit Mildendo with strict orders to avoid damage.
2. He carefully walks through the crowded, compact city and observes its layout and scale.
3. Gulliver fashions two stools from trees to cross the palace courts and views the royal apartments.
4. He sees the empress and young princes and receives a gracious salute from the empress.
5. Reldresal visits Gulliver and explains Lilliput’s domestic factionalism (high vs low heels).
6. Reldresal recounts the war with Blefuscu and its curious origin in how people break eggs.
7. Gulliver offers to defend the emperor and the state against external invasion, declining to take domestic sides.

Analysis

This chapter shifts from descriptive travel narrative to political and satirical exposition, deepening the novel’s themes of scale, perspective, and human folly. The meticulous measurements of Mildendo and the palace continue Swift’s sustained irony: minute architectural detail applied to a tiny world mirrors the pettiness of its politics. Gulliver’s practical ingenuity in crafting stools underscores his physical superiority yet social dependence on Lilliputian rules; he must adapt to tiny constraints and play by their laws, reinforcing the theme of the outsider negotiating cultural norms.

Reldresal’s account functions as a concentrated satire of factionalism and the trivial origins of serious conflict. The egg controversy is a symbolic absurdity that crystallizes how minute differences become matters of identity, law, and war — a technique Swift uses to expose the arbitrary foundations of political hostility. Narratively, the secretary’s dialogue provides exposition, situates Gulliver within Lilliput’s power structures, and sets up a moral choice: the foreign hero’s pledge of protective violence without entanglement in domestic quarrels. The passage also foreshadows military implications and tests Gulliver’s role: he is admired for strength but is expected to be instrumentalized by rulers. Swift’s narrative voice balances literal description with dry moralizing, letting the comedic details reveal deeper critique of pride, law, and international rivalry.

Important quotes

“The wall which encompassed it is two feet and a half high, and at least eleven inches broad, so that a coach and horses may be driven very safely round it;”

NarratorGulliver gives precise, ironic architectural detail to convey Mildendo's tiny scale and the narrator's careful observation.

“We compute the Tramecksan, or high heels, to exceed us in number; but the power is wholly on our side.”

ReldresalReldresal explains the factional split between high-heel and low-heel parties, introducing satirical political conflict.

“It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end;”

ReldresalReldresal recounts the ostensibly trivial but explosive origin of the war with Blefuscu, highlighting Swift's satire of absurd causes for conflict.

Characters in Chapter 4

• Lemuel Gulliver
• The Empress of Lilliput
• Reldresal
• The Emperor of Lilliput
• the young princes