Gulliver's Travels Chapter 6 Summary

Summary

Gulliver describes how he uses the Brobdingnagian court’s resources and materials to fashion small objects useful to him and pleasing to the royal family. He salvages hairs from the king and queen’s grooming to make a comb and weaves the queen’s hair into tiny chairs and a purse for Glumdalclitch; these curiosities become admired court pieces. He also adapts to the giant spinet, inventing a method of striking keys with padded sticks and performing an English tune for the king and queen, despite the physical strain and limited musical range.

His musical and mechanical contrivances lead to repeated audiences with the King of Brobdingnag, who invites prolonged conversations. Gulliver takes the opportunity to describe England—its geography, political institutions (the House of Peers and House of Commons), courts of justice, the treasury, military arrangements, and a century of historical events. The king listens attentively, takes notes, and then subjects Gulliver’s account to rigorous questioning: about aristocratic education and appointments, the influence of money and patronage, judicial practices and partiality, taxation and public debt, armies and foreign adventures, gambling among the gentry, and the moral character of English history. After reviewing Gulliver’s answers, the king delivers a pointed verdict: Gulliver’s description reveals corruption, ignorance, and vice, and the king condemns Gulliver’s countrymen as “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin.”

Key events

1. Gulliver collects hairs from the king and queen and crafts a comb, miniature chairs, and a purse.
2. He adapts to a huge spinet and performs an English tune using padded sticks.
3. The king summons Gulliver repeatedly for audiences and places him near his face for conversation.
4. Gulliver gives an extensive account of England’s government, courts, treasury, military, and history.
5. The king interrogates Gulliver on corruption, appointment practices, judicial impartiality, taxes, armies, and social vices.
6. After weighing Gulliver’s answers, the king condemns the moral condition of Gulliver’s country and calls its people vermin.

Analysis

This chapter advances character and theme by contrasting Gulliver’s skillful, industrious ingenuity with the king’s philosophic and moral scrutiny. Gulliver’s mechanical talents — turning court detritus into admired miniatures and tackling an enormous spinet — emphasize his adaptability, resourcefulness, and desire to ingratiate himself with the Brobdingnagian royals. Those efforts earn him access to prolonged dialogue with the king, which shifts the chapter from courtly spectacle to rigorous political and ethical examination. The king’s questions function as a mirror for English institutions; Swift uses the king’s outsider perspective to expose institutional corruption, patronage, partial justice, fiscal irresponsibility, and social vices. The king’s final pronouncement reframes Gulliver’s patriotic panegyric as self-revealing evidence of national vice, converting Gulliver’s rhetoric into indictment.

Narratively, the chapter serves as an extended set piece that links Gulliver’s material cunning with his role as a cultural informant. The king’s note-taking and methodical interrogation foreshadow further moral inspection and situates the Brobdingnagian court as a reasoned counterpoint to English self-congratulation. The chapter’s tone alternates between comic — in the physical absurdities of instruments and furniture made from royal hair — and satirical — in the clinical demolition of English institutions. Symbolically, the use of hair and tiny chairs hints at themes of scale and esteem: what England values (titles, appearances) becomes literal material for toys in a foreign court, ready to be examined and criticized.

Important quotes

“I fixed in the stumps so artificially, scraping and sloping them with my knife toward the points, that I made a very tolerable comb;”

NarratorGulliver describes his mechanical ingenuity in making a comb from the king’s hairs to replace his broken comb.

“I ran sideling upon it, that way and this, as fast as I could, banging the proper keys with my two sticks, and made a shift to play a jig, to the great satisfaction of both their majesties;”

NarratorGulliver explains how he managed to play the enormous spinet using padded sticks, entertaining the king and queen.

“My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved, that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator;”

The King of BrobdingnagAfter auditing Gulliver’s description of England, the king delivers a severe critique of English institutions and morals.

Characters in Chapter 6

• Lemuel Gulliver
• Glumdalclitch
• The King of Brobdingnag
• The Queen of Brobdingnag
• Grildrig
• Demosthenes
• Cicero
• The barber
• the cabinet-maker
• the queen’s woman
• a master (music teacher)