Control is Everywhere in Gulliver's Travels

Everyone wants control, and this theme is explored in Gulliver's Travels. From the Lilliputians to the Brobdingnagians, even the Laputans, every one of them are trying to gain and/or exert control in their own way. The human desire for control is both understandable and weird.

The Lilliputians try to take control by force, not understanding that Gulliver can kill them all easily, but their world view is too narrow-minded to understand that. When Gulliver tells them where he comes from, they don't even entertain the idea that there are places that they don't know about.

The Brobdingnagians gain control effortlessly. They gain Gulliver in a single moment and only keep him around as entertainment. When Gulliver tells the Brobdingnagians where he comes from, they think it's fun. I mean, if you were a giant that could destroy all of England with as much effort as it takes you to dust your bedroom, you wouldn't take Gulliver too seriously.

The Laputans aren't an allegory for control overall themselves. They are always coming up with ideas to help their country, but they are only using the first ideas that come to mind and not fully thinking through what they're doing. Their intentions are good, but they are too rash, and they rush headfirst into the problem. They want reality to bend to their theory rather than bend their theory to reality. That willfully blind, stubbornness is all about control, or at least the illusion of having it. (Why We Want)

In Gulliver's Travels, everyone has their own why to gain control, but they don't always get it. Control is so prevalent in our world that, unintentionally, people make it a theme in their writing, but it is so abundant in Gulliver's Travels that it's clearly intentional.

Works Cited

Swift. Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Modern Pub, 1726.

“Why We Want Control — and Never Truly Have It.” My Reflection on Life, 10 Apr. 2025, https://myreflectiononlife.com/why-we-want-control/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2025.