Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Book 3 | A Voyage to Laputa,...and Japan | Summary, Analysis

The full title of Book 3 of Gulliver’s Travels was “A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan.” Swift satirizes English Bureaucracy, religion, science, and The Royal Society of England in the third part. Jonathan Swift also raises the old debate of Ancients versus Modernists in this book. In addition, Swift satirizes the desire for immortality and fear of old age and death.

After spending 10 days at home, Gulliver had a visitor who proposed to him a job and promotion and a surgeon and co-captain of Hopewell, a sturdy ship. Much to his wife’s chagrin, Gulliver chose to accept the job and right after two months, he was aboard Hopewell heading towards the port Tanquin. The captain of Hopewell was William Robinson (mimicking Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe). The captain planned to make some money in Tonquin and bought a boat and sent 14 crewmembers led by Gulliver to continue their business while he stayed at the port of Tonquin for his own purpose.

Characters of A Voyage to Laputa,...and Japan:

William Robinson is the captain of the ship Hopewell while Lemuel Gulliver is the co-captain. The Dutchman is an accomplice of Japanese sea pirates whom Gulliver requests to help him being a Christian brother. The Laputans are the inhabitant of the floating island of Laputa. They are weirdos who are very good at maths and science but cannot focus on any subject for long. Their heads are always leaning towards the right or left. The Laputian King is much more distracted than other Laputians. He lacks all common sense and is utterly preoccupied with abstractions. Lord Munodi is one rare sane and sensible person of Laputa but he is rejected and hated by every other Laputian. The Projectors are the scientists and philosophers of Laputa who continue to engage in abstractions pursuing science and philosophy without too much regard for practical outcomes. The Glubbdubdribbians are magical people headed by the Governor who can raise a dead person once every three months. The Luggnaggian king is a cruel despot who humiliates his subjects. The Struldbrugs are a special kind of people of Luggnagg who are common to others in all senses except that they are immortals. They grow old naturally until age 80 and then become immortals. All struldbrugs are marked by a dot above their left eyebrow that changes color as they grow old and becomes black once they are 80 years of age.
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