Gulliver can be read as a sort of Every Man character because there is little about him that would distinguish him in a crowd. He seems to be of average intelligence. He is proud of his country -- at least initially. He doesn't have any particularly strong ambitions or successes; in fact, he seems to fail more than he succeeds. In Books 1, 2, and even parts of 3, Gulliver seems like just about any...
Gulliver can be read as a sort of Every Man character because there is little about him that would distinguish him in a crowd. He seems to be of average intelligence. He is proud of his country -- at least initially. He doesn't have any particularly strong ambitions or successes; in fact, he seems to fail more than he succeeds. In Books 1, 2, and even parts of 3, Gulliver seems like just about any other English traveler: noting the customs and laws of the lands he visits, making comparisons to his home (that typically favor his home). In Lilliput, he realizes that "Of so little Weight are the greatest Services to Princes, when put into the Balance with a Refusal to gratify their passions." He comments on the similarity between leaders, whether in Lilliput or England, and how little it seems to cost one to give in to their whims and demands compared to how much it costs one to refuse them a service; in other words, Lilliput and England are pretty similar, and Gulliver is not so very different from his Lilliputian hosts.
When he first sees the gigantic inhabitants of Brobdingnag, he says, "as human Creatures are observed to be more Savage and cruel in Proportion to their Bulk; what could I expect but to be a Morsel in the Mouth of the first among these enormous Barbarians that should happen to seize me?" Faced with creatures twelve times his height, Gulliver fears that they will kill him immediately, and it's interesting because he'd been on the other side of the table in Lilliput when he considered seizing "Forty or Fifty of the first that came in [his] Reach, and dash[ing] them against the Ground." Thus, he establishes himself as completely typical: capable of and interested in exerting his inordinate power when he is stronger and totally fearful of the power of others when he is weaker. Moreover, the savagery of humanity is revealed in Gulliver's gleeful description of the powers of gunpowder and boastful offering of its receipt to the king. In this way, portraying Gulliver as an Every Man draws attention away from him as an individual and allows Swift to more deftly satirize the species in general.
Not every man is Gulliver because some people are not interested in power. Some people would rather stay home than travel away from their families. Some people might not consider peeing on a fire in order to put it out. In particulars, it is possible to differ from Gulliver; however, with regard to generalities, many more people -- for Swift -- are like Gulliver than are not.
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