The Role of Glumdalclitch in Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver and Glumdalclitch, from a French edition of Gulliver's Travels (1850s)
Glumdalclitch is the name Gulliver gives his "nurse" in Volume Ii of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels. In Book I, Gulliver travels to the land of Lilliput. Leaving there, he travels to the land of Brobdingnag. In Lilliput, Gulliver was a giant, and in Brobdingnag, he is a dwarf, with the proportions reversed.
Fictional biography [edit]
When he comes ashore, he is captured by a giant farmer, who perceives Gulliver only as an beast, a freak of nature resembling a man-shaped mouse. He takes Gulliver home and gives him to his 9-year-sometime daughter, a child "not above twoscore feet high, existence little for her age." She makes Gulliver her pet, creates a small travel case for him (a miniature bed-chamber in a box), and is amused to play with him as if he were a doll. Gulliver grows very fond of the girl, and gives her the pet name of Glumdalclitch, or "little nurse" in the Brobdingnagian language. (Of course "little" is highly ironic considering the circumstances. If Gulliver knows her real name, he does non tell the reader.) Glumdalclitch is a skilled seamstress with a talent for making dolls' wearing apparel. Although Gulliver admires the wardrobe that she makes for him, he finds that even the finest Brobdingnagian material is coarse and irritates his peel. The farmer takes Gulliver near as a freak show, charging observers coin for performances. Gulliver grows very proud of the stunts that he performs for Glumdalclitch'south amusement.
When the Queen of Brobdingnag takes Gulliver into her court, he has Glumdalclitch brought to court with him. The prideful Gulliver thinks of himself every bit being greatly honored and promoted by moving to courtroom, but never ceases to love and seek the blessing of the little girl who first helped him. Indeed, he remembers her fondly even after returning to England.
While Volume I is narrowly allegorical, Volume Ii of Gulliver's Travels is less specifically a roman a clef and more mostly a political and philosophical give-and-take. While Glumdalclitch could represent Swift's memories of the young Stella from his time living with William Temple at Moor Park, Surrey, she probably does not stand in for whatsoever especially identifiable historical person.
If one does accept Glumdalclitch as the young Stella and the entire episode equally an encoding of the time at Moor Park, then it is a poignant story indeed. Swift, like Gulliver, delighted in performing for Stella (e.chiliad. his Meditation Upon a Broomstick, which he wrote for her), was shown about by her "father" (William Temple), constitute the living also coarse for his sensibilities, left her company for a "promotion" to London and courtroom life, and mourned her absence for the rest of his life.
In popular civilization [edit]
- In telly and moving picture adaptations, the grapheme has been played by Sherry Alberoni, Ági Szirtes, and Kate Maberly, and voiced by Janet Waldo.[1] The character was reimagined in the 2010 film accommodation (in a non-speaking role) every bit a child and treats Gulliver equally a infant doll, presumably to go on with the comedy themes.
- Information technology was a family nickname for the novelist Jane Octavia Brookfield.
- Glumdalclitch is the subject of an eponymous novel by Leo Sonderegger published in 2000 every bit a sequel to Gulliver's Travels, where she is named "Wendeling".[ii]
References [edit]
- ^ Net Moving picture Database
- ^ Leo Sonderegger (Author) (ane November 2000). "Glumdalclitch on". Amazon.com. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
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