Women depiction in Gulliver’s travels, by Jonathan Swift

Abstract

Society is marked by relations of power that stratify itself. Relations that are marked by inequality in view of the uneven spaces occupied by men and women. If, on the one hand, man are responsible for public spaces and, as a consequence, for the domain of social discourses; on the other hand, women belong to the private space, where they are assigned to the roles of housewife and mother. This paper aims at analyzing the work Gulliver’s Travels (2009) by Jonathan Swift from a gender perspective. As object of this research it was taken the Queen’s maid of honor of Brondingnag. The present analyses showed that in a first glance it is possible to think in a reality in which the woman is not described as subdued to the masculine. However, it is highlighted that women still assimilate a submissive role and do not subvert the establishment imposed by their gender. Hence, no change occurs in woman representation because the female characters are impregnated by male discourse. Because of strong cultural issues the Queen’s maid act according to the expectations the Western patriarchal society has about them.