Question

character sketch on struldbrugs

Answer 1

The struldbrugs are totally unique to Luggnagg. Gulliver is introduced to this term by "a person of quality" (3.10.2). (Gulliver loves speaking to people of quality, i.e., people of the upper class. Snob!) This unnamed person of quality asks Gulliver what he would do if he could live forever? Gulliver really likes this idea. He says he would make tons of money, learn everything there is to know in the world, and then spend all of his time talking to other immortals, who must be equally as brilliant as he would be.

The person of quality laughs at Gulliver's stupidity. The thing is, Luggnagg hasimmortals, the struldbrugs. Perfectly ordinary parents can have them, and they are marked by a dot above the left eyebrow that changes color as they grow older until it hits black at age forty. Oddly, the struldbrugs tend to have normal, mortal children.