Question

discuss Gulliver's character as a changed man at the end of the novel.

Answer 1

The last chapter of Gulliver's Travels provides a logical conclusion to the development of Gulliver's character. He goes from ordinary guy to dedicated hater of mankind. In the first part of the novel, he observes two islands, Lilliput and Blefuscu, which symbolize the smallness and insignificance of warfare between England and France. In the second part of the novel, Gulliver visits Brobdingnag, where the giants of the island make him feel small, and where the moral decision of the Brobdingnagian King not to use gunpowder foreshadows the peace-loving, delightful horsies in Houyhnhnm Land.

The third part pokes fun at airy and abstract thinking. And the fourth and final part, set in Houyhnhnm Land, reinforces all of the lessons Gulliver has learned so far.
Gulliver starts out as a traveler interested in observing his fellow man. But now, at the end of his enlightening stay with the Houyhnhnms, he has retreated to the interiors of his own mind. He can't stand the idea of leaving his house and garden. Gulliver has to look at his own face in the mirror to get used to the idea of being around humans again. He leaves us with a message describing just what disgusts him most about man: given that we are so vile, vicious, backstabbing, and greedy, how can we feel any pride in ourselves at all? And we at Shmoop have to be honest: if you finish Gulliver's Travels happy to be human, and with no desire to live among a herd of horses, you're stronger than we are.