Author: Mahabuba Nishat Tamanna

Abstract: This article examines Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), focusing on Book II in Brobdingnag, as a critical resource for understanding contemporary challenges in mental health and gender equality. Through historicized close reading aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being; SDG 5: Gender Equality), the study argues that Swift’s satire dramatizes mechanisms of alienation, commodification, gendered subordination, and systemic corruption that remain pertinent in the twenty-first century. Gulliver’s treatment as spectacle illustrates how stigma undermines psychological well-being, while the contrast between the farmer’s exploitation and Glumdalclitch’s care highlights the social determinants of resilience. The Queen’s authority and the maids of honour’s scrutiny destabilize patriarchal norms, revealing the performativity of gender, while the King’s judgment of European politics situates systemic violence as a determinant of collective distress. By aligning these episodes with specific SDG targets, the article demonstrates how literature illuminates the pathways by which social structures compromise health and justice. The findings affirm the enduring power of satire to serve as cultural critique and collective memory, underscoring literature’s capacity to inform debates on health equity and gender justice in global contexts.

Keywords: Jonathan Swift; Gulliver’s Travels; Brobdingnag; mental health; gender equality; Sustainable Development Goals; stigma; satire

Article Info: Received: 28 Jul 2025; Received in revised form: 19 Aug 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025; Available online: 30 Aug 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.104.86