Page 65 - Gullivers

apron strings. Not only were adult cares thrust on her, but she was plucked from her rural blameless life and cast into the intrigues of the royal court. And every royal court resembles the flying island of Laputa that Father droned on about, in that its subjects are preoccupied with absurd projects and manners, and neglect useful, worthwhile pursuits. Here at the royal court, it seems, she learned to be ‘arch’, as Father puts it. Manipulative, I would say. How heavily should that moral twist weigh on Father’s conscience, I wonder? Did the adult Glumdalclitch become a wily, ingratiating courtier, living on her wits? Did she succumb to the licentiousness and chicanery of court life that erodes all decency? Certainly, there was no going back for her, no return to a simple life. Was she therefore doomed to spend her days between two warring worlds, the old artless, humble one she had abandoned in my father’s interests, and the scheming, arch bubble into which she was catapulted?
III. Lemuel Gulliver’s Children 59
Louis Rhead