Gulliver's hat

Gulliver's hat is a seemingly trivial personal object that becomes a significant material artifact in Lilliput, serving as a marker of Gulliver's foreignness, a source of comic misunderstanding, and a physical link between his world and the miniature one he inhabits. Its loss, discovery, and retrieval form a minor but revealing episode that underscores the Lilliputians' practical ingenuity and their perception of Gulliver as a giant, while also highlighting the accidental nature of his presence in their world.

Loss and Discovery

Gulliver's hat was lost during the chaotic aftermath of his shipwreck. Upon first reaching the shore after the wreck of the Antelope, he was in such confusion that, before he came to the place where he went to sleep, his hat fell off. He had fastened it with a string to his head while rowing, and it had stuck on all the time he was swimming, but the string broke by some accident he never observed, and he thought his hat had been lost at sea. The hat was not seen again until about two or three days before Gulliver was set at liberty, when an express arrived to inform the Emperor of Lilliput that some of his subjects, riding near the place where Gulliver was first taken up, had seen a great black substance lying on the ground. It was very oddly shaped, extending its edges round as wide as his majesty's bed-chamber, and rising up in the middle as high as a man. The subjects had at first apprehended it was a living creature, but it lay on the grass without motion, and some of them had walked round it several times. By mounting upon each other's shoulders, they had got to the top, which was flat and even, and, stamping upon it, they found it was hollow within. They humbly conceived it might be something belonging to the man-mountain, and if his majesty pleased, they would undertake to bring it with only five horses.

Retrieval and Condition

Gulliver immediately knew what they meant and was glad at heart to receive this intelligence. He entreated his imperial majesty to give orders it might be brought to him as soon as possible, describing to him the use and nature of it. The next day the wagoners arrived with it, but not in a very good condition. They had bored two holes in the brim, within an inch and a half of the edge, and fastened two hooks in the holes; these hooks were tied by a long cord to the harness, and thus Gulliver's hat was dragged along for above half an English mile. However, because the ground in that country was extremely smooth and level, it received less damage than he expected.

Significance and Contrast

The hat's recovery is a minor triumph of Lilliputian logistics, demonstrating their ability to handle an object of Gulliver's scale. The episode also provides a contrast to the more formal inventory of Gulliver's possessions conducted by the emperor's officers. While the searchers meticulously catalogued his watch, pistols, and other items, the hat was absent from that list, having been lost before the search. Its independent discovery and retrieval by the Lilliputian subjects, who used their own initiative and simple technology (five horses and a cord), highlights a different, more communal form of engagement with the man-mountain's belongings. The hat, a common European accessory, is thus transformed into a strange, hollow, black object that requires a collective effort to transport, further cementing Gulliver's status as a being from a different order of magnitude.