Besides this, there are some resemblances that concern places that Gulliver describes at arriving to Lilliput. Thus the temple “polluted some years ago by an unnatural murder” may remind us of the Banqueting-House at White-Hall where King Charles I was beheaded.² However many other critics argue that there has been no hint in the narrative that features of the Lilliputian landscape should be taken as allusions to contemporary England. “From the earliest commentaries it has been suggested that this refers to Westminster Hall in which Charles I had been condemned to death, but the real explanation may be,” John Chalker sensibly notes, “that Swift had to justify the existence of an empty building large enough to contain Gulliver”.³
In the following chapters of Part I Gulliver describes the political structure and customs of Lilliput. It is easy to notice satire on British government in many cases. For example, the fact that the officials are chosen by their skill at rope-dancing seems to be ridiculous. In order to get a powerful position in society people are ready to literally jump through hoops. Obviously enough, there is an insinuation here at the British system of political appointments and at the fact that it is more important to be adroit than well-qualified to obtain a position in the government.