In Chapters IV – XI, Glubbdubdrib offers the opportunity for Swift to satirize various historical figures, undermining their images as paragons of virtue or learning. Gulliver’s interaction with the dead hearkens back to Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century poem Inferno, in which Dante himself travels through the various regions of hell and witnesses’ sinners being punished. This imaginary tour of hell allowed Dante the author to skewer his political opponents and enemies, just as Swift’s imaginary wanderings allow him to ridicule certain aspects of society. Gulliver’s visit to Glubbdubdrib is part of Swift’s attempt in the third voyage to undercut standards of abstract learning. At the same time, however, Swift does elevate certain people above others. Generally speaking, the ancient Greeks and Romans are held up as truly virtuous, whereas the Europeans who have lived since are held up as somewhat degenerate.

The Struldbrugs of Luggnagg provide an opportunity for Swift to satirize human desires. Many would seek eternal life, and the primary benefit of old age, as Gulliver sees it, is the ability to use one’s accumulated wisdom to help humanity. The reality is much less glorious—instead of growing in wisdom, the immortal Struldbrugs grow only more prejudiced and selfish, eventually becoming a detriment to the whole Luggnaggian society. Furthermore, the Struldbrugs’ immense sadness despite their seeming advantage shows the emptiness of Gulliver’s desire—a desire prominent in Western society—to acquire riches. Swift denounces such self-absorbed goals as the province of small minds unconcerned with the good of society as a whole.