A Modest Proposal Rhetorical Analysis

Some might say that A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift is the “most famous satirical essay in the English language” because of his astounding use of satire throughout the essay in an attempt to bring to light things that he saw needed change. His proposal may not be as ‘modest’ as the title portrays, as he suggests out-of-this-world solutions to the economic and moral problems that Ireland had in regards to the English rule. Swift uses many different techniques to get his message and opinion across to his audience, some being the use of satire, mainly that of verbal irony, his appeal to the people by discussing solutions to their problems, and religious prejudices.

Satire is the core of the entire essay, without it people wouldn’t have been able to understand the solutions that Swift was

trying to tell them, they would of only thought of him as a mad man. Satire was probably the best literary technique that Swift could of used for this particular essay because “… [Satire] is a genre which addresses its exaggerated version of present evils to readers who have some power to act and, by this means, hopes to bring about social and political change” (Atwood 59) which basically means it makes fun of the ideas that other people have proposed to solve large scale problems in the economy.

One can tell that Swift has a lot of experience discussing pressing political matters all the while using satire to persuade the audience to listen to his argument. As he discusses the problems of poverty, and inequality within the government system, Swift manages to come up with numerical statistics to back up his outrageous proposal to solving these problems. Within his essay, his audience isn’t solely aimed at the poorer classes but at the officials too, “The targets of satire are repressive governmental policies which produce worse harm than the problems they set out to solve.” (Atwood 63) His essay reads with a very sarcastic tone, which is an example of the verbal irony that he utilizes while writing. He writes about one specific problem but leaves hints that those problems aren’t the main problem that needs to be solved. The second technique that Swift makes use of is

his way of appealing to the people by discussing solutions to their problems, which is also know as rhetorical appeals to pathos. Swift knew that the best way to connect to his audience would be by discussing and trying to solve problems that affected many people within the society. Problems such as poverty and economic inequality are perfect examples of this, Swift himself said, "A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme." (p. 208) displayed how if the people truly loved their country, that there was a way for them to get what they wanted. The satire that Swift used was very effective because it made people actually think about what they were reading and how it related to the lives of all the people, Margaret Atwood stated in her essay that, “His satire is powerful in part because it is directed at its readers, both the educated business class of England and the oppressed Irish” (Atwood 63)