A Modest Proposal ,by Jonathan Swift, is a rather strange piece of work that encompases a proposal of eating babies. Swift did not intend to convince people to eat babies, but to call attention to the abuse Irish Catholic’s face from Protestants in society. Swift oddly uses the proposal of eating Irish babies in his work to explain to the reader the impossible burdens the Protestants are imposing on the Irish Catholics. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift is a satire master piece filled with modern day humour and irony in various ways.
As the work begins, Swift bluntly proposes an idea to solve the "melancholy" and sight of women and children begging on the streets of Ireland (Swift 1199). Swift is hoping his proposal will decrease the number
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of abortions from mothers living in poverty. Swift goes on to elaborate on his proposal. Swift calculates the number of infants born in Ireland and ponders on how to go about lowering this number. Swift proposes the idea to subsequently eat the babies. This idea is preposterous and is obviously not going to happen. Either way Swift’s proposal uses this idea in such an ironic and humorous way to showcase the society of that time. He determines how the weight of the infant will impact the type of dish they make and how many people the infant can serve.
With his proposal many will question him. He states “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.” This statement relays the idea that Americans are barbaric people in need of instruction from the English and that the babies will ultimately make for a good dish. Swift also implies that Irish Catholics babies are unfit for unemployment, being even too young to steal. Merchants will not buy nor sell the babies. This statement implies that the common Irish Catholic is unemployed and tends to be a thief. Swift also implies the stereotype that Irish Catholics tends to have an abundance of children, when there is no need for …show more content…
so. In an example from the work,Swift writes to explain the hardships Irish Catholic parents face in the society.
“I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (Swift 1201). Swift is not saying that the landlords have literally devoured the parents, as intended for the babies. Instead, He is making the point that the Protestants expect too much money from the Irish Catholics and are therefore devouring them. The Church, who is against unjust killing, is subsequently killing the lives of the Irish people and their babies. This is intended to showcase the issue of high taxes, along with other impossible expenses creating hardship, out in the open. Swift uses a satire with irony to boldly show the ugly of society through socio economics. Swift showcased an excellent point, if you are going to make the babies lives borderline impossible to live, you might as well eat
them. Another significant example of satire in this work occurs on page 1201 when it is states, that by eating these babies it will “lessen the number of papists among us.” (Swift 1201) This is a strong example of satire of religious prejudice in the work. This is a main idea being that by eating the Irish Catholic babies, it will decrease the number of dangerous Catholics. The verbiage used in this example is also preposterous by using the term “papists” Swift is implying they are anti-Catholic in rejection of the pope (Swift 1201). Swift continues to elaborate on his proposal that much more can be gained from eating the Irish Catholic babies. Swift goes on to explain the other ways the babies can be facilitated. Swift states “Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay [sic] the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.” (Swift 1202) This showcases that Protestants are ready to eat and lower the count of Irish Catholics for their own endowments. While this work is quite controversy over whether or not to eat babies, this is not what Swift’s main point was. In the majority of Swift’s reasoning for eating babies, he is trying to convince the Protestants how inconsiderate their actions are, not eating babies is actually good. Swift uses satire to perfectly capture the essence of society not only then but today.
The issue that Swift is addressing is the fact that there are too many poor children in Dublin and that they are becoming such a huge burden for all the poor mothers or parents of the country. Swift then creates his own solution to the problem. He proposes that all poor children who are around one year of age, be cooked and eaten by the people of Dublin, preferably the poor. With this solution, he argues that it will eventually put an end to the overpopulation of the poor young children and it will satisfy the hunger for all the other people. Crazy right?
“A Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 by a satirical author by the name of Jonathan Swift. Swift studied at the University of Oxford and was also know for his popular writing in Gulliver’s Travel. The purpose for his satire “A Modest Proposal” was to enlighten the citizens of Ireland about their hardship and suffering. He informed them about their scares of food, money, and property, but provided a possible solution to their problem. To persuade the people Swift adopts a comforting and friendly tone to his audience for the people to react to his solution.
The obvious lack of ethics and morals in this passage cements that this essay is satirical and should not be understood as a legitimate solution to the starvation issue. He later listed the advantages of a system that breeds children for food, these advantages are all very unethical simply based off the fact that they are benefits of eating infants. Swift mentioned ideas including the murder of Catholic babies, eating humans as a fun custom, and giving the poor something of value (their own children). His use of ethos shows the audience that the essay is satirical and emphasizes the extreme ridiculousness of his ideas. Swift’s use of these three devices created a captivating and somewhat humorous satire.
In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their
Jonathan Swift’s proposal would not make sense ethically to its audience unless the reader had no value for humans. In this case Swift’s proposal would make sense and would be an acceptable proposal to resolve the problems of the poor in Ireland. The following statement, “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will
He favors the poor and hopes that they will find a way out of their seemingly hopeless destitution, which is why he writes this pamphlet. He is knowledgeable in economics and societal functions, which gives him credibility in addressing the Irish people. His main argument is that babies should be eaten in an effort to make use of the poor. He assumes that his audience will be intelligent enough to analyze the satire of his piece and be willing to understand the country’s predicament. Jonathan Swift is a well-known author and satirist who graduated from Oxford University in England.
Swift explains how selling a marketable child will be profitable and why the people of Dublin are willing butcher children to survive. He does this by saying, “I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs” (585). Swift uses verbal irony in a powerful way to state that Irish people should not be treated like animals killed as food. Swift points out the famine and the terrible living conditions that are threatening the Irish population by stating that children are a good source of food just like real animals do.... ... middle of paper ...
"A child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year with little nourishments."(pg.623) In this satire, the author is explaining a child will be born and fed off of his mother’s milk, but that milk will not be plentiful because the mother is malnourished. To solve the problem of sad fate of the poverty stricken Irish people, who spend their life looking for food to feed their families. Swift has developed a plan to benefit the rich, by using the poor. His plan is to fatten up the unnourished children, and raise them as food for the wealthier citizens of Ireland. This would give the Irish economy a consequential advance, and reduce the population, which would make it easier for the great and noble England to deal with their disorderly citizens. Swift’s proposal would benefit the wealthy with more food supply and the poor with more income. This also contradicts the proposal because the poor would become rich.
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.
The entire proposal stands as a satire in itself; an analogy paralleling the tyrannical attitude of the British toward their Irish counterparts and the use of babies as an economic commodity. In short, Swift suggests that Irish parents are owned by the British, and babies are property of their parents, therefore, England has a right to consume the Irish babies. Swift uses this syllogism to show the British that their despotic reign in Ireland has left the miserable nation in poverty and disarray. Historically, it has been evidenced that England first colonized Ireland for security against, at that time, the Irish barbarians that inhabited the land. Thus, England continues to justify their power over Ireland as “restraining the temptation to consume among England's enemies” (Mahoney). Along with “the assurance of English military power to defend the colony from threat,” the degree of “English political and economic control that the colonists deeply resented,” grew exponentially into a full blown autocracy over Ireland (Mahoney). Swift writes, “Some persons of a desponding nature are in great concern.” This is not simply a concern ...
To put things into perspective, famine and poverty made huge impacts on Irish society which would’ve made the respective audience either well-off considering the circumstances, or one of the “beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children,” (Swift 2633). With this said, authors such as Robert Phiddian claim that “the reader is caught between two authorial voices in the text, that of the Proposer's and that of Swift's, and whichever way he turns, he has to confront the truth that there are those who devour and there are those who are devoured” (1). Irish society would have either placed readers of the essay under those who were able to raise a child comfortably, inevitably placing them in the class where the consumption of said children would have been the proposed norm, or as those who had to sell their human kin for consumption in the Irish market. The lack of room for escape from being placed in either category forces the reader to essentially come to terms with either idea in the midst of their initial shock and discourse at eating babies and
Although I realize your concern, you have missed the point of this well thought out essay completely. Despite what you may think about A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, this essay is a satire master piece filled with irony. Swift’s essay was not intended to convince people to eat babies, but to call attention to the abuses Catholic’s face from their well-to-do Protestants. He only uses eating babies in his essay to explain to the reader the impossible burdens the Protestants are imposing on the Irish Catholics and by making their life hard, they are making a life of a new born impossible.
Jonathan Swift, a well-known author, in his essay “A Modest Proposal,” implies that the Irish people should eat children so that they can better their chances of survival. Swift supports his implication by describing how his proposal will have many advantages such as, eliminating papists, bringing great custom to taverns, and inducing marriages. He comes up with an absurd proposal to eat and sell the children to the elite so the Irish can have a brighter future. His purpose is to show that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English. Throughout his essay, Swift uses sarcasm, satire, and irony.
In Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”, he insisted that poor Irish Catholics should participate in outrageous behavior that are similar to eugenics. He proposed that in order for the poverty-stricken Irish Catholics to make money, they should fatten up their infants and sell them as a cuisine. As a result, the mothers can make money and prevent their poor children from growing up as beggars, a criminal, or an inadequate member of society. Swift’s proposal to sell infant flesh as a means of profit for the poor families and a delicacy for the rich ties in with the immorality of eugenics. However, this style of writing that Swift demonstrates is a persona of the overbearing protestants who stereotyped the Irish-Catholics. Swift’s proposal has been known for being based on satire and irony. Therefore, Swift’s intentions of creating this proposal were to underline the importance of treating the poor and homeless no less than human beings. Consequently, Swift would most likely be taken back from the cruel practice of eugenics. Since eugenics is a form of controlling human reproduction it is similar to Swift’s proposal to decrease the number of future beggars and delinquent offspring’s. Additionally, both ideas address financially unstable people as a nuisance to society, which encourages stereotypes. Eugenics and
Dr. Jonathan Swift strives to portray his character as professional and intellectual in the beginning of his essay; on top of this sophisticated outlook, the author portrays his utter determination and passion to resolve a well-known problem that lingers on the streets of Ireland: impoverished, vain children. This component appears straightforward in the first few paragraph where he emits a sign of reason as he elaborates how numerous, burdened mothers “are forced to employ all their time...for their helpless infants” who transform into criminals or Catholic crusaders. (4-7 Swift). This statement appeals to the common Irish citizen as this reality is substantially common in daily life. The audience, from these introductory paragraphs, will