Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

“A Modest Proposal”, written in 1979 by Jonathan Swift, is a fascinating sardonic, irrefutable hyperbole. He reconnoiters the miserable fate of poverty-striven Irish whose struggle in vain in an effort to feed their huge emaciated families. In the essay, Swift advocates that the penurious Irish should sell their babies to the rich ladies and gentlemen and obtain monetary power required to ease their economic predicaments. The babies will in turn be turned into ‘delicious’ food for the wealthy landlords. The straight-faced parody that features predominantly in the essay makes it outstanding in exploring the tarnished relationship between England and Ireland as well as comprehending the strategies that were thought to be best in resolving the

During the 17th century, the Ireland neighboring nation England had a whole span of control over its operation. Profound taxes were imposed upon the Irish as well as commandeer their resources for their own. Swift narrates how England exploited Ireland “let no one talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees at 5s. a pound…” (Atwan et al. 871). He further noted that England exploited Ireland by “quitting our animosities and factions, acting more like the Jews who were fond of murdering one another in the city was taken..” (Atwan et al.

He achieves this by making his scheme flippant. He becomes devious and uses insincerity and fraudulence in the underlying idea in the masterpiece due to the absurdity of the entire concept. He suggests that innocent and helpless children should be turned into ‘delicious ‘food thus making the ‘fattened’ children ‘beneficial to the public’. He does it so spontaneously and with no sense of culpability that anyone would think he is treacherous and untrustworthy. Moreover, he further becomes more hypocritical when he affirms that he has no personal attachment to the very proposal that he stalwartly proclaims, merely because he has no suitable child (according to his definition of a child that was appropriate to be slaughtered) and his wife is beyond the child-bearing bracket. His tone throughout the essay keeps on changing (Atwan et al. 874). At first, he appears sympathetic towards the suffering Irish but later changes the tone by recommending an outrageous proposal that should be implemented in solving problems facing