Analysis of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
During the late seventeenth century, political pamphlets were distributed throughout Ireland to promote the ideas of various intellectuals and laymen. However, many discarded them and did not pay attention to them. Jonathan Swift, author of “A Modest
Proposal,” takes advantage of the overlooked pamphlets, and constructs a ridiculous proposal.
He does this to illustrate how backwards and bad the state of Ireland is and the social classes.
Swift proposes that the babies of all the poor and desolate will “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” to improve Ireland’s economy and standard of living
(Swift 868). He says this because many women kept having children
He is serious throughout the essay but constantly changing the tone of the essay. The changing of the tone helps the reader see that “A Modest
Proposal” is absurd. At first Swift is very sympathetic toward the people of Ireland. Not much later, he changes his tone to be more matter of fact. Swift changes the tone of the essay to a state of shock by making “a modest proposal” that is contrary to its name.
Swift’s proposal is for women to sell their children to benefit Ireland. Doing so, he shocks the reader. The trust that has been built between Swift and the reader, at the beginning of the essay has been broken and the reader does not know what to think of swift and his ideas.
Using this tone makes his ridiculous proposal standout profoundly and helps portray the unseriousness of his argument.
Jonathan Swift also uses irony to satirize what is going on in Ireland. Irony is the expression of one’s meaning by using contradicting language. For instance, Swift says to
“sacrifice the poor innocent babes” to “prevent…voluntary abortions and [the] horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children” (868). He is telling the reader that women are performing abortions because they are not financially stable to support their children and
He shows sympathy towards the poor women and their children. He then says that the mothers are “forced” to spend
“all their time” walking about the streets of Ireland begging for “sustenance for their helpless infant” (867). The strong words “forced” and “helpless” makes the reader feel sympathy towards the mothers and children. It also creates a strong bond and trust between the speaker and the reader. Once the strong bond of trust has been built, Jonathan Swift quickly gets rid of it by employing several terms and phrases that dehumanize humans and also compare humans to animals. He says “a child dropped from its dam” to dehumanize woman and compare women to animal in how they give birth to many children, presumably that animals tend to have numerous young (867). Another common term used throughout the text is “breeder”. He uses breeder to make woman seem as their only purpose in life is to produce children and in turn sell them to
How does Swift want the reader to view his speaker? That is, how would Swift want his reader to describe the persona he adopts? Swift wants the reader to view the speaker as a reasonable, compassionate and rational person who has a genuine interest in solving the problems of the poor Irish. In the beginning of the essay, the speaker appears to be a concerned person who demonstrates a keen insight into the issues he addresses. However, this is contrary to the fact that the speaker predominantly relies on random and absurd statistics and logic to present his solution. By acting as someone compelled to solve the plight of the poor Irish, the unknown speaker makes his words more effective and establishes himself as someone who would never make the outrageous proposal that follows.
Swift wrote his proposal for those that were tired of looking at poor children of Ireland. He starts out explaining the situation in Ireland regarding single poor mothers that have three to six children and cannot afford to feed or clothe them. The children of the poor are a burden and a disgrace for Ireland. He suggests that a certain number of the kids be set aside for breeding and the rest be auctioned off for consumption when they reach a year old. Swift backs his proposal with six key points. One, there will be a reduction of "papists" in the country. Two, the poor will have some valuable assets to help them with their economic needs. Three, the new goods will burst economy. Four, the parent/s will gain money and will not have to support their children year after year. Five, "would bring great custom to taverns." Six, there would be a greater incentive to marry and better child rearing practices.
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?
Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." Diversity/Adversity: Introduction to College English: Literature. Vanier College English Department. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Canada, 1984. 498-504. Print.
Swift defined satire as; 'A sort of glass wherein the holders do generally discover everybody's face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it. " Swift presents his "Proposal" as an entirely reasonable suggestion to aid the Irish, he enumerates the many benefits, counters the objections many may have, uses rhetoric reasoning and proves his humanitarianism views. Swift has written in considerable detail over the degree of poverty in Ireland, he draws attention to the causes of it obliquely and proves in great detail that his "Proposal" will work and in which ways it does work. Ireland was a colony of England; it was economically, politically and militarily dependent on ... ... middle of paper ... ...
Swift states that if a poor infant passes the dangerous years of childhood, they would “leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain” or “they would sell...
Swift, Jonathan. “A Modest Proposal.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2012. 2633-39. Print.
...ture the attention of the audience by means of “political pamphleteering which is very popular during his time” (SparkNotes Editors). The language and style of his argument is probably why it is still popular till this day. By using satire, Swift makes his point by ridiculing the English people, the Irish politicians, and the wealthy. He starts his proposal by using emotional appeal and as it progresses, he uses ethos to demonstrate credibility and competence. To show the logical side of the proposal, he uses facts and figures. By applying these rhetorical appeals, Swift evidently makes his argument more effectual.
With all of these problems, the parents couldn’t maintain their children, so they needed a solution. Now this incredible man comes with a solution that is going to blow your mind, Swift decides to give them a proposal. It was a really uncommon one, but very helpful for them. This proposal is going to stabilize once again the country of Ireland. He established the use of the children of the poor as a source of food.
This essay will have no value unless the reader understands that Swift has written this essay as a satire, humor that shows the weakness or bad qualities of a person, government, or society (Satire). Even the title A Modest Proposal is satirical. Swift proposes using children simply as a source of meat, and outrageous thought, but calls his propo...
If Jonathan Swift had written a serious piece simply espousing his true beliefs he would not have received as much feedback, due to the fact that there were already informational advertisements at the time and nobody was interested in reading them. The only thing that would get the people 's attention was something that would create a lasting impression, so he wrote a satirical piece with trenchant humor and mochary. “A Modest Proposal” surprised people and got them thinking about the condition of the poor in Ireland and what should be done to solve it. For example Swift states that “those who are thrifty” can use the carcass of the infant for ladies’ gloves or gentlemen’s boots. This itself can help those reading the piece to begin to think about possible solutions to the substantial issues involving the poor in Ireland. He also proposes that children that are fourteen should be consumed as well so the poor don’t have to go hungry and that it would limit the number of breeders, in an attempt to illustrate the extremity of the circumstances. His sarcastic way of joking enlisted fear in the poor and concern in the rich, helping them realise the drastic issue present in the
Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed. The real issue being addressed in “A Modest Proposal” is the poverty that is plaguing Ireland. The piece was written at a time when the poor people were seen as a burden to their country and were being oppressed by the wealthy English government and landowners. Swift makes the argument to make the poor useful.
In his lengthy literary career, Jonathan Swift wrote many stories that used a broad range of voices that were used to make some compelling personal statements. For example, Swifts, A Modest Proposal, is often heralded as his best use of both sarcasm and irony. Yet taking into account the persona of Swift, as well as the period in which it was written, one can prove that through that same use of sarcasm and irony, this proposal is actually written to entertain the upper-class. Therefore the true irony in this story lies not in the analyzation of minute details in the story, but rather in the context of the story as it is written.
The main rhetorical challenge of this ironic essay is capturing the attention of an audience. Swift makes his point negatively, stringing together an appalling set of morally flawed positions in order to cast blame and criticize
The issue is that there is a growing number of poor and starving women and children living on the streets of Ireland that are a burden to the public and the country. The context is that these homeless and starving women and children are left to fend for themselves on the streets. Jonathan Swift is making the argument from the point of a concerned citizen who has spent years among the poor in Ireland studying the situation and trying to come up with a solution. Johnathan Swift used the example that those who visit Ireland and see the streets crowded with women and children that are beggars conclude that Ireland is a very poor, overpopulated country full of beggars and that they look down upon their country that is in such poor shape. His bias is that as a citizen living in Ireland, he does not want to be looked down upon by other countries. His targeted audience seems to be the citizens of the country and those in higher up positions who ...