Use Of Satire In Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a strong satirical essay written in 1729. This is easily one of his most famous essays along with Gulliver’s Travels which was written in 1726. In the time that this essay was written, there was a major economic downturn and major overpopulation in Ireland and he informs the readers by saying, “It is a melancholy object to walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and all importuning every passenger for an alms.” This was a major issue in Ireland and Great Britain at the time and this sets up Swift’s “Modest Proposal”. Swift proposed that a profitable

Beginning with satire, satire is criticizing something or someone with the use smart wording and witty gestures. Pretty much the entire essay is a great use of satire like when he talks about babies as being delicious; the idea of eating babies is so far-fetched and simply vile that it helps make the main point even more effective. Another successful use of satire and irony in the essay is when he says, “For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our dangerous enemies ...” In this quote he is mocking religious quarrel between Protestants and Catholics by saying that eating Irish babies would lower the number of Catholic Irish people and would be beneficial to the Protestants. One last example of satire is when Swift writes, “I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.” He means that he can not imagine that anyone would be opposed to eating and selling children unless that do not care for the greater good of the