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.. .......Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal” in 1720 to call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish Catholics by well-to-do English Protestants. Swift himself was a Protestant, but he was also a native of Ireland, having been born in Dublin of English parents. He believed England was exploiting Ireland. .......Many Irishmen worked farms owned by Englishmen who charged high rents–so high that the Irish were frequently unable to pay them. Consequently, many Irish farming families lived on the edge of starvation. .......In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous humor, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem. He says his proposal, if adopted, would also result in a reduction in the number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish infants–almost all of whom were baptized Catholic–would end up in stews and other dishes instead of growing up to go to Catholic churches. Here, he is satirizing the rivalry and prejudice characterizing Catholic-Protestant relations in Britain. .......Swift also satirizes the Irish themselves in his essay, for too many of them had accepted abuse stoically rather than taking action on their own behalf. .......The main literary device Swift uses in “A Modest Proposal" is verbal irony–that is, he proposes the opposite of what he really believes. .......Over the centuries, England gradually gained a foothold in Ireland. In 1541, the parliament in Dublin recognized England’s Henry VIII, a Protestant, as King of Ireland. In spite of repeated uprisings by Irish Catholics, English Protestants acquired more and more estates in Ireland. By 1703, they owned all but 10 percent of the land. Meanwhile, legislation was enacted that severely limited the rights of the Irish to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an education, and advance themselves in other ways. As a result, many Irish fled to foreign lands, including America. Most of those who remained in Ireland lived in poverty, facing disease, starvation, and prejudice. It was this Ireland–an Ireland of the tyrannized and the downtrodden–that Jonathan Swift attempted to focus attention on in “A Modest Proposal” in 1720. .......Editor's Note: In "A Modest Proposal," Swift assumes the persona of a daft statistician. The following summary of the essay greatly condenses the original wording. However, the words in blue type are direct quotations from the essay. .......Because
so many Irish parents cannot find decent jobs to support their children,
they spend all their time walking the streets to beg alms of passersby.
Meanwhile, the children grow up to become thieves or emigrants.
 Complete Title and Year of Publication . The complete title of "A Modest Proposal," published in 1720, is "A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick." Writing and Publishing Formats "A Modest Proposal" is an essay originally printed in the form of a pamphlet. At the time of the publication of "A Modest Proposal," a pamphlet was a short work that took a stand on a political, religious, or social issue–or any other issue of public interest. A typical pamphlet had no binding, although it sometimes had a paper cover. Writers of pamphlets, called pamphleteers, played a significant role in inflaming or resolving many of the great controversies in Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, as well as in the political debate leading up to the American Revolution. In addition to “A Modest Proposal,” Swift wrote many political pamphlets supporting the causes of the Tory political party after he renounced his allegiance to the Whig party. "A Modest Proposal" is a
satire, a literary work that attacks or pokes fun
at vices, abuses, stupidity, and/or any other fault or imperfection. Satire
may make the reader laugh at, or feel disgust for, the person or thing
satirized. Impishly or sardonically, it criticizes someone or something,
using wit and clever wording–and sometimes makes outrageous assertions
or claims. The main purpose of a satire is to spur readers to remedy the
problem under discussion. The main weapon of the satirist is verbal irony,
a figure of speech in which words are used to ridicule a person or thing
by conveying a meaning that is the opposite of what the words say.
The lanugage of "A Modest Proposal" is specific and succinct, and it is loaded with irony and wit. Swift, one of the greatest satirists in the English language, carefully selects words with connotations that shock and amuse the reader while also promoting euphony. For example, in the following paragraph from the essay, the word carcasses–meaning remains of a dead animal dressed by a butcher–conveys shock value and humor while also alliterating with previous words (constant customers, christenings, and compute, as well as with a following word, Kingdom:
Beneath Swift’s audacious
satire is a serious theme: that English overlords are shamelessly exploiting
the impoverished people of Ireland.
Author Information Jonathan Swift was born on
November 30, 1667, in Dublin, Ireland. His father–an Englishman who had
moved to Ireland–died earlier that year. Receiving financial assistance
from relatives, Swift attended a good school for his basic education and
graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1686. He lived off and on in
England, became an Anglican clergyman, and eventually was appointed dean
of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, although he had lobbied for a position
in England. His writing–especially his satires–made him one of the most
prominent citizens in Great Britain, and he worked for a time on behalf
of Tory causes. His most famous work is Gulliver's Travels, a book
of satire on politics and society in general. Swift died in Dublin on October
19, 1745.
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