Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

Jonathan Swift’s“A Modest Proposal” Irony and Satire You need paper and something to write with today

Satirical Devices • Research the 10 satirical vocabulary terms to find an example of each. • You may directly quote to show your example, making sure you properly attribute your source. • Use literary or musical examples – when in doubt Shakespeare is always a great example. • For example, a famous line of irony is from Pride and Prejudice. • “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1).

Publication • Published anonymously by Jonathon Swift in 1729 • Swift raises a proposal for what to do about the large amount of impoverished Irish during the time period. • Swift's writings created a backlash within the community after its publication.

What is the problem Swift is addressing? • Many Irish parents must beg to feed children that end up as thieves, slaves, or soldiers for Spain • Because there are too many poor children, many women are aborting their babies • 120,000 children of poor parents are annually born, but there is no work for them to do

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” As we read we will outlines his major points

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • The children of the poor would make good food • 20,000 should be kept as breeders, 1 of 4 being male • The remaining 100,000 will be sold to rich people for eating • Landlords should have first choice, given that they have already “devoured” the parents • Swift satirizes the rich English landlords, by pretending to argue from their point of view. Swift pushes the attitudes of the English landlords, who are already exploiting and tyrannizing the Irish, to their logical extreme by suggesting that they now start eating the Irish children.

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • Infant flesh would be more available in March, because of all the fish Catholics eat nine months beforehand for Lent • Eating infants will make landlords popular, because they will be able to feed their friends; mothers would profit, and be able to work until pregnant again • Swift satirizes the anti-Catholicism of the landlords by suggesting that they will be thrilled to reduce the Catholic population by eating their infants • Swift also satirizes the greed of landlords by using profit-based arguments to support the murder and consumption of 100,000 children

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • The flesh of infants may be used as gloves and summer boots • Swift objects to eating girls as old as 14 because they would serve better as breeders, and because people would object that it is “a little bordering on cruelty” • When Swift says the idea of eating 14-year-olds is “a little bordering on cruelty,” he is using ironic understatement, because his entire proposal is monstrous

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • Although there are many suffering “aged, diseased,” or injured people, nothing needs to be gone for them because they are already dying “as fast as can be reasonably expected” • Poor Irish tenants, who have already sold their crops and cattle to pay the rent, will now be able to pay by selling their children • Swift satirizes the callousness of the English who do nothing for suffering Irish adults, when he ironically suggests that they are dying as fast as possible already

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • The sale of children will boost the economy, by much reducing the cost of raising children, and stimulating consumption at taverns • Mothers will love their children more, because they can now be sold profitably as food • Husbands will now love their wives as much as they do the farm animals that are about to give birth • Swift continues to satirize the greed of landlords by using profit-based arguments to support the murder and consumption of children • Swift also seems to be satirizing the Irish husbands, who according to him show less affection towards their wives than they do towards domestic animals

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • Swift says no one should talk to him about a long list of alternative solutions, most of them far more reasonable and humane, until there is “at least some glimpse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice” • Swift introduces the solutions that he really believes in, by ironically suggesting that he will not consider them at all

Satirical Proposal Intended Criticism • Many Irish parents would have preferred to have been eaten at one year old than have experienced the “perpetual” suffering caused by landlords, the impossibly high rents, and the lack of food, housing or clothes • This is the darkest irony of Swift’s proposal – the reality that compared with the horrible reality of life for Irish tenants, his monstrous proposal is a mercy

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”