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Jonathan Swift and “A Modest Proposal”

Jonathan Swift and “A Modest Proposal”. Excelled at satire and prose. Anglo-Irish as he lived in Ireland and considered himself more of an Englishman Earned a Master’s Degree from prestigious Oxford and ordained as a priest in the Church of Ireland. Swift in Ireland.

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Jonathan Swift and “A Modest Proposal”

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  1. Jonathan Swift and “A Modest Proposal” • Excelled at satire and prose. • Anglo-Irish as he lived in Ireland and considered himself more of an Englishman • Earned a Master’s Degree from prestigious Oxford and ordained as a priest in the Church of Ireland

  2. Swift in Ireland Worked as a priest in a rural Irish setting ------------------------------------------------------------- Thought IRE was culturally unsound with the Roman Catholic (native) /Scottish Presbyterian (Immigrant) influences…He had no respect for either group. ------------------------------------------------------------- Wanted to be made an English bishop, but when key contacts fell from power, he went back to Ireland and was made Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

  3. Swift’s writing… • Most was published anonymously in pamphlets • Goal - improve human conduct and make people more decent and humane. • “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726) – Attacked varieties of human misbehavior, vice, and folly.

  4. “A Modest Proposal” • Most famous of his pamphlets • Pro-Irish as he defended them against ENG rulers

  5. 7 reasons for making this “modest proposal”: • (1) To reduce the number of Catholics; (2) Landlords could seize Irish children if their parents refused to pay rent; (3) Save money for upkeep of children; (4) Add a new “Dish” to the nation’s tables. • 5) Parents would not have to support children; 6) Taverns would prosper with the “new dish”; (7) Encourage marriage as women would be treated well when pregnant

  6. Reasoning for “A Modest Proposal” (con’t) • Satire - the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding people’s vice, folly, foolishness.

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