INTRO
Jonathan Swift, the prominent satirical writer of the 18th century presents social criticism through his two essays of Hints in Conversation which draws opprobrium of societal faults in conversation and A Modest Proposal which illustrates the lamentable condition of Ireland in conjunction with an inhumane proposal. Both texts are comically fabricated to endure great irony and exaggeration in order to confront the audience of the 1700’s out of their complacent state to bring about improvement. Swift encourages and liberates his perception of an egalitarian world, with “no other motive than the publick good” enduring through both content differentiating essays in order for the audience to this contemporary day to improve themselves, thus
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Swift illustrates that when having a conversation, and attempting to better the other person by correcting their faults is the fault within its self. The advice intended for the audience is respect and humility, in order to allow individuals to connect and engage well. Swift accentuates the “hints” of conversation by outlining the “two chief ends of conversation” being to “entertain” and “improve” those we are among, or to receive those “benefits” for ourselves through his didactic shift in tone. Swift emphasises the “greatest” and “most lasting” qualifiers to better conversation, as he perceives women to create an element of “modesty” and “decency” among the “poor” and “pernicious” pleasures of men thus improving society. The contrast made between human and animal nature dehumanises society, as “men” and “brutes” are placed on equal value, mocking humanity in relation to the “lewd” and “profane” terms and phrases which degrade society. As the self assured Swift condemns the speaker via his condescending tone of voice, he inclines towards advising individuals to leave “room for answers and replies” in order to be truly valued and respected, in an egalitarian society of “love”, “honour” and …show more content…
The contrary title juxtaposes the content of being a “modest” proposal, as the anticipation of selling and eating young children in order to benefit Ireland’s economy is not a polite nor considerate gesture. Swift indicates his motive, through the contextual references and visual imagery of the “beggars” and “helpless infants” subjecting the reader to view the reality downfall of the Irish people’s deprivation and oppression. The paradox used to state humanity in Ireland as a “lawful occupation of begging” illustrates the situation they are facing with “labourers” and “farmers” categorised ironically as this “occupation”. The structure flow of this essay is gradually intensified, as the problem of the depressed economic conditions of Ireland, is supported through statistical evidence, which authenticate and reinforce the argument as the ironic “only”, in “there only remain a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents”, confront the reader as this number is large raising the issue of overabundance within Ireland. Swift’s mock serious tone of voice, is accompanied by a sense of superiority as he “proposes” his own “thoughts”, and “humbly” offers them to the public. This outrageous thought Swift conducts of killing, eating and selling the children
Pamphlets were often used to spread ideas throughout Ireland in the late 1600s, however, many were discarded and ignored. “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift, uses the pamphlets to his advantage by proposing a ridiculous idea to show how messed up the state of Ireland was. Swift proposed that the babies of all the poor would “contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands” or in other words, improve Ireland 's economic problems and standard of living (Swift). His main reason for proposing this drastic idea was because women continued to have children they could not provide food or anything for in some cases and Swift’s idea would make the children “beneficial to the public” (Swift). For these reasons, Swift looks at not only the politicians to blame for the poor conditions but the citizens of Ireland as well. In “A Modest Proposal”, Swift uses harsh
In eighteenth century Ireland, the nation was in a famine and an epidemic of poverty due to the high prices of land and food. Jonathan Swift saw a problem, so h wrote and spread what we call today, A Modest Proposal. Swift’s essay is satirical. He exaggerates and gives inaccurate statistics to deliver a thesis that runs deeper than the explicit one about eating babies. While much of the essay seems to imply that Swift’s persona eats babies, there are some instances where Jonathan hints at the ironic themes of the writing.
In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their
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.
When A Modest Proposal was published, or to give it’s full name "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 public." England dominated the whole of Ireland. English landlords owned much of Ireland’s property, Charging ridiculous amounts for rent to poor tenants who could barely afford to pay. England imposed extremely high taxes on Ireland and the English laws which restricted Irish trade made it impossible for the country to ever prosper. In general, the English had, at this time, a negative attitude towards Irish people, and Roman Catholics which most Irish people were. This knowledge is important when reading and understanding this piece. Without knowing a little about the political and social state at this time, it may be difficult to pick up on Swift’s use of satire. However the piece itself, even the full title does educate the reader to an extent, talking about different social classes and focusing particularly on the poor in Ireland. This essay purports to be neither decisive nor conclusive, but merely attempts to assess the importance on the historical content of “A Modest Proposal” in order to see if it is a required element when trying to understand the piece.
... Proposal as a Horatian satire. The tone is only good humored to an extent and is laden with sarcasm such as “therefore let no man talk to me of expedients: of taxing our absentees”, as well as absurd, morally distasteful logic. Furthermore, as construed above, the use of the urbane voice of the proposer is not a supplement to a sophisticated argument, but one cleverly used in unison with irony and sarcasm. This use of clever diction helps to promote effective discussion among aristocrats and peasants alike in the hope of deciphering the real meaning of Swift’s proposal. The point of the essay was to uniquely grab the attention of observes who have been indifferent to the plight of the lower class. Through the aforementioned reasoning, Swift does this through the clever implementation of Juvenelian satire in way that the straight forward Horatian satire could not.
Swift begins his argument by stating his view on the situation and displaying his annoyance. He states, "It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country when they see the streets, roads, and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms" (Swift 1). He uses melancholic imagery for the readers to sympathize with the suffering children and to understand their situation. Similarly, Swift displays his disgust for the wealthy by stating that "There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children… which would move tears in the most savage and inhumane beast" (1). He talks about abortion and shows how ghastly and disheartening the practice is. Clearly, Swift makes use of pathos to slowly gain the reader’s confidence in preparation for his appalling proposal. He knows that many will be emotionally affected by his proposal because no one would want their own c...
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.
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...
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. 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.
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.
Irony is a beautiful technique exercised to convey a message or call a certain group of people to action. This rhetorical skill is artfully used by Jonathan Swift in his pamphlet “A Modest Proposal.” The main argument for this mordantly ironic essay is to capture the attention of a disconnected and indifferent audience. Swift makes his point by stringing together a dreadfully twisted set of morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and aspersions on his intended audience. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” employs despicably vivid satire to call for change in a world of abuse and misfortune.
The Writings of Jonathan Swift; Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Criticism. edited by Robert A. Greenberg and William Bowman Piper. Norton Critical Editions. New York: Norton, 1973.
To this point the main driving force of Swift’s commentary was built around his outrageous proposal, one that comes off as so fantastical that the reader is just waiting for the “gotcha!” moment. However, instead Swift starts to use the grim irony of his proposal to build up and support his real intentions. Swift confesses that for more “thrifty” people the carcasses of the dead babies could be flayed, and the skin used to make admirable gloves for the “fine” ladies. Swift brilliantly lampoons the Irish upper class for their inability to take minor financial cuts in order to help the general good of society, especially by helping the poor. Instead he suggests that it would be “thrifty” to take the skin of the children to wear as gloves, something that would be the complete opposite of being thrifty as it would waste a human life. Swift also employs the use of loaded, in this case extremely patriotic,words and phrases in his diction to help highlight the irony of his writing. The best example of this can be seen when describing a conversation he had with a “deserving patriot” and “true lover of his country”(1290) who, upon hearing Swift’s proposal, offers his own refinement that poor children between the ages of twelve and fourteen to replace the supply of venison in the country. The use of those loaded phrases to describe someone who not only went along with Swift’s proposal, but gave his own refinement
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own” (Swift). Such beholders, as Jonathan Swift astutely emphasizes, are intended, through guidance of satiric narrative, to recognize social or political plights. In some satires, as in Swift’s own A Modest Proposal, the use of absurd, blatant exaggeration is intended to capture an indolent audience’s attention regarding the social state of the poor. Yet even in such a direct satire, there exists another layer of meaning. In regards to A Modest Proposal, the interchange between the voice of the proposer and Swift’s voice introduces another medium of criticism, as well as the opportunity for readers to reflect on how well they may fit the proposer’s persona. In such as case, the satire exists on multiple levels of meaning—not only offering conclusions about moral problems, but also allowing the audience to an interpretation of their place among the criticism.