In Ireland, political leaflets were disseminated to encourage laypeople's and intellectuals' views. The majority of individuals gave these pamphlets no thought and threw them away. Jonathan Swift, the author of "A Modest Proposal," made use of the ignored pamphlets to create his ridiculous plan. Jonathan came up with this idea to show how deplorable and backward Ireland was. For instance, Jonathan suggested that all the children born to the impoverished and the innocent will continue to raise Ireland's standard of living and economy. Swift claims that the kids can provide food and clothing for hundreds of people living in Ireland. Swift says that this was because women in Ireland kept giving birth to more and more children yet they were unable to provide basic needs for them. He said that his proposal would make the children useful to the state (Swift, 866), and because of the sincerity of Ireland’s grim of its living standards. Basing his arguments on this reasons, Jonathan Swift blames the politicians for the poor conditions in Ireland due to the apathy presented by politicians during the decision making process. Jonathan makes excellent use of rhetorical exaggeration, sarcasm, and insincerity to reveal how citizens, politicians, and papists of the poverty stricken Ireland annoyed him during the 17th Century. Three factors make Jonathan’s argument not serious: Ridiculous nature of the proposal, his insincerity, and his tone. This paper analyzes the Swift’s proposal considering these three factors.
Jonathan does not blame particular persons on Ireland’s problems; he says politicians, English, and people are all guilty for Ireland’s shortcomings. He states that given that the poor children pass through the critical childhood years, they should free from Ireland and fight bartending position in the neighboring Spain or have themselves sold to the Barbados to be indentured servants ( Swift, 867). Swift also states that those Ireland citizens that leave the country do not have the sense of pride for their country and have led to the demise of Ireland.
Swift’s Modest Proposal also reveals some sense of hatreds towards the Roman Catholics; Roman Catholics are revered to as “papists” through the proposal. For instance, in the thirteenth paragraph, Jonathan states that there are more Catholic babies born nine months after rent is paid and filling the market with young ones. Later Swift says that Ireland will have to means of reducing the number of Catholic children amongst its citizens thus leading to the reduction of Catholics in its population. This indicates a significant level of animosity towards the Catholics. By assessing Jonathan’s proposal, it is easy to deduce that Swift must have been an ordained Anglican priest (Swift, 866). Because there has always existed rivalry between Protestants and Catholics, it may have been possible that the Catholic church imposed an impact to the economy of Ireland.
Swift reveals annoyance by stating the various confrontations Ireland had with England. During the 17th Century, England (a neighboring country to Ireland) confronted Ireland. The government of England imposed a lot of taxes upon Ireland while commandeering their resources. According to Swift (872), it is evident that Swift wants the audience to develop a stand against England. Ireland needs to work towards the sense of overall pride about their state. He suggests that for Ireland to contain its economic state, they all have to have self-determination. Additionally, Swift continues to attack other nations. For instance, he attacks the United States by referring Americas as cannibals (869).
Not only does Johnathan blames other for the demise of Ireland but also exaggerates how horrible, disgusting, and poor Ireland was. He successfully does this by making his proposal not solemn, insincere. On the other hand, Swift uses insincerity and dishonesty to his gain in making his underlying thoughts about Ireland and the whole proposal in general. Jonathan proposed that the people of Ireland should consume innocent and helpless children. Jonathan talks about killing young ones and eating them freely with any guilty; people could think that is untrustworthy and insincere. The continues to be insincere when he says that he does not have the interest of killing children to use them as food. His insincerity is further portrayed when he says that he does not have the benefit of killing and eating children since he does not possess an appropriate child and that his spouse is unable to give birth to another child (Clark & Gerrig 121).
Swift proposes to women that they should sell their kids to benefit the Ireland’s economy. At this point, the trust gained by the reader from start of the proposal is now broken, and the reader becomes confused on what to think of Jonathan. He is undoubtedly successful in making his ridiculous proposal to standout significantly and shows the seriousness of his proposal. Swift keeps changing the tone of the proposal constantly making the reader deduce that Swift’s Modest Proposal is absurd. Swift starts by being sympathetic to the people of Ireland, but after a few lines, he changes his tone to be a more accurate proposal. He also gives his proposal a ridiculous title (A Modest Proposal).
Swift also makes use of irony to satirize the happenings of Ireland in the 17th Century. Swift uses statements such as to sacrifice innocent poor babies to benefit the country. He also says that the children should be sacrificed to avert intentional abortions and horrible activity of wives murdering their kids (Swift 868). Swift tells the reader that women commit abortions because they cannot afford to provide for their children and that children start stealing at the age of six for them to survive.
Jonathan uses various rhetoric statements in his ridiculous proposal that gives the audience a “love-hate” connection with the Jonathan Smith. Jonathan uses sympathetic language in the 1st paragraph of the text thereby making the leader develop sympathy towards the author. This sympathy is due to Swift’s use language that shows that he is very sympathetic towards poor people and that he doesn’t agree that the poor made themselves to be poor. Swift shows empathy and sympathy towards poor children and their mothers. For example, Jonathan shows sympathy when he says that helpless parents are forced to use all their time walking up and down the streets in a bid to find something for their children (Swift 867). In this example, operative words like “helpless” and “forced” make the reader sympathetic towards children and their mothers.
Not only does Jonathan brutalize people through choices of words he makes, but also makes people appear unimportant. Jonathans does this by turning people into data. For instance, in the sixth paragraph, Swift calculates the total number of kids from low-income families, and during such calculation, he categorizes the information regarding families who are unable to provide for their children, families that have women who miscarry. Jonathan starts by creating a list of all the citizens of Ireland and through his calculations, he makes the numbers to shrink making the people listed in various files to appear unimportant.
Swift also makes use of rhetoric statements to make his proposal non-serious. For example, Swift reports children’s meat is a type of meal and that some specific parts of a children’s body are unusually best to eat, in exceptional moments. Johnathan further mentions that children's skin would be used to manufacture men's summer boots and good ladies' gloves. He continues to say that the infants' skin can make a good sense of delicious food (Swift, 870). Jonathan uses words fine and admirable aggressively towards affluent persons because they succeed more than the poor. Swift also uses words that stress the idea that infants’ skin may be used for clothing or eaten, and many other statements that imply that children are of small value. Jonathan articulates that it costs about two shillings to raise a child till the age of 1 year and also mentions that it will cost about 12 shillings to rear children of 12 years old (Wittkowsky, 87).
From Swift’s Modest Proposal, Swift uses rhetoric exaggeration to desensitize the Ireland’s children throughout his “Modest Proposa,l” his insincerity, his sarcastic tone, and the notion of how he makes his ridiculous proposal to be unserious. Jonathan demonstrates the corruption in the social classes and low living standards in Ireland. Swift suggests that women should sell their children just like they do to commodities because they are unable to provide for them.
Work Cited
Clark, Herbert H., and Richard J. Gerrig. "On the pretense theory of irony," 1984, 121.
Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal and Other Prose. Barnes & Noble Publishing, 2004.
Wittkowsky, George. "Swift's modest proposal: The biography of an early Georgian pamphlet." Journal of the History of Ideas, 1943. 75-104.
