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Irony In Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

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Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a very interesting take on how the Irish government should cure the famine that the country was then facing. However, the entire proposal was completely bizarre, and the whole point of the essay was to bring attention to the idea that they needed a solution to the all the problems they were experiencing but the proposal was definitely not it. He even had a strongly developed plan as to how his proposal would work which makes the reader feel as if he is serious about selling children, eating them, and/or using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal is not his true goal. Jonathon Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the Irish should sell their children to the rich to eat. Swift used such great …show more content…

The title alone is very ironic since it uses the word “modest” as if eating children is the most natural way to fix the problem. Another ironic piece of the proposal is when right before he proposes his thoughts of eating the children, he pronounces “I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.” By way of explanation, he is saying no one should be against the proposal, which is ironic considering what his true feelings toward the proposal actually are. One of the most compelling evidence of irony is when he states, “. . . it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes . . .” (Swift 1). This statement has lots of irony because he wants to take the children from their mothers and murder them after they’ve been born; also, he claims in that situation that the babies are innocent but the babies are still innocent after being

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Mohammed Ismail AP Language Composition Lyons, William December 9, 2014 Rhetorical Devices Used in Jonathan Swifts Modest Proposal The essay Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift perhaps known better for his novel Gulliver’s travels wrote this piece, because during his time he addressed solutions to many contemporary social issues by writing them on pamphlets. Swift’s main purpose in writing this essay is to avert children from being less of a problem to their parents and the public. The author tries not addressing his subject directly, children, instead Swift introduces the concept of a market, livestock, breeders, etc., to address the overcrowding and poverty stricken children in Dublin, Ireland.

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In fact, he refers to “A very worthy Person, a true Lover of his Country, and whose Virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to offer a refinement upon my Scheme”(17). As a result, Swift shows that even the most patriotic person to both Ireland and Britain (since Ireland was under British control at the time) realizes that within this current situation of poverty, this proposal is a solution and can be acted out in many different

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1729, a Papist infected Ireland was being devoured by the taxes that the British placed on them. The taxes were turning into what once was a glorious place into ruins. Jonathan Swift, an Englishman and Irish sympathizer, realized that someone had to do something to wake up the British. This lead to the creation of A Modest Proposal, a pamphlet heavy with irony and juvenalian satire, which was how Jonathan Swift planned on compelling the British to do something about the poor situation in Ireland. His use of rhetorical devices gets his point across in an effective and powerful way.

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Rhetorical Analysis of A Modest Proposal In one of the most famous and most skilled pieces of satirical writing, "A Modest Proposal," Jonathon Swift aims to reveal a number of social problems that were going on in Ireland during the eighteenth century. These problems included overpopulation, starvation, and poverty. In order to accomplish his goal of bringing attention to these problems, Swift assumes the role of an economic planner who is very impersonal, objective, and insensitive. Three elements that convey the difference between the narrator 's proposal and Swift 's actual purpose include the satirical character of his tone, the ironical humor in his outrageous solutions to expose the prejudice against the poor Irish people by taking extreme measures, and the use of diction to dehumanize the

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Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a very interesting take on how the Irish government should cure the famine that the country was then facing. However, the entire proposal was completely bizarre, and the whole point of the essay was to bring attention to the idea that they needed a solution to the all the problems they were experiencing but the proposal was definitely not it. He even had a strongly developed plan as to how his proposal would work which makes the reader feel as if he is serious about selling children, eating them, and using their skins as a fashion accessory; however, ultimately this proposal was not his true goal. Jonathan Swift skillfully used different styles of writing, such as imagery and irony, to show why the

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1389 Words | 6 Pages

Swift’s goal was to gather the underprivileged children and ship them off to rich landowners who could afford

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1163 Words | 5 Pages

Jonathan Swift uses rhetorical devices, logical, ethical, as well as emotional appeals to highlight the difference between Swift’s satirical attitude and the narrator’s serious attitude concerning poverty and starvation. These various articles and different exerts from “A Modest Proposal” show the misleading content of the proposal in order to save Ireland and help them become a free country

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620 Words | 3 Pages

Swift utilizes irony again in the title of his essay “A Modest Proposal.” Proposing that society should turn to cannibalism as a solution to poverty is anything but modest. However, by asserting from the beginning of the essay that the proposal that he presents is a modest and logical solution, the reader is encouraged to recognize the irrationality of Swift’s suggestions and reevaluate what would indeed be a politically acceptable solution to the

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Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal Dr. Jonathan Swift places himself as a villain who is willing to do evil deeds to answer hard questions. What pushes Swift to write the essay “A Modest Proposal” is Ireland's economic and social problems. In this satirical essay Swift highlights the problems in Ireland and gives a sarcastic solution to make people feel guilt. Swift’s use of dehumanizing language is used to make the reader oppose Swift’s modest proposal.

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However, if she shows kindness to the unborn child by not letting the woman abort the child, she would be showing crudity to them by ruining their lives. The audience discovers that no matter the choice, whether they did or didn’t abort the child, there will always be

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In “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, there are many disturbing remarks that make the readers uncomfortable. The purpose of his essay was to try to make the Irish people open their eyes so that they would take better care of themselves. At this period, the Irish politicians were corrupt and the people were not willing to fight to regain their country from the recent occupation of Ireland by England. He used the idea of eating the yearling children of poor families in order to accentuate the idea that the only people the wealthy men of Ireland cared about was themselves, and not the lives of the Irish citizens. The author uses logos to his advantage in order to show the overall amount of people that are in poverty and how they would be able

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Jonathan Swift is an enlightenment thinker that uses satire in his writings to bring awareness to the political power and mistreatment of the people of Ireland, ‘‘he was angry or in a fit of despair over Ireland 's economic condition’’(DeGategno). Swift uses satire throughout his proposal, by suggesting to the people of Ireland that they should harvest the little children of the poor. Swift stated that by making ‘‘Them Beneficial to the Public", Ireland would be in a better circumstance. Swift proposed that the poor children 's guardians should give birth to however many number of children as would be possible and offer them for sustenance. Instead of Swift addressing the issue straightforward, Swift used Satire ¬¬¬¬which employs irony sayings- one thing while meaning its opposite—in order to present an argument.

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In literature, the element of satire is employed to illustrate or exploit the corruption of a society by means of exaggeration, black humor, highbrow wit, or mockery. The writer's intent is to make permanent change for a problem or fight a cause in a society that otherwise looks away in ignorance. In "A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift spins a web of masterful satire to propose a grisly solution to the problem of poverty, which mocks the folly of the 18th century socially elite and puts the blame on the greed of the wealthy for the sickly state of the nation. The Restoration and the 18th century for the British was a time of great commercial and economic prosperity, and the Anglican Church remained closely tied with the governmental power

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483 Words | 2 Pages

"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is a satire that proposes an ironic solution to Ireland 's suffering problem with poverty and overcrowding. Swift proposes the solution of selling children to wealthy families or taverns to be cooked and served. This unrealistic solution shows how absurd of an idea was needed to get the attention of the government. The main purpose of writing his satire was to bring attention to the horrendous conditions that poverty ridden families were suffering from in Ireland during the 1700s.

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1083 Words | 5 Pages

Critical Analysis of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” In the work entitled “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, the theme of social injustice is enhanced by the use of verbal irony to convey a charged message. The ambiguous title and introduction to Jonathan Swift’s masterpiece does little to prepare the reader for shocking content revealed later in the text. Swift’s work is powerful, poignant and persuasive because it strikes at the heart of the modern readers ethics, as it likely would have done for the author’s contemporary audiences. Jonathan Swift’s 1729 masterpiece is a satirical metaphor centered around the pervasive assertion, “the English are devouring the Irish.” Jonathan Swift gives a more comprehensive exordium concerning his work stating that is it “a modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents and country, and for making them beneficial to the public (Swift 1199).

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