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Jonathan Swift Research Paper

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Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. Son of an English attorney who died two months after he was born, Swift and his mother struggled to support themselves without steady income. Swift was born with Meniere’s disease, a disease of the inner ear, which causes the afflicted to be hard of hearing and have bouts of nausea. To give Swift a steadier life, his mother gave him to his uncle, Godwin Swift, a prestigious attorney. Swift was soon enrolled in school at the Kilkenny Grammar School, presently the best school in Ireland, where he met his long time friend, playwright William Congreve.
At the age of 14, Swift started his undergraduate studies at Trinity College in Dublin. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1686. While in the process of getting his Master of Arts degree, the Glorious Revolution broke out in Ireland, which, along with the death of his uncle, prompted Swift to move to England. Swift’s mother got him a job as a secretary at Surrey’s Moor Park under Sir William Temple. Swift helped Temple with political errands and …show more content…

His letters to her were compiled into his published book Journal to Stella. From February 1708 to April 1709, Swift resided in England. During this time, Swift wrote many important political works, including his Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue and the promotion of the Pope’s Homer. While in England, Swift caught the attention of Esther “Vanessa” Vanhomrigh. Vanhomrigh fell in love with Swift and followed him back to Ireland. There, Swift met back up with Esther “Stella” Johnson, but was incapable of picking her or Vanhomrigh to love. He continued being friends with both, and wrote one of his only serious examples of poetry, titled “Cadenus and Vanessa” to Vanhomrigh. Vanhomrigh confronted Swift in 1723 about his relationship with Johnson, and a few weeks later

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114 Words | 1 Pages

 What i do believe motivated him to present such an argument is being fed up with the results of the trade from Great Britain. People were treated poorly and he wanted their voice to be heard.  Swift was only stating what he felt would be the best rational decision based off the treatment people were receiving if there's no change ahead.

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558 Words | 3 Pages

In a much subtler manner in comparison to John Swifts

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879 Words | 4 Pages

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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966 Words | 4 Pages

Within the document, there are two Swift. The Swift attempting to persuade the audience is the Proposer; the Swift that writes the document is the real Swift, called Swift. While discussing his friend’s idea of eating teenage boys and girls, instead of Venice, the Proposer denies this proposal saying “to censure such a practice… as a little bordering upon cruelty” (Swift). Because the Proposer, someone encouraging the practice of eating babies, suggests that the idea of eating teenagers and young children could be considered immoral, then his own proposal could be considered immoral. He continues on the next line "I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against many project" (Swift).

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633 Words | 3 Pages

This demonstrates that Swift does not have any sympathy towards others and believes that his proposal is the way to a prosperous future where children are currency in common trade. These two points correlate with the remainder of the text; ‘A Modest Proposal’ as these themes

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1413 Words | 6 Pages

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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947 Words | 4 Pages

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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1163 Words | 5 Pages

Swift uses many rhetorical devices, humor, and emotional appeals to appeal to the audience when writing “A Modest Proposal.” Swift says, “for we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land…” (3). Swift uses a parallel structure as well as anaphora to highlight the logic that children cannot work until they are at least six years of age. Swift portrays the Roman Catholics as an example of humor, “there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent” (5). He finds this amusing because the Catholics may give up sex for Lent, so when Lent is over the men and women splurge and eventually make babies.

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826 Words | 4 Pages

When it came to Ethos, Swift was not quite as persuasive as he could have been. He does have a background when it comes to writing about corrupt governments in tales such as “Gulliver’s Travels.” The way Swift wrote this essay, however, makes it feel slightly less objective. Even when he is writing from the point of a wealthier Irishman, his overall tone shows a large amount of contempt towards the higher economic classes. Instead of allowing the readers to read alternative arguments on this subject, he focused strictly on his own opinion.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

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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562 Words | 3 Pages

Jonathan Swift was born into an English family on November 30, 1667 in Dublin. Shortly after he was born his father died leaving him, his mother and his sister reliant on his fathers family. He was raised for his first three years by a nurse while his mother was in England. Even though his mother left he was still put in the best schools Dublin could provide. However Swift detested school do to it’s rigorous education in Latin grammar and it’s use of corporal punishment.

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834 Words | 4 Pages

“I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it. ”-Frank A. Clark (Psychology Today). A man named Jonathan Swift saw many problems in his government and society. He realized it needed to be fixed. Swift’s strong beliefs pushed him to write satire to try and help Ireland.

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739 Words | 3 Pages

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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623 Words | 3 Pages

What’s the difference between a baby and a peanut butter cup? The baby won’t stick to the roof of your mouth. Jonathon Swift was a satirist, essayist, pamphleteer, and cleric who became dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1729 Swift wrote A Modest Proposal, a satirical essay, suggesting that by selling Irish children it might ease their economic troubles. The pamphlet mocked the heartless attitudes towards the poor.

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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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