A Modest Proposal | An Analysis

A humiliated intention An AnalysisIntroductionOne of the Tory writers, a talented ridiculer (Abjadian 87), Jonathan fleet was born on November 30, 1667, in capital of Ireland, Ireland. His father-an Englishman who had moved to Ireland-died before that year. Receiving pecuniary assistance from relatives, sprightly attended a good school for his staple fiber education and graduated from Trinity College in capital of Ireland in 1686. He lived off and on in England, became an Angli grass clergyman, and eventually was appointed doyen of St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin, although he had lobbied for a position in England. His writing-especially his banters- authorize him whiz of the to the highest degree prominent citizens in Great Britain, and he worked for a cartridge holder on behalf of Tory causes. His most famous work is Gullivers Travels, a intensity of satire on politics and society in general. Despite health issues, spry continued to write prolifically-especially on is sues concerning Anglo-Irish relations and the church. He decried what he guessed as Englands heaviness of Ireland in A lowly purpose (deGategno and Stubblefield 8) sprightly died in Dublin on October 19, 1745.A humble Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Pargonnts or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, unremarkably named as A spiritless Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay scripted and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. The essay was originally printed in the form of a piece of ground.At the time of its publication, 1729, a pamphlet was a short work that in any casek a stand on a governmental, religious, or brotherly issue-or every other issue of public inte appease. A typical pamphlet had no binding, although it well-nightimes had a paper c over. Writers of pamphlets, called pamphleteers, compete a significant role in inflaming or terminate many a nonher(prenominal) of the great controversies in Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, as well as in the political debate leading up to the American Revolution. In addition to A petty(a) Proposal, Jonathan Swift wrote many political pamphlets supporting the causes of the Tory political party after he renounced his allegiance to the Whig party.SatireA Modest Proposal is an essay that uses satire to collect its point. A satire is a literary work that assaults or pokes merriment at vices, hatreds, stupidity, and/or any other fault or imperfection. In Abjadians words, satire is much considered as a corrective hatchs of human being vice and folly (11). Satire may make the reader trick at, or feel disgust for, the person or thing satirized. impishly or sardonically, it criticizes some adept or something, using wit and clever wording-and sometimes makes offr get on withous assertions or claims. The main purpose of a satire is to goading readers to remedy the problem under discussion. The main we apon of the satirist is vocal mockery, a figure of speech in which words argon use to ridicule a person or thing by conveyance of title a meaning that is the opposite of what the words say.Readers unacquainted with its reputation as a satirical work often do not outright realize that Swift was not seriously proposing cannibalism and infanticide, nor would readers unfamiliar with the satires of Horace and Juvenal-the two tremendous Roman satirists (Abjadian 13)-recognize that Swifts essay follows the rules and structure of Latin satires.The fine satiric strategy in A Modest Proposal (Williams 26) is often only dumb after the reader notes the allusions made by Swift to the attitudes of landlords, such as the undermentioned I grant this food may be more or less dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who as they wee-wee already devoured most of the Parents, search to abide the best Title to the Children (Swift 1080). Swift extends the metaphor to stimulate in a few jibes at Englands mistreatment of Ireland, noting that For this engaging of commodity pass on not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our solely area without it (1084).Historical BackgroundOver the centuries, England gradually gained a footing in Ireland. In 1541, the parliament in Dublin recognized Englands henry VIII, a Protestant, as King of Ireland. In spite of repeated uprisings by Irish Catholics, English Protestants acquired more and more e cites in Ireland. By 1703, they possess all but ten percent of the land. Meanwhile, legislation was enacted that severely circumscribed the rights of the Irish to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an education, and turn over themselves in other itinerary of lifes. As a result, many Irish fled to distant lands, including America. Most of those who remained in Ireland lived in pove rty, facing disease, starvation, and blemish. It was this Ireland-an Ireland of the tyrannized and the d owntrodden-that Jonathan Swift attempted to accent attention on in A Modest Proposal in 1720.Tertullians ApologySome scholars have argued that A Modest Proposal was more often than not influenced and inspired by Tertullians Apology. While Tertullians Apology is a satirical attack against primal Roman persecution of Christianity, Swifts A Modest Proposal addresses the Anglo-Irish situation in the 1720s. James William Johnson believes that Swift saw major similarities between the two situations (563). Johnson notes Swifts unadorned affinity for Tertullian and the bold stylistic and structural similarities between the works A Modest Proposal and Apology (562).In structure, Johnson points out the aforementioned(prenominal) rally base of operations that of cannibalism and the eating of babies and the same final short letter that human criminality is such that men leave atte mpt to justify their own hardness by accusing their victims of being lower than human (563). Stylistically, Swift and Tertullian division the same command of sarcasm and language. In agreement with Johnson, Donald C. Baker points out the similarity between both authors tones and use of irony. Baker notes the uncanny way that both authors imply an ironic justification by ownership over the subject of sacrificing children-Tertullian while struggle pagan parents, and Swift while attacking the English mistreatment of the Irish pitiable (219).Purpose of the ProposalSwift appears to kindle in his essay that the impoverished Irish might ease their stinting troubles by selling children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. By doing this he mocks the authority of the British officials. This is when Britain had taken over Ireland and put heavy restrictions on their trade, stifling their parsimony. The essay has been noted by historians as being the low documented satirical essay. A cr itic (qtd. in Williams) in day apply Anglais, in 1777 states,To ridicule those schemes for reform with which the public was inundated at that time, and which often insulted the misery to which they affected a desire to bring consolation. It will be noticed that Swift has imitated the common expressions and the insinuating tone of the authors of these projects (199).He wrote A Modest Proposal to call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish Catholics by halcyon English Protestants. Swift himself was a Protestant, but he was as well as a native of Ireland, having been born in Dublin of English parents. He believed England was exploiting and oppressing Ireland. many a(prenominal) Irishmen worked farms owned by Englishmen who charged high rents-so high that the Irish were often unable to pay them. Consequently, many Irish farming families continually lived on the edge of starvation.In A Modest Proposal, Swift satirizes the English landlords with unconscionable humor, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new reference of in cause and the English a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem. He says his marriage offer, if adopted, would as well result in a reduction in the number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish infants-almost all of whom were baptized Catholic-would end up in stews and other dishes kind of of growing up to go to Catholic churches. Here, he is satirizing the prejudice of Protestants toward Catholics. Swift also satirizes the Irish themselves in his essay, for too many of them had accepted abuse stoically preferably than taking action on their own behalf. moodRegarding the style used in the essay, William Monck Mason states,The cold, phlegmatic style in A Modest Proposal of a political projector, who waves the consideration of all the finer feelings of humanity, or makes them subservient, as matters of slight moment, to the general advantages proposed in his plan of financial improvement, is admirably well satirized. The cool, business interchangeable manner, in which the calculations are stated, is equally admirable (340). dress..In A Modest Proposal, Swift uses a standard essay coiffe an opening that presents the topic and dissertation (the modest purpose), a body that develops the thesis with expatiate, and a conclusion. In the opening, the author states the problem the deplorable economic and social conditions that impoverish the Irish and counteract them from providing adequate sympathize with for their children. Before presenting the thesis, he inserts the following transitional sentence I shall at present therefore meanly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection (Swift 1080) He follows this sentence with the thesis, and then presents the details in the body of the essay.In the conclusion, he states the benefits that would accrue from his proposal. He begin s with the following two sentences I have too long digressed, and therefore shall produce to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance. He undermentioned lists the advantages, using transitional words such as secondly and third to move from one point to the next. He ends the conclusion by explaining wherefore his proposal is superior to other remedies. Keep in mind that throughout the body and conclusion Swift makes his argument with irony, stating the opposite of what he truly means.IronyThe dominant figure of speech in A Modest Proposal is verbal irony, in which a writer or verbalizer system says the opposite of what he means. Swifts masterly use of this device makes his main argument-that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English-powerful and dread richly amusing. For example, to point out that the Irish should not be treated like animals, Swift compares them to animals, as in th is example I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them animated from the knife, as we do roasting pigs. Also, to point out that disease, famine, and substandard liveness conditions threaten to kill great numbers of Irish, Swift cheers their predicament as a positive developmentSome persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor concourse, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what tier may be taken to ease the nation of so abominable an encumbrance. But I am not in the least perturb upon that matter, because it is very well know that they are every day death and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young tugers, they are now in as hopeful a condition they cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor, they have not strength to perform it and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come (1082).In Sarcasm and Irony in Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal, a critic, studying the irony in the essays, maintains,One of the voices that is present throughout the trading floor is that of irony. The story itself is ironic since no one can take Swifts proposal seriously. This irony is winly demonstrated at the end of the story Swift makes it clear that this proposal would not affect him since his children were grown and his wife unable to have any more children. It would be rather absurd to think that a rational man would want to both propose this and partake in the eating of another human being. Therefore, before an analyzation can continue, one has to make the assumption that this is strictly a fictional work and Swift had no intention of pursuing his proposal any further.AllusionsThere are some allusions in the essay including Barbadoes (Barbados) Easternmost West Indi es island, settled by the British in 1627. When Swift published A Modest Proposal in 1729, the islands plantation owners used slaves to produce sugar for European consumption Dublin The Irish city mentioned in A Modest Proposal. It is the capital of Ireland Formosa Lusitanian name for Taiwan, a Chinese-inhabited island off the southeast coast of China mandarin High-ranking Chinese official Papist Roman Catholic put-on James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), son of King James II, who ruled England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1685 to 1688. James II was a Catholic, as was his wife, Mary of Modena. After his accession to power, Protestant detailions continually maneuvered against him in the background. When Mary became pregnant, these factions worried that the birth of her child would establish a line of Catholic kings. Consequently, they plotted to oust James II and convert him with Dutchman William of Orange, whose mother was the daughter of an English king, Charles I, and whose wife was one of James IIs own daughters. When William marched against England, many Protestants in James IIs army deserted to William, and James had no choice but to flee to France. After he died in 1701, the french king then proclaimed James IIs young son, James Francis Edward Stuart, to be the rightful king of England. The English Parliament then enacted laws designed to prevent seating another Catholic king. Nevertheless, in succeeding years, James Francis repeatedly attempted to regain the throne, and the British eventually nicknamed him the Old Pretender. Psalmanazar, George French forger and impostor who traveled widely under different constituents. In one of his most famous schemes, he pretended to be from Formosa (present-day Taiwan), of which little was known in the Europe of his time. In London, he published a book about Formosa in which he wrote that Formosan law permitted a keep up to eat a wife if she committed adultery. Psalmanazar had never visited Formosa the wh ole book was made up. Nevertheless, many Englishmen believed what he had written.ThemesThere some themes explained and referred to in the essay. The themes like the exploitation of the downtrodden. Beneath Swifts audacious satire is a serious theme that English overlords are shamelessly exploiting and oppressing the impoverished commonwealth of Ireland through inequitable laws, high rents charged by absentee landlords, and other injustices. another(prenominal) theme is the prejudice At the time of the publication of A Modest Proposal, many British Protestants disdained Roman Catholics-especially Irish Catholics-and enacted laws limiting their ability to thrive and prosper. One classical theme of the work is the Irish Inaction Swifts satirical language also chides the Irish themselves for not acting with firm resolve to improve their lot. Another theme is, as Barnett refers to, the theme of unwelcome reproduction are the wretchedly poor mothers of Ireland in A Modest Proposal, whos e children, as the subtitle informs us, are a Burden to their Parents or Country (121).PopulationIt has been argued that Swifts main target in A Modest Proposal was not the conditions in Ireland, but rather the can-do spirit of the times that led large number to devise a number of il system of logical schemes that would purportedly solve social and economic ills. Swift was especially insulted by projects that tried to fix population and labor issues with a simple cure-all solution. A memorable example of these sorts of schemes involved the musical theme of running the poor through a joint-stock company (Wittkowsky 85). In response, Swifts Modest Proposal was a burlesque of projects concerning the poor (88) that were in vogue during the early 18th century.A Modest Proposal also targets the calculating way people perceived the poor in designing their projects. The pamphlet targets reformers who regard people as commodities (Wittkowsky 101). In the piece, Swift adopts the technique o f a political arithmetician (95) to show the utter ridiculousness of trying to prove any proposal with dispassionate statistics.Critics differ about Swifts intentions in using this faux-mathematical philosophy. Edmund Wilson argues that statistically the logic of the Modest proposal can be compared with defense of crime (arrogated to Marx) in which he argues that crime takes care of the superfluous population(Wittkowsky 95). Wittkowsky counters that Swifts satiric use of statistical analysis is an effort to enhance his satire that springs from a spirit of acidic mockery, not from the delight in calculations for their own sake (98).EconomyRobert Phiddians member Have you eaten yet? The Reader in A Modest Proposal focuses on two aspects of A Modest Proposal the voice of Swift and the voice of the Proposer. Phiddian stresses that a reader of the pamphlet must learn to accredit between the satiric voice of Jonathan Swift and the apparent economic projections of the Proposer. He remin ds readers that there is a gap between the narrators meaning and the texts, and that a moral-political argument is being carried out by means of parody (Phiddians 6).While Swifts proposal is obviously not a serious economic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of Swifts Modest Proposal The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet, argues that it in order to fully understand the piece, it is important to understand the economics of Swifts time. Wittowsky argues that not enough critics have taken the time to directly focus on the mercantilism and theories of labor in 18th century England. If one regards the Modest Proposal precisely as a criticism of condition, about all one can say is that conditions were bad and that Swifts irony brilliantly underscored this fact (Phiddians 3). At the source of a new industrial age in the 18th century, it was believed that people are the riches of the nation, and there was a general faith in an economy which paid its workers low wages because high w ages would mean workers would work less (4). Furthermore, in the mercantilist view no child was too young to go into industry. In those times, the somewhat more humane attitudes of an earlier day had all but disappeared and the laborer had come to be regarded as a commodity (6).People are the riches of a nationLouis A. Landa presents Swifts A Modest Proposal as a critique of the public and unjustified maxim of mercantilism in the eighteenth century that people are the riches of a nation (161). Swift presents the dire state of Ireland and shows that pure population itself, in Irelands case, did not always mean greater wealth and economy (165). The uncontrolled maxim fails to take into account that a person that does not produce in an economic or political way makes a country poorer, not richer (165). Swift also recognizes the implications of such a fact in making mercantilist philosophy a paradox the wealth of a country is based on the poverty of the volume of its citizens (165). Swift however, Landa argues, is not merely criticizing economic maxims but also addressing the fact that England was denying Irish citizens their natural rights and dehumanizing them by viewing them as a mere commodity (165).RhetoricCharles K. Smith argues that Swifts rhetorical style persuades the reader to scorn the speaker and pity the Irish. Swifts specific strategy is twofold, using a bunker to create sympathy for the Irish and a dislike of the narrator who, in the span of one sentence, details vividly and with rhetorical emphasis the corrasion poverty but feels emotion solely for members of his own class. Swifts use of entrancing details of poverty and his narrators cool approach towards them creates two opposing points of view which alienate the reader, perhaps unconsciously, from a narrator who can view with sorrow detachment a subject that Swift has directed us, rhetorically, to see in a much less detached way (Smith 136).ConclusionA Modest Proposal, A (1729), a pamphl et by Jonathan Swift on Ireland, written during the summer of 1729. In form and tone it resembles a pompous philanthropic appeal to solve Irelands economic crisis, but Swifts anonymous speaker suggests a barbarous plan, to cannibalize the nations children. It is a masterpiece of rhetorical irony, a disturbing fiction which marks the end of Swifts pamphleteering role on national affairs after a decade of passionate involvement.The essay depicts the repulsive conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swifts opposition is indirectly presented. Jonathan Swift is able to do so by using the persona, irony, and wit in order to expose the remarkable turpitude and degradation of the Irish people, and at the same time present them with useable solutions to their unscrupulous and pathetic lives. The author uses a satire to accomplish his heading not only because he is able to conceal his true individualism but also because it is the most effective way to awake the people of Ireland into seeing their own depravity.Swift creates a fictional persona because by hiding his true identity he is able to convince the readers of the significance of Irelands problem and allow them to see truth and reality. The persona is a concern Irishman who is very intelligent, sound, and serious. He appears to be a brute and a demon for proposing something evil and immoral very calmly as if it is normal to get hold of the flesh of another human being. What makes his proposal to be even more depraved is that he proposes to eat the babies. The persona declares, and at exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in a such a manner as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, co ntribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands. The persona justifies his proposal with numerous reasons.Besides the prevention of voluntary abortions and infanticide, it will also prevent the loss of money for maintenance of children and the abuse of women and children. The number of Papists would be reduced and the children will not become beggars, thieves, or prostitutes. The proposal will aid in the increase in the status of the peasantry, promote love, and care from the mothers towards their children. However the persona alone is inadequate to make the narrator seem too plausible. The persona must utilize irony and wit in order for his essay to be more efficacious. In fact, according to deGategno and Stubblefield, it is the kind of callous indifference toward children that Swift parodied and criticized in A Modest Proposal (69).A Modest Proposal is so effective and appealing because of the authors enough uses of irony throughout his essay. The title itsel f is definitely ironic. It provides the reader with false expectations of decency and sensitivity on the part of the writer. The butchery of innocent babies and the use of their skin for clothing is way beyond being modest. It is brutal and insane. The proposal is intended to reverse and throw the reader off balance. The narrator also ridicules the Irish. Swift driven and inspired the Irish into rebelling by presenting them with feasible solutions to cease the anguish of Irelands people.