A modest proposal

A satire is a literary work in which human foolishness and vice are criticized.

Satire employs humor and wit to ridicule human institutions or humanity itself, in order that they might be remodeled or improved (Random House). A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift is a prime example of a satire. Throughout the piece it is difficult to know exactly whom and what Swift is criticizing. This is because Swift criticizes three groups of people and uses metaphors to make the satire work. Swift ridicules the English for economically oppressing the Irish, the Irish for being passive and allowing the English to oppress them, and the reader of the piece for representing all the wrong doings in society. Many of the images that Swift paints for the reader are images that he witnessed firsthand while he was in Ireland. He was able to feel what the people were going through and he put that feeling into his work.

The main group of people that Jonathan Swift indicts is the English. Swift blames the English for creating the environment that the Irish are living in. He witnessed the Irish people living in poverty while their absentee landlords were acquiring great wealth. “The

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Swift says it is inhumane to let fellow humans be treated in the manner that the English treated the Irish.

This is an example of the distancing effect that Swift puts on the metaphor. The list continues on long after the reader has accepted the fact that it should never have began. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage” (Swift).

Jonathan Swift has a knack for making others feel uncomfortable. Swift indicts the Irish when he says that if the children were put to market, men would treat wives with more respect and child would have better care.

“For first, as I have already observed, it would lessen the number of papists… Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own…Thirdly…the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum…Fourthly…constant breeders…will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year…Fifthly, This food would bring great custom to taverns…Sixthly, this would be a great inducement to marriage…” (Swift).

The second party that Swift criticizes is the Irish. He has a way of making the most extreme statements appear disguised in the abstraction of metaphor.

The cruelty of the text continues on throughout the quote. This reader is shocked by the violence that is created by the economic situation.

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Approximate Word count = 1496
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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