Interpretive Analysis of A Modest Proposal
Swift's "A Modest Proposal", in which he suggests that the problem of Irish poverty can be solved by the sale of the children of the poor for consumption, is above all things a criticism of human faults: extremism of thinking, greed, pride, hypocrisy, intolerance, and insensitivity. His use of ireony is evident even in the title: the idea that not only should poor Irish children be eaten, but that they should be bred for eating is certainly anything but modest. Swift's plan is that through irony, sarcasm, and exaggeration, the reader will recognize those faults which may not seem so obvious in their more mild forms.In Swift's criticism of extremist thinking, he switches back and forth throughout the text between two different methods of thinking: one is purely emotional, the other is purely rational. The faulty logic is obvious in comparisons between the conclusions that both methods reach. For example, the reasonable thinker, in his discussion of the breeding of the children who are to be consumed, assumes that the mother has no emotional attachment to her children and would be happy to give them up to be slaughtered for the profit. And yet the emotional thinker says that those mothers who abort their children do so for emoti
" Swift is a believer in improvement in people, and he attempts to induce it through his writing by encouraging introspection, which will hopefully lead not only to the recognition of faults in individuals and the societies and systems they create, but also the desire to change them. He describes these aristocrats and landlords as "all the fine gentlemen who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in fine eating" and suggests that since they have already "destroyed their deer" that they might appreciate a substitute for their appetites. " He does not feel sympathy for these people but only wishes to be rid of them. The idea is further supported by Swift's bold and outlandish claim that the rich would be pleased to wear the flayed carcasses as "admirable gloves for the ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen. He also attempts to deal with them seriously in the paragraph in which he outlines his true proposals. Swift attempts to expose the folly of all of these human downfalls through his use of irony, which with the literal meaning is the exact opposite of the intended meaning, and sarcasm: his suggestions are based on the failings of the narrator, who is ignorant of their absurdity while it is obvious to the reader. " The allusion is to James II, who was the rightful heir to the English throne, but was deposed because he had Catholic sentiments and had the gall to issue a declaration which granted religious freedom to all in his kingdom. " This demonstrates that Swift believes that the British would see the reduction of Catholics as a benefit because they are intolerant of their differences from the English Anglicans. The other obvious criticism of hypocrisy is demonstrated in the fourth paragraph in which the aborted children of the Irish are described by the narrator as "poor innocent babes" when the sum of the essay is to propose that the children of the Irish be "murdered" and not before birth, but no earlier than at one year of age. Also the emotional narrator describes begging as dishonest, whereas the rational thinker uses the term "lawful" to describe it. Mocking the "reasonable" Brit, he claims that they would have no problem with having to slaughter the child themselves in order to ensure the freshness of the meat: "I rather [than buying the child already butchered] recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs. The only paragraph in which both methods of thinking are combined is the one in which Swift makes his true proposals which are reached by a moderate method. This is primarily dealt with in the overall image of the British "devouring" the beggar children of Ireland in order to rid themselves of the eyesore that they pose and which the British have directly caused by displacing them from their homes and starving them with exorbitantly high rents. He even goes so far as to attempt to deal with the burden of the "aged, diseased, or maimed," who he claims are not a great problem because "they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can reasonably be expected.
Common topics in this essay:
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Papists Catholics,
British Swift,
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