To expound on A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift begins with his use of sarcasm in the first sentence. “It is melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the road and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms” (Swift 431).
Swift asserts it is a “great town” but then he continues on to imply it is not by saying “the road and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex” (Swift 431). The 1720s were a time of general economic difficulty in Ireland, marked by three periods of particular crisis. The first, initiated by the Mississippi crash and South Sea Bubble in 1720, gave birth to proposals for a national bank, initially accepted -though ultimately rejected -by the Irish parliament.
The second, and best known, was the 1723-25 controversy over the patent granted to the Wolverhampton metal manufacturer, William Wood, to produce copper halfpennies and farthings to supplement Ireland’s grossly inadequate currency system, and the third was the culmination of successive years of harvest failure and famine from late 1727 to mid-1729 which led to Swift’s most notorious economic pamphlet. A Modest Proposal. (Patrick 129). The work A Modest Proposal is a sardonic piece written to expose the economic crisis in Ireland in 1729.
It was to validate the dilemma of Dublin, Ireland. Swift was a political writer who was not afraid of people, of backlash, or criticism. He “was not afraid to speak truth to power” (Kelly 1). Moving on down the list of satirical devices, irony is next. Swifts whole piece was ironic, but to be specific. The second page “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that 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, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast” (Swift 432). Swift is ironic here because in 1729 women of Ireland were not willing to abort and murder their children, men of the time would have affairs and order the women to get rid of the child/children afterward. To continue with satirical devices throughout Swift’s work, next is hyperbole which here means exaggeration.
It is used to make an idea seem ridiculous. Swift presents the idea of eating children to lower the population, provide a source of income and a slew of other reasons. “For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of Papists… Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own… Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum…
Fourthly, The constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year. Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns… Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage… “(Swift 435). This is a ridiculous proposal. This leads back to the irony of the title, A Modest Proposal Swift is proposing ridiculous ideas and saying it is modest, a word which means shy, timid, and humble.
Eating babies is not humble. Obviously Swift was not proposing to literally eat babies. Hence the use of hyperbole, presenting an exaggerated argument to solve the problems stated earlier. The next device is reversal. Reversal is presenting the opposite of what people are used to. A simple example would be a pig, butchering, a human. Swift uses reversal when he states “I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintances in London, that young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious ourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust” (Swift 432). Swift is proclaiming one year old babies are delicious. This is reversal because the “normal” way of thinking is not that babies are delicious even back in the 1730’s. Reversal has a lot to do with satire because it is the way things are worded that make them ironic and funny. “Jonathan Swift had a lifelong interest in the English language. The extent of this interest is extraordinary.
It includes language history and theories; dialect, jargon, and slang; vocabulary, orthography, and punctuation; etymology; rhetoric and dialectic; code and private languages; puns and language games; the social and political function of language and its abuse in propaganda” (Kelly 146). From this text Swift was fascinated by the English language and the way it worked, how it could be used to hurt, benefit, and confuse people. Swift uses language, words, sentences to change how people see things. Which is the purpose of satiric writing. Ensuing reversal is going to be incongruity.
Incongruity is putting things together that usually don’t go together. Swift says “Men would become fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, or sow 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 435). He is being incongruous by saying men treat women like livestock. They are only good if they can be of use to the men. According to the Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift, Swift was always associating with a women.
All his life, Swift was to make friends with women, and he valued the social pleasure afforded by the company of women. This value shows itself early, in his friendship with Lady Elisabeth, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Berkeley, in whose household Swift served as chaplain” (Kelly 92). Swift’s health was poor during his lifetime from 23 to 78 years old he, was a victim of Meniere’s disease. “The condition was first described by Prosper Meniere in 186112, and Sir John Bucknill13 was the first to see, 20 years later, that this was the illness affecting Swift.
The symptoms consist of variable hearing loss with progressive deafness, tinnitus and paroxysms of vertigo with giddiness and nausea. Swift himself attributed the onset of his symptoms to a surfeit of apples” (Bewley 603). Advancing with satirical devices, Swift used all of them in A Modest Proposal. Sarcasm “They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing until they arrive at six years old… ” (Swift 432). Another example of irony from swift “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children” (Swift 433).
What Swift means by “food” is the 1 year old children, it is proper for landlords because they have already taken advantage of the parents by forcing them to pay high living costs. Hyperbole is an exaggeration. Swift uses this to turn us away from the narrators narrow “profit and loss” mentality. “As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose, in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting, although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs” (Swift 433).
Reversal is to represent something beyond normal bounds. “Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef. The propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement in the art of making bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, to frequent at our tables, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast, or any other public entertainment. But this, and many others I omit being studious of brevity” (Swift 436).
These are just more examples of Swift’s writing indicating he is a satirical writer. He uses all basic devices throughout his writing. There is sarcasm and irony with every other sentence. Swift was a smart, political man, who saw the world for what it was during his time. Swift had many ups and down throughout his life, his health, his lack of marriage, the critiques of his writing, yet Swift still wrote with a passion for truth and understanding but also with an abundance of wit. His life ended at 78 years old caused by his disease, but Swift will live on through his satirical writing.
