Expert answer:A modest proposal critical reflection
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Satirical Voices
A Modest Proposal
RI 5 Analyze and evaluate the
effectiveness of the structure
an author uses in his or her
argument. RI 6 Determine an
author’s point of view or purpose
in a text in which the rhetoric is
particularly effective. SL 1 Initiate
and participate effectively in a
range of collaborative discussions.
did you know?
Jonathan Swift . . .
• had learned to read by
the time he was three.
• coined the term yahoo
to refer to a boorish and
ignorant person.
• left much of his fortune
to go toward the
building of a mental
hospital.
(background) St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, Dublin
Essay by Jonathan Swift
VIDEO TRAILER
KEYWORD: HML12-620A
Meet the Author
Jonathan Swift
1667–1745
Jonathan Swift has been called the greatest
satirist in the English language. His
genuine outrage at man’s inhumanity to
man and his commitment to championing
liberty found voice in his biting satire
and unflinching criticism of his times.
Few writers of the 18th century were as
politically and socially influential as Swift.
A Priest with a Pen Jonathan Swift was
born of Anglo-Irish parents in Dublin,
Ireland. Though his family was not
wealthy, Swift attended the prestigious
Trinity College. After graduating, he moved
to Surrey in England to accept a position
as secretary to a retired diplomat. In 1695,
Swift was ordained as an Anglican priest
and became a full-fledged satirist, with two
completed works ready for publication.
Swift was a clergyman and a political writer
for the Whig party. His first two satires,
The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub,
style.
quickly established his acerbic sty
modern
Whether lampooning mod
(John
thinkers and scientists (Jo
Locke and Sir Isaac Newton
Ne
among them), religious
religio
abuses, or humanity at
large, Swift raged at the
arrogance, phoniness,
phonines and
shallowness he saw infecting
i
contemporary intellectual
intell
and moral life. Though
Thou
his early publicat
publications
anonymous,
were anon
people bbegan
to recognize his vicious and witty political
writing through his contributions to London
periodicals such as Richard Steele’s and
Joseph Addison’s The Spectator.
When the Whigs lost power to the Tories
in 1710, the Tories courted the conservative
Swift to join their side. As a man of
principle and a strict moralist, however, he
ultimately became disenchanted with the
compromises and manipulations of politics.
Irish Patriot In 1713, Swift was appointed
dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.
Though Swift at first felt exiled in Ireland,
in time he regained his interest in politics.
Angered by the way England tyrannized
Ireland, Swift fought back in a series of
publications called The Drapier’s Letters,
in which he wrote, “Am I a freeman in
England, and do I become a slave in six
hours by crossing the channel?” For Irish
Catholics and Protestants alike, Swift
became a hero. His last major work about
Ireland, “A Modest Proposal,” is one of
the most famous satires ever written.
Gulliver’s Success In 1726, Swift
anonymously published the masterly
satire Gulliver’s Travels, in which he vents
his fury at political corruption and his
annoyance with the general worthlessness
of human beings. Though Swift aroused
controversy, Gulliver’s Travels turned out
to be surprisingly popular, and it remains
a classic for readers of all ages.
Author Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML12-620B
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text analysis: satire
While Alexander Pope is generally sympathetic to his satirical
targets, Swift’s work is darker and more biting. Satire is a
literary technique in which people’s behaviors or society’s
institutions are ridiculed for the purpose of bringing about
social reform. Swift used satire to comment on specific
political and cultural concerns that angered and offended him.
One of the satirist’s most reliable tools is verbal irony, in
which what is said is the opposite of what is meant. As you
read “A Modest Proposal,” notice how Swift uses verbal irony
and sarcasm, the use of a mocking, ironic tone, to present his
seemingly rational proposal.
reading skill: identify proposition and support
Although “A Modest Proposal” is a satire, it is written like a
serious problem-solution essay. Specifically, it
• clearly identifies a problem and its causes
• proposes a solution to the problem—Swift’s proposition—
and explains how to implement it
• provides support for the proposed solution in the form of
reasons and evidence
• notes other possible solutions and argues against them
As you read the essay, use a chart like the one shown to record
Swift’s proposition and the evidence he gives to support it.
Proposition:
How can
we fight
injustice?
There’s an old proverb that states,
“The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Jonathan Swift wielded his pen like a
rapier, using it to slash away at injustice.
Though some may claim the power
of the pen is greatly diminished these
days, people still fight injustice with
words—in speeches, in newspapers and
magazines, and on the Internet.
DISCUSS With a small group, brainstorm
a list of methods people use to fight
injustice. Then think of a contemporary
example of injustice. It may be a local, a
national, or a global issue. With your
group, discuss which method or methods
would be most effective in publicizing,
and possibly leading to a solution to,
the problem.
Support:
• “These children can help feed and clothe thousands.”
•
vocabulary in context
Determine the meaning of each boldfaced word in context.
1. food needed for sustenance
2. a beginner just learning the rudiments
3. a collateral benefit in addition to the main one
4. politely show deference to others’ views
5. an expedient that will make life easier
6. an encumbrance that will make life harder
7. famine caused by massive crop failures
8. propagation of the human race to increase population
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
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for preventing the children of poor people in ireland
from being a burden to their parents or country,
and for making them beneficial to the public
Jonathan Swift
background By 1700, Ireland was so completely dominated by England that it
seemed like a conquered territory. The Catholic majority could not vote, hold public
office, buy land, or receive an education. The repressive policies reduced many Irish
people to poverty. When crops failed—as they did for several years during the 1720s—
many faced starvation. Jonathan Swift, outraged by the injustice of England’s treatment
of Ireland, penned “A Modest Proposal,” using ferocious satire to strike back at those
who neglected Ireland’s poor.
10
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town1 or travel in
the country, when they see the streets, the roads, 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.2 These mothers, instead of being able to
work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to
beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves
for want3 of work, or leave their dear native country to f ight for the Pretender4 in
Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.5
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in
the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their
fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method
of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth would
deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of
the nation. a
Analyze Visuals
What impression does
the engraving convey
about the lives of poor
people in the 18th
century? Cite details to
support your answer.
sustenance (sOsPtE-nEns)
n. a means of support or
nourishment
a PROPOSITION
AND SUPPORT
What problem does
Swift identify in
lines 1–15?
1. this great town: Dublin, Ireland.
2. importuning (GmQpôr-tLnPGng) . . . alms (ämz ): begging from every passerby for a charitable handout.
3. want: lack; need.
4. Pretender: James Edward Stuart, who claimed the English throne, from which his now deceased father,
James II, had been removed in 1688. Because James II and his son were Roman Catholic, the common
people of Ireland were loyal to them.
5. sell . . . Barbadoes: To escape poverty, some Irish migrated to the West Indies, obtaining money for their
passage by agreeing to work as slaves on plantations there for a set period.
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Detail of Gin Lane (1700s), William Hogarth.
Engraving. © Art Resource, New York.
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20
30
40
50
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the
children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the
whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little
able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this
important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors,6
I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true, a
child just dropped from its dam7 may be supported by her milk for a solar year,
with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of two shillings, which
the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of
begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in
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
contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
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,8 more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and
pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a
half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose
wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who
are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so
many under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will
remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand
for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease
within the year. There only remain an hundred and twenty thousand children of
poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be
reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation
of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can
neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean
in the country) nor cultivate land. They can very seldom pick up a livelihood by
stealing till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts;9
although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time
they can however be looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed
by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he
never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the
kingdom so renowned for the quickest prof iciency in that art. b
I am assured by our merchants that a boy or girl before twelve years old is no
salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above
three pounds, or three pounds and half a crown at most on the Exchange; which
Language Coach
Synonyms Words with
the same or almost
the same meaning are
synonyms. Which word
in line 36 is a synonym
for reckon (present tense
of reckoned, line 35)?
rudiment (rLPdE-mEnt)
n. a basic principle or
element
b SATIRE
Reread lines 43–53. What
social problem does Swift
blame for the widespread
thievery in Ireland?
6. projectors: persons who propose public projects or plans.
7. dam (dBm): female parent. The term is used mostly for farm animals.
8. doubt: suspect.
9. are of towardly (tôrdPlC) parts: have a promising talent.
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60
70
80
90
cannot turn to account10 either to the parents or the kingdom, the charge of
nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not
be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in
London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious,
nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I
make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.11
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and
twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved
for breed,12 whereof only one fourth part to be males, which is more than we allow
to sheep, black cattle, or swine; and my reason is that these children are seldom
the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore
one male will be suff icient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred
thousand may at a year old be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune
through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in
the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will
make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone,
the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little
pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter. c
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh twelve
pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to twenty-eight pounds.
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.
Infant’s f lesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in
March, and a little before and after. For we are told by a grave author, an eminent
French physician,13 that f ish being a prolif ic14 diet, there are more children born
in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent15 than at any other
season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted
than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this
kingdom; and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening
the number of Papists16 among us.
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s child (in which list
I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four fifths of the farmers), to be about two
shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to
give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will
c
PROPOSITION
AND SUPPORT
Reread lines 65–76. What
is Swift’s proposal?
collateral (kE-lBtPEr-El)
adj. accompanying as a
parallel or subordinate
factor; related
10. turn to account: earn a profit; benefit; prove useful.
11. fricassee (frGkQE-sCP) . . . ragout (rB-gLP): types of meat stews.
12. reserved for breed: kept for breeding (instead of being slaughtered).
13. grave . . . physician: François Rabelais (rBbPE-lAQ), a 16th-century French satirist.
14. prolific: promoting fertility.
15. Lent: Catholics traditionally do not eat meat during Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, and instead
eat a lot of fish.
16. popish (pIPpGsh) . . . Papists: hostile or contemptuous terms referring to Roman Catholics.
a modest proposal
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110
make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular
friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a
good landlord, and grow popular among the tenants; the mother will have eight
shillings net prof it, and be f it for work till she produces another child.
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may f lay the
carcass; the skin of which artif icially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies,
and summer boots for f ine gentlemen. d
As to our city of Dublin, shambles17 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.
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 ref inement
upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late
destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied
by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age
nor under twelve, so great a number of both sexes in every county being now
ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their
parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference
to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his
sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me from
d SATIRE
Understatement is
an ironic device that
creates emphasis by
saying less than is
expected or appropriate.
In what way are lines
98–100 an example of
understatement?
deference (dDfPEr-Ens) n.
a yielding or courteous
regard toward the
opinion, judgment, or
wishes of others; respect
17. shambles: slaughterhouses.
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The Idle ’Prentice Executed at Tyburn, William Hogarth. Plate XI of Industry and Idleness, 1833. Engraving.
© Guildhall Library, City of London/Bridgeman Art Library.
120
130
frequent experience that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of
our schoolboys, by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten
them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think with
humble submission, be a loss to the public, because they soon would become
breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people
might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly) as a little
bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest
objection against any project, how well soever intended. e
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into
his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa,18 who came
from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my
friend that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death,
the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that
in his time the body of a plump girl of f ifteen, who was crucif ied for an attempt
to poison the emperor, was sold to his Imperial Majesty’s prime minister of state,
and other great mandarins of t …
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