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umbrelina 's review for:
A Modest Proposal
by Jonathan Swift
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
A Modest Proposal is a satirical response to the dismal situation Ireland faced in 1729. Poverty, extreme hunger, inequality, tyrannical landlords, and English oppression were rampant, among many other challenging conditions.
(Spoilers follow from here on)
Swift’s solution? Eat the children! And though this, no doubt, is a shocking resolution, his subsequent reasoning highlights important contemporary issues and the frustration of the people.
Eating children young, he argues, would be beneficial firstly because parents would no longer have to pay to maintain them. Thus we learn that it was expensive to maintain children, and many parents could not undertake this commitment.
Then, it would also allow parents to work, as opposed to having to beg on the streets alongside their children. Again, here we are shown the morose standard of living, and what people had to resort to in order to stay afloat.
Moreover, this practice would please the wealthy, creating another exclusive domain for them to compete in. This would have parents being paid more for their children, and would also create more business for the likes of butchers and cooks, who would strive to develop better methods of seasoning, preparation, etc. This point emphasises several issues - the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the aloofness of the upper classes in their luxury, and the lack of business for locals in Ireland.
(Spoilers follow from here on)
Swift’s solution? Eat the children! And though this, no doubt, is a shocking resolution, his subsequent reasoning highlights important contemporary issues and the frustration of the people.
Eating children young, he argues, would be beneficial firstly because parents would no longer have to pay to maintain them. Thus we learn that it was expensive to maintain children, and many parents could not undertake this commitment.
Then, it would also allow parents to work, as opposed to having to beg on the streets alongside their children. Again, here we are shown the morose standard of living, and what people had to resort to in order to stay afloat.
Moreover, this practice would please the wealthy, creating another exclusive domain for them to compete in. This would have parents being paid more for their children, and would also create more business for the likes of butchers and cooks, who would strive to develop better methods of seasoning, preparation, etc. This point emphasises several issues - the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the aloofness of the upper classes in their luxury, and the lack of business for locals in Ireland.
Another point made is that, in selling their children to be eaten, parents would therefore afford to pay their landlords. Landlords, we are made aware, were downright tyrants;
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.
The use of such strong language is so important in getting across how poorly these people were being treated, and what state they lived in. Notable, of course, is also that most of these oppressive landlords would have been British, something which adds a cultural layer to the general conflict in this essay.
The main points of this work having been summarised, it is important to reflect on Swift’s style of writing. This is witty, fast-paced, and completely outrageous. It is, then, a perfect satire. Swift grabs the attention of his reader in his morbidity, but this is not done pointlessly or without tact.
Swift had perhaps grown tired of the conditions in his country. He had lived through and observed the conditions - had seen the Irish people fall back and, in his opinion, allow the oppression pushed upon them. In this work, he not only criticises the governing forces and British oppression, but also the common people, who he believes have the power to stand up for themselves and make a change. Thus, in writing something so bold, he perhaps shows his frustration, but also aims to abruptly end the ennui of the people - to outrage them into action, before they would really be forced into eating their young.