The title alone for the proposal is described as ‘Modest’, which in a way is ironic as there is nothing modest about the ‘devouring of the children of the poor’. The Proposer comes across as reasonable with his thoughts ‘Maturely weighed’ and thought through and it is as though he really does care about the welfare of the poor in Ireland. ‘It is a melancholy object…’ Here the persona (the one proposing his ideas of devouring the children of the poor) is showing pity for the Irish and their ‘Poor innocent babes’ and gets the reader to go along with this fake pity for them. The persona seems to be immoral and his ideas to ‘help prevent children from becoming burdens to their parents’ are irrational. His solution is unexpected and a little revolting as the benefits would be tasty meals for the rich and more money for the poor, as the solution would be for the poor to sell their children to the rich for them to devour, which with the situation of the rich landlords in Ireland, is literal.
Swift is clever as he manages to lure the reader into a ‘Fake sense of security’, where the reader is subconsciously agreeing to the problems of how bad the situation in Ireland is and the reader is also agreeing with
Asha Samrai
the persona that something needs to be done about it. The proposal is written in a subdued tone, pleasant and realistic which makes his solution a shock and unexpected. This tone makes the persona seem moral at first and then you realise later on that he is in fact immoral, his ideas of children ‘making good dishes’ are hideous and barbaric.
The poor are dehumanised by the persona, the parents being referred to as ‘breeders’, and babies when they are born are referred to as ‘Dropped from their dams’. These terms are usually ways that animals are spoken of, therefore Swift is making a point that the poor are regarded as animals, the humans are so needy that they aren’t even human in some of the landlord’s views. Here the cruelty of the rich is exposed and they would realise their wrong doings of exploiting the poor.
The Persona seems to have his remedy well thought out he has even conjured up careful calculations, showing thorough details of his thoughts. The use of maths is heartless; the persona is treating the people as statistics and not as people. These calculations produce logic that the persona uses that makes his solution plausible.
The irony is discovered later on in the proposal when the persona excludes himself from the proposal. ‘I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.’ He is saying that nobody can call him selfish or that he would gain from the proposal, but he was only finding a way for the poor to gain, but he was actually creating a menu that would be offered to himself and to others. This is where the reader would identify Swift’s use of satire and how he is making the problems in Ireland aware to the public.
Swift achieves his satirical aims well as the message comes together at the end, his sarcasm and his ‘getting’ at the rich upper class. He makes the reader believe that the situation in Ireland is bad and needs to be remedied soon before the situation becomes desperate.
