The reason Swift comes up with this proposal is to solve the food and money shortage throughout the kingdom of Ireland. But what it really sets out to do is to make a mockery of people in those days. What is truly ironic though is the fact that Swift makes such exemplary use of sarcasm and irony in his writing that when the piece was published, many people actually believed that Swift was being serious, and there was confusion and uproar throughout Ireland. In my opinion, this in itself is proof enough that A Modest Proposal is the most effective piece of satirical writing ever published, as it managed to deceive people into believing an idea which seems totally preposterous in this day and age.
The reason Swifts sarcasm has such a big impact on the reader is because of the depth of detail in his writing. He goes to great lengths to calculate certain figures such as the cost of feeding a child for a year, and the net profit per child that one would make if they sold their children to be eaten. This shows the reader that he is being serious, when in fact his actual intentions are quite innocent.
His writing is set out in a formal style, and his points are ordered as they would be in an actual proposal. People in those days, and today for that matter, have the idea that if something is written or read in formal English, it must be truthful and reliable. This is why Swift’s writing is so effective, because he can easily manipulate the audience into believing that he is genuinely proposing this idea, so he can show them to be foolish afterwards. The tone of the article is that of calm and serenity, but his words are highly disturbing, giving the reader a sense of sadness, and perhaps reluctance to reveal his thoughts.
A Modest Proposal is an allegorical masterpiece, showing many different aspects of human nature at the same time. It reveals the atrocities taking place throughout the entire kingdom at the time. The poverty, harshness, and some of the things people would do to end their suffering, and prevent their children from going through what they went through. It shows the cruelty and savage nature of human beings as a whole.
In his writing Swift portrays England as being very aggressive and violent ‘I could name a country which would gladly eat up our whole nation without it.’ He is referring to England, and how the English would not need such a proposal to prompt them to resort to cannibalism. He is also making a point that the Irish are far more passive than the English and that they need to become more proactive in order to survive.
The way in which Jonathan Swift has written this piece gives the reader the impression that the narrator is a practical, self-content, vain yet intelligent person. He obviously prefers economical solutions as opposed to humane ones, and is fond of using statistics to prove his point. It is this image that he gives the reader which leads them to believe that he is being serious, because only somebody so uncaring would propose such a solution. But perhaps this was a mistake on Swift’s part, because we now know that he had not intended for anybody to take his writing in the literal sense.
The narrator defends his modest proposal by stating that he cannot possibly gain from his own proposal, as his children are too old to be killed and eaten, and his wife is incapable of having anymore children, so he is showing that his intentions to be noble and not for personal gain, but for the good of the nation. Some may argue that this is why he is proposing that we turn to eating children, because it is ensuring that his own children are safe from harm, showing how uncompassionate he is for others.
In effect, what Swift has accomplished is figurative piece of writing which works on multiple levels. On the one hand it condemns the English for being so aggressive and the Irish for being so passive, and at the same time it is accusing the narrator for being morally unjust and uncompassionate towards other human beings, and also the reader for accepting all the intolerable situations around us just because we don’t come into contact with any of them, such as poverty and fascism.
In my opinion, this is what makes A Modest Proposal such a great piece of satirical writing. Swift has successfully used many forms of sarcasm and irony, be they metaphorical or literal, to expose the idiocy and naivety of an entire nations worth of people. This is what makes it one of the most effective pieces of satirical writing to ever entertain the masses.
