LITR211 English Literature

Double-bind of Satire and Savagery in Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

Ireland in the eighteenth century is known for its extreme poverty and social crisis due to the extortion of natural sources by the British. While people were abused by the rich Irish, Jonathan Swift stepped forward to criticize the social conditions through his works. He is known to be the first satirist of the English language and his famous works include his magnum opus, Gullivers’ Travels (1726), and pamphlets like “A Tale of a Tub” (1704) and “A Modern Proposal” (1729). “A Modest Proposal: For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick” was published in 1729 as a pamphlet by Swift. His essay depicted the socio-economic conditions of the poor and through presenting a solution to their poverty (Welch 489). In “A Modest Proposal”, the author explores the double-bind of satire and savagery, which will be further studied in this essay.

Swift uses vivid and disturbing images to provoke the reader of his suggestion and satirize the socio-economic condition of Ireland. He proposes that an infant would profit the parents of eight shillings a year and provide the rich landlords with the “most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled” (Swift). Moreover, with the widespread poverty and overpopulation, these young children would decrease the population and profit the whole nation with money and good food. The “breeders” would earn some money and won’t have to bear the cost of having hungry mouths to feed. Swift is hopeful that this activity will certainly be motivated by the law and policies for the betterment of the community. Apart from that, the rich landlords would be esteemed for their food and gain a public appreciation for their food (Hedrick 178). His words as a practical and concerned citizen only make his message more powerful. Thus, his words and images provide a powerful medium for his sarcastic essay.

Swift’s proposal of cannibalism leads the author to paint a grim and bloody picture of the sale of human bodies. Swift sees the children bringing down the economy and depicts them as “… 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.” (Swift). Seeing their badgering for food, even the young babies who suck the life out of their mothers till age one, Swift has included their deplorable condition of women. They have to suffer the economic conditions, the frustration of the husband through beatings, and the badgering of their children (Palumbo 260). Moreover, he presents these images to empathize the condition of the poor to the rich and educated. According to Spratt, Swift also reasserts his opinion when he believes that Ireland should first start by consuming their own goods, which happens to be the infants of the poor (p. 137). Bodies of the poor are rendered as economic and saleable, which intensifies his satire towards the rich and the British. Thus, the author uses those ghastly and unappealing images to catch the attention of the readers to the appalling state of the poor.

The savage society depicted in Swift’s essay that stands on breeding and cannibalism is the complete opposite of British norms of mannerism and their dictate of civilizing societies. Irish citizens are but a poor provider to the whims of England and “incur no danger in disobliging England” (Swift). Moreover, some rich landlords would benefit from this sale and would benefit from it. McBride also posits that Ireland’s political scenario, especially the Irish Crisis in the late 1720s, greatly affected Swift’s satire (119). The passivity of the landlords in the food riots is also assumed would happen when the Irish children would be sold as food (Contractor 432). He attacks the rich by saying that “… let no man talk to me of other expedients: … Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants.” (Swift). Thus, it is seen that while Swift paints the poor as miserable and victim to the condition, he attacks the rich landowners and the British Empire for their hypocritical actions.

Jonathan Swift satirizes the condition of the poor where they are vilified for being poor along with facing their conditions. The disturbing images of their condition and the state of the poor have been used to criticize the rich and the British for their hypocrisy. Thus, there is the double-bind of satire and savagery in Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”.

Works Cited

Contractor, Noshir. "A ‘Modest Proposal’ on Writing That Is Not Modest Enough." International Journal of Communication, vol. 14, 2020, pp. 432-435.

Hedrick, Elizabeth. "The Mask of Cicero: Jonathan Swift, Classical Rhetoric and A Modest Proposal." Journal for Eighteenth?Century Studies, vol. 44, no. 2, 2021, pp. 177-188.

McBride, Ian. "The Politics of A Modest Proposal: Swift and the Irish Crisis of the Late 1720s." Past & Present, vol. 244, no. 1, 2019, pp. 89-122.

Palumbo, David M. "From ‘Laughing’ to ‘Rayl [ing]’ with a ‘Few Friends’ A Modest Proposal as Private Satire." Eighteenth Century, vol. 59, no. 3, 2018, pp. 259-278.

Spratt, Danielle. "Gulliver's Economized Body: Colonial Projects and the Lusus Naturae in the Travels." Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 41, 2012, pp. 137-159.

Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. London: Penguin Classics, 2015.

Welch, Patrick. "Jonathan Swift on the lives of the poor native Irish as seen through ‘A Modest Porposal’ and other of his writings." Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol. 35, no. 4, 2013, pp. 471-489.

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