Name________________________________________________
“A Modest Proposal”
Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745
• Anglo-Irish Dean of St. Patrick’s
• Author of Gulliver’s Travels, 1726
• THE great prose satirist of the English language.
• His tombstone reads, "He has gone where savage indignation can tear his heart no more."
A hero’s welcome (parades, church bells ringing, bonfires, the whole enchilada) awaited
Jonathan Swift when he arrived in Dublin during the late summer of 1726. This because—in
addition to his success with Gulliver’s Travels—he had rallied public opinion for the cause of
Irish economic and political independence in his role as M.B. Drapier of St. Francis Street (an
alias). In his Fourth Drapier Letter, addressed to the “Whole People of Ireland,” he declared that
“by the Laws of God, of Nature, of Nations, and of your own Country, you are and ought to be as
Free a People as your brethren in England.”
Strangely enough, this was the same man who referred to Ireland as “the most miserable country
upon earth” and wrote “I do suppose nobody hates and despises this kingdom more than myself”
and described the trip from England to Ireland as “a passage to the land I hate.” Instead of the
“fat deanery or lean bishopric” he so assiduously but vainly sought near his literary friends in
England, he returned to Ireland for good in 1713 as Dean of St. Patrick’s, to make this “wretched
Dublin in Ireland” his permanent home, “a poisoned rat in a hole,” as he vividly describes his
situation to his friend Bolingbroke. However, he was constantly role-playing and he just as often
praised Ireland and the quality of his own life there.
Questions
1. “A Modest Proposal” is an ironic essay: the author deliberately writes what he does not mean.
What is the real thesis? Is there more than one?
2. A clear difference exists between Swift and the persona who makes this proposal.
Characterize the proposer.
3. Would it be possible to read this essay as a serious proposal?
4. Look closely at paragraphs 4, 6, and 7, and study how the appeals to logic are put in
mathematical and economic terms. Underline those words and phrases.
5. When does the reader begin to realize that the essay is ironic? Before or after the actual
proposal is made in paragraph 10?
6. About midway in the pamphlet, the narrator lists the advantages to his proposal. What are the
six principal advantages?
6. Which groups of people are singled out as special targets for Swifts’ attack? Are the Irish
presented completely as victims, or are they also to blame?
7. Does the essay merely function as a satirical attack? Does Swift ever present any serious
proposals for improving conditions? If so, where?
8. What is the purpose of the last paragraph?
Find at least 2 examples of the following satirical techniques:
Overstatement
1.
2.
Understatement
1.
2.
Irony
1.
2.