Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
Read Swift’s background information on page 620. Write down five key facts about his life.
a. The greatest satirist in the English language.
b. He learned to read by the age of three.
c. He coined the term yahoo to refer to a boorish and ignorant person.
d. He left much of his fortune to go toward the building of a mental hospital.
e. Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.
“A Modest Proposal” page 622
1. Read the background information provided in the box on page 622. Why and how were the
Irish people suffering? What events/issues caused Jonathan Swift’s outrage? Ireland like a
conquered country. Catholics could not vote, hold office, buy land or be educated even
though they were in the majority. Poverty resulted from the English treatment. Failed crops
caused many to starve.
2. Look up SATIRE (pg. 621). Write the definition here. Make sure that you include satire’s
PURPOSE. Satire is a literary technique in which people’s behaviors or society’s institutions
are ridiculed for the purpose of bringing about social reform.
3. What problem does Swift identify in lines 1-15? Poverty is causing the poor to lead wretched
lives.
4. The narrator first complains about the many women in Ireland doing WHAT in order to get
food for their children? To beg for money. Who is he primarily concerned about? The poor
5. To what will the children contribute according to the narrator’s plan? A certain portion of
Irish children will be bred to be eaten.
6. What is Swift calculating in lines 35-45? What exceptions does he list as he adjusts his final
number? The breeders who can support their children, babies miscarried, babies who die in
infancy
7. Why does Swift use mathematical language to discuss the issue? To give credibility to
argument; statistical approach, therefore, logical
8. What does the narrator suggest people do with one year old children? To be sold and
consumed as food
9. Why does the narrator think the food he proposes is “very proper for landlords?” (625). What
tone is he using here? Why? The rich landlords have already consumed the resources of the
parents’ rents; matter of fact tone; makes idea seem more rational
10. What is ironic about Swift’s concern in lines 117-122 regarding what “some scrupulous
people” might think? Ssome might unjustly think it cruel to use pre-teen girls,when, in fact,
the entire proposition is deeply offensive.
11. The narrator comes up with SIX REASONS why his proposal is an effective one. Briefly list
them (begins on page 628)
a. Greatly lessen the number of Papists
b. Landlords can seize children in payment
c. Nation’s wealth can be increased with so many children
d. Breeders will sell children, not support them.
e. Business of taverns will be increased with introduction of new food
f. great inducement to marriage; women will be well-treated when pregnant
12. What is the ONE objection that the narrator thinks people might have to his plan?
Number of people lessened
13. Reread lines 198-203. What attitude does Swift reveal in refuting this opposing view?
He reveals differences between the English and Irish.
14. Restate what the speaker says about poor adults wishing they had benefited from his proposal
when they were babies. (lines 240-248). What final point is Swift making? He says that
politicians who dislike his proposal should ask these adults if on this day did they not wish
that they had been sold as food to avoid the misfortunes of landlord oppression, lack of
money for rent, wanting food, lacking a home and/or clothes with more misery surely to
follow.
15. How does the narrator assure the audience that his idea is not meant to benefit himself?
He has only one child who is nine and a wife who is past child-bearing age.