1
JONATHAN SWIFT
“A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR
PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR
COUNTRY AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC”
1. Read footnote 1 at the bottom of page 2473 and summarize what the textbook editor
says about the following:
irony, rigorous logic, parody, the proposer, the trite
metaphor, Swift’s pity, and Swift’s anger.
Irony is used from the “deceptive adjective modest in the title to the very last
sentence.
“A rigorous logic deduces ghastly arguments from a premise so quietly assumed
that readers assent before they are aware of what that assent implies.”
“Parody . . . allows him to glance sardonically at the by then familiar figure of the
benevolent humanitarian . . . concerned to correct a social evil by means of a
theoretically conceived plan.”
“The proposer, as naive as he is apparently logical and kindly, ignores and
therefore emphasizes for the reader the enormity of his plan.”
The essay is based on “a rather trite metaphor: ‘The English are devouring the
Irish.’”
The essay shows Swift’s “pity for the oppressed, ignorant, populous, and hungry
Catholic peasants of Ireland.”
It also shows “his anger at the rapacious English absentee landlords, who were
bleeding the country white with the silent approbation of Parliament, ministers, and the
crown.”
2. What problems in Ireland does the writer say he is addressing? (2472-74)
The problem of overpopulation, starvation, and begging.
3. What is the purpose of the calculations and figures? (last paragraph of page 2474)
His numbers are meant to impress the reader by showing that he is skilled in the
new science of statistics. Actually his numbers show that 6/7 of the Irish population
cannot feed and take care of their children (only 30,000 couples out 200,000
couples can maintain their own children). The numbers also show that one out of every
three newborns die by miscarriage while being delivered or by disease within their first
year.
4. What is the solution to the problem? (3rd and 4th paragraphs, page 2475)
“I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be
liable to the least objection. I have been assured . . . that a young healthy child well
nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food.”
5. What benefits does the writer say his proposal will bring? (2475-78)
It will provide food for many thousands, prevent abortion and infanticide,
provide a self-sustaining and self-renewing economy, provide leather goods, bring
2
trade to taverns and slaughter-houses, and lessen the number of Catholics in Ireland.
6. What is the purpose of the fourth paragraph on page 2478, beginning “I can think of
no other objection”?
This paragraph contains practical, feasible, and humane solutions to the
problems stated in paragraphs 1 and 2. Only because these more desirable solutions
have been ignored by the English has Swift in desperation yielded up his outrageous
proposal.
7. In paragraph 2, page 2479, who does the narrator say would most approve of his
project?
The beggars of Ireland themselves. The writer states that those who object to his
proposal should “first ask the parents of these mortals whether they would not at this
day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old in the manner I
prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual sense of misfortunes as they have
since gone through . . . .”
8. What proof does the writer offer in the last paragraph of the essay (page 2479) that he
is acting not out of private gain, but out of public good?
He says that he will not benefit personally from the proposal since “I have no
children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old,
and my wife past childbearing.”
9. What word in the title of the essay is ironic? The title gains its irony from complete
inversion of the meaning of “modest” as applied to a most immodest, indeed notorious,
proposal.
10. The writer presents himself throughout as a philanthropist (a lover of humankind).
How is this ironic?
He passes himself off as one who is interested in the general welfare of
humankind. However, his proposal will bring pain and suffering to the most innocent
and defenseless segment of people.
11. On page 2477, the first paragraph, study the second sentence, beginning “But I am
not in the least pain . . . .” What word in this sentence is ironic?
“Reasonably.” It is the inversion of “reason” for some people to expect other
people to want to die as quickly as they can.