English 2610

I think that one of the main reason that a Modest Proposal works so well as satire is because of the fact that it stays so true to form to other pamphlets and tracts of the day that dealt with Ireland and poverty in general. It is truly disheartening to read other essays that are NOT satire which, while perhaps not as outright outlandish as Swift’s proposal, still take the same oddly calculated and hubristic view of the poor that the authors are claiming to wish to help. Reading William Petty’s Political Arithmetic, one can see the true genius of Swift’s satire in the fact that Swift so perfectly matches the high handed tone. From the beginning Petty has the attitude of supremely knowing what is best for the poor and then literally treats them as no more than a simplified mathematical equation. The oversimplification and lack of anything actually approaching real sympathy and care is truly astounding.

Because of this and other similar articles of the time, to a contemporary reader of A Modest Proposal, the first part of the essay would have seemed completely standard and earnest. In the first part of the essay Swift expertly adopts the persona of a person genuinely interested in the plight of the Irish people as he describes their poverty. Halfway through the essay he suddenly introduces his modest proposal. Of course the idea is horrifying but hopefully would have made the reader realize that perhaps many of the other proposals for the poor being offered at the time were equally outlandish and cold. Swift also manages to do more than just attack the proposers but also the people of society who allow this kind of mindset to exist in the first place. Unfortunately, I think the idea of people for profit still continues. Swift points out that yes the idea of literally eating people is horrifying but don’t we figuratively do it all the time? I think my favorite line in the piece is when he slyly inserts the idea that the meat from the children would be “very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”