Background of the Essay
Historical Background
The essay “A Modest Proposal” was written by Jonathan Swift. It was published in 1729. The full name of the essay was “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to their Parents or Country and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick.” At that time, England was ruling Ireland, and Swift was one of the ruling class members. The people of Ireland suffered a lot during this rule.
The group of English people ruling England was protestant, and the people of Ireland were mainly Catholics. As a result, there was a vast chasm between the two. The protestant elites did not like the catholic citizens and never took steps for their betterment. Instead, they imposed religious restrictions on them. Moreover, the common people of Ireland were left very poor by imposing many restrictions on trade for them. To add to this problem of poverty, the country was also overpopulated.
Jonathan Swift wanted this situation to change. He made many attempts to persuade the government of that time to take steps for the progress of the country and the prosperity of the people. He wrote many letters in this regard but never got any positive response. So, this proposal is another attempt at making the government realize the woes of the people. He uses his skill of satire to show how grave the problems of common people are. At the same time, he was angry with the passivity and apathy of the Irish people and wanted to awaken them.
Literary Background of A Modest Proposal
“A Modest Proposal” is a satirical essay by genre. The author of this essay, Jonathan Swift, is regarded as one of the best satirists in English Literature ever. This essay holds a special place among his satirical writings. Its effect is enhanced by the shocking change of mood in the middle of the essay.
Satirical essays are characterized by the use of irony and shifts of moods. In this essay, too, the author starts with the description of the miserable condition of the beggar women and children wandering and begging in the streets of Ireland. He seems sympathetic and describes the plights of these beggars. At this point, the shock arrives, and the author presents his strange proposal. He comes up with the idea that these poor children of Ireland should be butchered and eaten. His tone remains totally objective as he supports his claim through various statistics. In this manner, he satirizes the method of objective analysis of social matters, which was very common at that time.
A Modest Proposal Summary
The essay opens with the narrator invoking the usual scene on the streets in Ireland i.e., the melancholy sight of female beggars begging along with their children. He says that these females are forced to beg for food because they are not able to work. The children grow up to become thieves or go to the Americas, searching for a better future.
After this empathy-inspiring description of female beggars and their children, the author goes on to claim that this is a matter of national concern. He says that these children, in particular, are a burden on the already crippled Kingdom. Therefore, he argues that if anyone can come up with a plan that can turn these beggar children into useful citizens, it will be a great service to the country and its people.
At this point, the author starts describing the authenticity and merits of his proposal. This proposal, he says, can solve the problem of beggar children. Moreover, it can also cater for all children of a specific age whose parents, even though they have not started begging, cannot support them in their current financial condition.
As the background of his proposal, the author provides the statistics of Ireland’s population. He argues that the proposals presented by others regarding this problem are insufficient to solve it. They have not considered the ground realities before proposing their schemes.
Having negated other proposals, the author proposes his own solution to the problem. He says that a child can easily be fed for the first year of his/her life. The total cost needed to bring up a child for the first year is no more than two shillings. The major part of the child’s diet in this period is covered through breast milk, which is free.
The problematic phase starts after the first year. The needs of children grow, and so does the cost of upbringing. So, the “modest” proposal provides a solution for one-year-old children. The author says that his proposal will result in making the setback an advantage. The children, who are now a burden on their families and the government, will become a source of food and clothing.
Moreover, the proposal will result in lessening the ill-practices of infanticide and abortion because the mothers will not have to worry about the expenses of upbringing the child. He says that many people commit these sins because they fear the expenses of feeding a child.
At this point, some more statistics are forwarded. The population of Ireland is around 1.5 million. Out of these 1.5 million people, around two hundred thousand women are adult enough to conceive a child. Out of these two hundred thousand women, only thirty thousand might be able to bring up their children without any financial worries. This leaves one hundred and seventy thousand breeders—as he calls them. Among these breeders, around fifty thousand children can be supposed to be miscarried or die during the first year of their lives.
So, it is clear that every year around one hundred and twenty thousand children are born in low-income families who are unable to feed them properly. Therefore, the problem needs to be solved. These kids cannot be given employment in the country that neither cultivates lands nor builds new houses. The children cannot be sold as slaves before they reach the age of twelve, and when they are sold after this age, they earn very little money. This money is not equal to the amount spent on their upbringing. All of them cannot become thieves as well before reaching the age of six years.
Having detailed the problem, the author forwards his solution to the problem. He says that an American person has told him that a child of one year is a very delicious and nutritious food. The child can be either boiled, or stewed, or bakes, or roasted.
Building upon this information, he says that a proper plan of action should be devised to dispose of the children born in low-income families. Out of the one hundred and twenty thousand children, twenty thousand should be allowed to live. They will serve the purpose of breeding and maintenance of the population.
However, a proper ratio of one male to four females should be maintained among them. One man will be adequate to serve four women in breeding. The remaining one hundred thousand children should be fed and fattened in order to be sold as a food delicacy. The author also suggests the different types of dishes that can be prepared with the meat of these children.
After giving the general idea of the proposal, the author goes on to explain specific details. The first point discussed is the cost of the meat of the children. An average baby at one year age weighs around twenty-eight pounds. This suggests that the meat will be more expensive than the other types of meat available in the market.
For this reason, the delicacy will be primarily available to the wealthy landlords of Ireland who have already eaten the majority of the parents of these children. Secondly, he points out that the meat will be available in the market all year round as the children are born every day of the year. Usually, there will be a surge in the supply during spring.
The author moves on to explain the difference between the cost and sale price of the children. On average, a child can be nursed for one year for less than two shillings. On the other hand, the meat of the child will yield ten shillings.
This way, the parents will make an easy profit of eight shillings. At the same time, the buyer will also not be at a loss. He/she will have around four dishes of delicious meat and will have fame in his/her society. Moreover, the skin of the child can also be used as leather when needed. The author says that he is quite sure that there will be many people in Dublin that will be ready to butcher the children and conduct the business.
The author says that he was advised to refine his scheme by a friend. The advice was that he should include teenagers in his proposal because there is a scarcity of deer meat on the tables of the wealthy landlords.
Furthermore, these teenagers are living a miserable life and are unable to find any employment. He, however, disagrees with this suggestion on two points.
Firstly, the meat of the teenagers is lean and hard, and its taste is also not very good.
Secondly, some people might—unjustly—censure this practice as cruelty. Therefore, it would not be wise to add this suggestion to the proposal.
The author admits that there are a lot of other poor people that are unable to find work for themselves and are a burden on society. These include sick, aged, and disable people. However, he does not show any worry about them because these people are going to die very soon.
The author admits that he has digressed and comes back to his original proposal. He says that his proposal is beneficial in the sense that the Catholics will lessen in number in this way. The Catholics are disadvantageous to the country as they have very large families. He accuses them of their political activities and calls them the enemy of the state.
Another advantage the proposal will have is that the underprivileged tenants will be able to clear their debts by selling their children. In this way, the economy of the nation will improve. Consequently, a liability will turn into a product of the national level. Moreover, a new dish will also be added to the cuisine of the landlords.
The benefit of selling their children will not stop at eight shillings only. The parents will not have to pay for the growing expenses of their children after the first year.
Moreover, the business of taverns will also shoot up as the poor people will have pennies in their hands. Morally speaking, the scheme will result in an increase in marriages and maternal love for children. Domestic violence will also go down for the period of the time of pregnancy. There will be a competition among mothers to bring the healthiest child to the sale. Other types of beef will then be exported more and will bring money to the country.
Inside the country, they will have to raise their standards in order to compete with the high-quality meat of the children. The author believes that the landlords in London will eat as much as the one-fifth of the total flesh procured in the whole country.
After explaining the minute details of the proposal, the author preempts any type of objections that can be raised. One such objection can be that the population of the country can be reduced very much in this manner. The author says that the reduction of the population is among the goals of the proposal as the population of Ireland is well above the limit. He says that this scheme was prepared for Ireland specifically and should not be applied in any other country.
The author rejects the already existing plans for the prosperity of the country and calls them unrealistic and naive. He says that he has become tired of such unrealistic schemes in the past and is now excited about his current discovery. This plan, according to him, is highly practical and realistic. This scheme also has the advantage that there is no chance that it will anger England. Rather, England will be happy to import this delicacy from Ireland. He says that there is a country that might be able to eat the Irish nation without preservatives.
The author claims that no substitute plan can equal his plan even if they are similarly easy, innocent, and cheap. The reason is that his proposal considers two main issues that cannot be addressed by any other plan. The first issue it addresses is that of clothing and feeding one hundred thousand useless children. The second issue is the extreme level of poverty. The author says that Irish people are so poor that they would be happy to be able to be sold for food.
The author says that this proposal is forwarded in the interest of the common people, and he seeks no benefit out of it. His own children have passed this age and can, therefore, not be sold. He just wants to advance the trade of the nation, relieve the unprivileged, provide for the kids, and give some pleasure to the landlords.
A Modest Proposal Analysis
In the essay “A Modest Proposal,” Jonathan Swift satirizes the elite class of Ireland and their British colonizers. At the same time, he vents his disgust at the Irish people for not doing anything for themselves. It also mocks the cold and inhumane methods of problem-solving in the eighteenth century. At that time, people used to give solutions to the grievous problems of humanity on the basis of irrelevant statistics.
In order to catch the attention of the audience and to convey his point, Swift makes his proposal sound barbarous without a tinge of human empathy. He talks of human slaughter and cooking like he is talking about cattle or poultry. He takes the path of utilitarianism and talks about solving the problem of poverty and overpopulation in an indifferent economic manner. His proposal can benefit society at the cost of a few humans. Through this technique, he shows how irrelevant utilitarianism is to human problems.
The Pattern of Rhetoric
In this essay, Jonathan Swift uses the traditional system of rhetoric to organize his argument. In this system, the argument is presented in five steps.
The first part of the argument introduces the subject and is called exordium.
The second part of the argument narrates the ground facts and realities. This part is called the narratio.
The third part of the argument confirms the claims of the argument through proofs and is called confirmatio.
The fourth part of the argument refutes any possible objections to the argument. This part is called confutatio.
The last part of the argument employs pathos and appeals to the audience. It also sums up the whole discussion and is called peroratio.
In the exordium part of the essay, the author describes the usual scene of the streets of Ireland. He says that the sight of women beggars, along with their children, is very common on the streets of Ireland. These kids are shabbily dressed and are malnourished. This description introduces the problem of hunger, begging, and poverty.
To this problem, the author presents his cheap and effortless solution. The solution is of nursing the babies of these low-income families for one year and then butchering them to be sold as meat to the landlords.
In the next part of the argument, the author presents the ground realities. He says that among the 1.5 million people living in Ireland, there will be around two hundred thousand breeders. Out of these two hundred thousand breeders, around one hundred and seventy thousand will be poor. If they give birth to children, they will not be able to bear the expenses.
Therefore, they become a burden on the country and their families. Subtracting another fifty thousand children who might die during the first year, a total of one hundred and twenty thousand poor babies are left. Among these children, the author proposes to leave twenty thousand for breeding and to butcher the remaining one hundred thousand for eating.
In this manner, they will bring income to their families and delicious meat to the tables of landlords. Moreover, it will help in controlling the population of the country.
In the confirmatio part of the argument, the author lists the benefits of his proposal. His proposal will help the poor people get rid of their poverty as they will get a profit of eight shillings and will not have to bear the expenses of children after the first year.
Moreover, they will be inclined to marry early and will leave behind the ill doings like abortion and infanticide. On the other hand, the elites will have a new delicious dish on their tables. The economy of the country will also move forward. At the same time, the number of Catholics will be reduced as they are not liked by the ruling class.
In the confutatio part of the argument, the author refutes any possible objection to his proposal. He says that some people might object that this proposal will result in lessening the population of the country. He replies by saying that it was one of his goals while he was forwarding his proposal as the country is overpopulated.
In the last part of the argument, the author employs pathos and says that his proposal is not based on any self-interest. Rather, his sole motive is the common good. He wants to relieve the burdens of ordinary people. As for his part, he says that he cannot benefit from this scheme as his youngest child is already nine years of age.
A Modest Proposal as a A Satirical Essay
The satire in this essay is of a very wide spectrum and ranges from the people of Ireland to the colonizers of England. Following is a brief account of the ways these different groups are satirized.
On the Irish Government
The government of Ireland is satirized for being apathetic and ignorant of the problems of the people of Ireland. They are also satirized for the religious restrictions they have put on the Catholics of Ireland.
On the Irish People
The people of Ireland are satirized for their inability to see and solve their own problems. They are shown to be so dull and lazy that they would even kill their own children but would not stand up for their rights.
On the English Rulers
The colonizers of England are satirized for their inhumane behavior towards the colonized people. The rulers of England are said to be ready to eat the whole nation. It is also said that England will have no objection to this trade of human flesh.
On Utilitarianism
The philosophy of utilitarianism is satirized for its inability to solve the problems of humans. The speaker of this essay employs a utilitarian approach in his proposal, and the ineptness of the approach becomes visible from the very start.
Tone of the Essay
The tone of the essay is thoroughly ironic and satirical. The author presents his proposal in a manner that the audiences are supposed to disagree with. He intends to mock the type of solution which his proposal has. In this way, the author does exactly what he wants to tackle. The inhumane speaker of the essay is the caricature of the followers of utilitarian philosophy.