Satire in Prose
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) and A Modest Proposal
The following pamphlet, written by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift in 1729, attacked the way the English used the
Irish for profit, leaving them poor and hungry.
1. What do you understand by the word ‘modest’? Can you guess what the essay is going to be about? Do you
expect the proposal to be modest?
2. The sub-heading says that the “modest proposal” is “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”. Is there
anything in this which worries you?
Extract 1 - This is the opening paragraph of the pamphlet:
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the
streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six
children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work
for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless
infants: who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for
the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
How would you describe the narrator’s tone? Reasonable or unreasonable? Intelligent or naive? Are we meant to
feel sympathetic? Does he sound concerned and humane?
Extract 2 – We are led gently into the argument:
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the
heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very
great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these
children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue
set up for a preserver of the nation.
Do we feel sympathetic?
Extract 3 – The narrator widens the range of who he is talking about:
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a
much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in
effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.
Extract 4 – The build-up of the argument is slow:
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed
the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true,
a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at
most not above the value of 2 shillings, which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful
occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as
instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives,
they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
Extract 5 – To convince us of the humanity of his scheme he makes his case forcibly:
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that
horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas, too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor
innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most
savage and inhuman breast.
Extract 6 – But before he will tell us his “proposal” we must read some economic calculations:
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may
be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand
couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the
present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand
breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or
disease within the year. There only remain one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually
born: the question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said,
under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can
neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate
land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are
of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however
be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of
Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part
of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even
when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on
the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags
having been at least four times that value.
What is your view now of the narrator’s attitude towards human beings? Has it changed?
Extract 7 – Here is the argument. Beware the charm of the opening sentence!
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well
nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or
boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already
computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more
than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of
marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four
females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality
and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as
to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and
when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little
pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
What is your immediate reaction?
Extract 8 – In the next few paragraphs Swift’s narrator goes on to explain his scheme. Here is one example:
A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in
discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom,
having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of
young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes
in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their
parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend and so
deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance
assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys
by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to
the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become
breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such
a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been
with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.
How would you describe the narrator’s tone of voice now? Calm and logical? Superior? Can you guess what
Swift’s purpose in this essay is?
Extract 9 – The narrator argues that there are a lot of advantages in his scheme. For example:
... it would greatly lessen the number of Papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders
of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver
the kingdom to the Pretender ...
... it would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or
enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when
they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual
profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could
bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy
as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to
beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.
What are the targets of Swift’s mockery here?
Extract 10 – In saying that nobody could object to his proposal, the narrator dismissed what we assume are Swift’s
more genuine proposals:
I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the
number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and it was indeed one
principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculated my remedy for this
one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth.
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using
neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting
the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness,
and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence, and temperance: Of learning to love our
country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Tompinamboo: Of quitting our
animosities and factions, nor act any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment
their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching
landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty,
industry, into our shopkeepers ...
Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the likes expedients, till he hath at least a glimpse of hope
that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them in practice.
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at
length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which as it is wholly new, so it hath
something solid and real, of no expense and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no
danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a
consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country that would be glad to
eat up our whole nation without it. ...
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this
necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for
infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a
single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.
(1729)
What is humorous about the last sentence?
Re-order these words to make a sentence summarising the narrator’s argument.
the children / the rich / for / to feed / It / fattened / of the poor / humane / to be / would be
Appreciation
1. Below are some of the targets of Swift’s satire. Select one and illustrate from the text.
a- England’s exploitation of Ireland. Ireland was used as a source of cheap food and materials and forbidden
to trade on its own; its absentee English landlords kept the too numerous Catholic peasants hungry and
oppressed.
b- The Irish. Swift regarded them as too passive and disgraced by the treatment they received.
c- The benevolent humanitarian. A typical figure who sometimes tries to correct a social evil by a logically-
conceived, theoretical plan without respect for reality and individual feeling and with rather more
concern for his or her own status and glory.
2. Explain the irony in the following phrases:
a- “sound, useful members of the commonwealth” (Extract 2)
b- “sacrificing the poor innocent babes” (Extract 5)
c- “most savage and inhuman breast” (Extract 5)
3. Discuss the following:
At the beginning of the essay, the reader goes along with the logic of the narrator’s argument without realising
the implications.
The reader’s shock is made greater by the narrator’s apparent naivety and calm tone of voice.
As a result of the shocking proposals, we are encouraged to support Swift’s genuine proposals.
Although the narrator doesn’t represent the writer’s real point of view, Swift nevertheless enjoys shocking us,
making the overall effect of the essay more negative than positive.
