by Matt Mortensen

Created on: April 30, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Cutting Wit at its Finest
An analysis of the satire of
A Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal is an excellent example of the sharp wit and biting sarcasm that was employed in the satire of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Through the effective use of sarcastic comparisons and ironic exaggerations, Swift managed to impose his cutting wit in a manner and to an extent that was virtually unprecedented in literature. Although the subjects, or targets, of his sarcasm are different, the genius inherent in his method of employing it is quite similar.

Jonathan Swift is a master when it comes to satire and cutting wit in writing. His famous satire, A Modest Proposal, is without a doubt one of the world's foremost examples of genius in biting sarcasm and irony in literature, whether in comparison to the writings of his time or even down to the present day. The irony and sarcasm inherent in the title alone is a perfect example of the power of the written word tweaked slightly in its application.
A Modest Proposal is a pamphlet that Swift wrote in protest to the oppressive treatment of the Catholic peasants of Ireland by the English, particularly the English absentee landlords, after the abdication of James II. At the time of its writing, the peasants of Dublin, and Ireland in general, were in an extremely poverty-stricken condition (Norton 2473, footnote #1). They had become quite populous and therefore quite a burden to the state. Therefore, A Modest Proposal is, as Swift states in its introduction, a proposed solution "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 (Norton 2473)."
In using the word "modest" to describe his proposal, Swift introduces an exaggeration of epic proportions. The utilization of such an unassuming word to describe a suggestion as horrific and appalling as that which is described in the proposal is utterly ludicrous in principle, and this is precisely why it is so effective in its application. A well-employed paradox is an excellent way to grab the attention of an audience, and Swift is a master of this practice. One needs only read several lines into the text of A Modest Proposal before it becomes indubitably clear that the proposal is anything but modest.
In short, Swift's "proposal" is that Ireland's overpopulation problem could be solved by selling a large portion if its one-year-old children on the market

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