Jonathan SwiftGulliver’s Travels& Modest Proposal

Jonathan Swift

• Generally thought to be the greatest prose writer of the 18th century• One of the world’s finest

satirists• Considered a misanthrope

by many because he was deeply critical of humanity

Jonathan Swift

• Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667 to English parents• Difficult childhood• Father died before he was

born• Mother forced to send him

to live with uncle because she was too poor to raise him

Jonathan Swift

• Became an Anglican priest• In 1713, became the dean

of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a post he held for more than 30 years until his death• Died at 78

Swift as a Misanthrope?• “What Swift detested was the nonsensical belief

that men as a whole were rational— their behavior showed that this was not true. At the utmost, they were capable of reason; then why don’t they act on it more? . . . The evidences of men’s refusal to use what reason they have got were all round him, especially in Ireland, and Swift was right to highlight the evidences of their idiocy . . . how otherwise can, or will, the fools learn?’’

—A. L. Rowse

The Works of Jonathan Swift

• A Tale of Tub – ridiculed the extravagances of religion, literature, and academia• The Battle of the Books –

mock debate b/w ancient and modern authors• The Tatler – popular

English periodical to which Swift contributed essays

The Works of Jonathan Swift

• Gulliver’s Travels – Swift’s satirical masterpiece written while living in Ireland• Modest Proposal –

published in 1729 and criticizes the English treatment of the Irish

Gulliver’s Travels

• Narrator is Lemuel Gulliver, a doctor on a merchant ship• After a shipwreck, he washes up

on the shores of Lilliput• In his “travelogue,” he describes

his experiences in several fictional countries: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, Hoouyhnhnms, and others• When he returns to England, he

is painfully aware of his country’s flaws.

Parody

• A parody is a humorous imitation of a literary work that aims to point out the work’s shortcomings. • Parodies usually imitate some defining

characteristic of the work’s style. • Gulliver’s Travels is in part a parody of early-

eighteenth-century travel books, which delighted in describing exotic places and people.

A Modest Proposal

• In the early 1700s, Ireland was ruled by England. • Ireland could buy some

products only from England and at high prices.• English landlords, who owned

much of Ireland’s best land, charged exorbitant rates.

Hard Times in Ireland

• Economic and natural hardships plagued Ireland in the mid-1700s. • Low prices caused a bank failure in 1733, and

famine struck in 1740, causing bread riots in Dublin. • The next year brought dysentery, and 400,000

died in the “year of the slaughter” (bliadhain an áir in Irish). • Famine returned in 1744, leaving the poor with

no choice but to eat grass.

A Modest Proposal

Problem: starving children in

Ireland

Real Solutions

?

?

Speaker’s Proposal

?

?

“Advantages” of A Modest Proposal

• Reducing the number of Catholics (Papists)• Landlords can seize

the Irish children in payment for rents• Giving the poor a

valuable commodity

• Stimulating the economy• Freeing the poor of

the cost of child rearing• Profiting taverns• Encouraging

marriage

Actual Solutions • Taxing absentee

landowners• Buying domestic

products• Practicing thrift• Unifying and

determining to work toward a better society

• The speaker lists and rejects these solutions, which is ironic because these alternative solutions are morally sound and economically practical as opposed to the ridiculous “solutions” the speaker suggests.

Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward

A casual ward, or workhouse, provided the poor and the elderly with scanty food and shelter in exchange for hours of sometimes toilsome labor. What do the people in the painting have in common with the people described in A Modest Proposal?

Irish EmigrantsLaws enacted in 1695 stripped Irish Catholics of rights to money and property, causing many to leave—and some to be forcibly shipped out—of the country.

Satire• Satire aims to expose the vices, follies, or flaws of a

person or group of people by making them seem ridiculous. Satirists’ main weapon is humor, which they create through devices such as exaggeration and its opposite, understatement.

Satire• In A Modest Proposal, for example, Swift exaggerates the

economists’ indifference toward the Irish and understates the impact of his proposal by his use of the word modest. By creating a narrator who supports a position opposite to his own, Swift also employs irony, another common satiric device.

Satire• What other examples of exaggeration and understatement can

you find in A Modest Proposal? Whom or what do these statements ridicule?

• Exaggeration: Irish children learn to steal by age six. • Understatement: making gloves from human skin would be an

example of thrift. • The statements ridicule the Irish and English.

Irony• What is ironic about the title A Modest Proposal?• His proposal is extreme and violent – anything but modest.• What is ironic about the conclusion of A Modest Proposal?• The speaker will be unaffected by his plan, since he has no

children of the right age and his wife is too old to bear more children.