Jonathan Swift 1667-1745
Biography Born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 Always a kind of displaced person – an Englishman by blood living among Irishmen; an Anglican by choice surrounded by Roman Catholics or, in his own diocese, Presbyterians Had an ominous start to life when he was snatched from his cradle by a loving but misguided nurse. He remained separated from his mother for three years Studied at Trinity University, Dublin’s great Protestant university
Contd. He worked as the Tory party’s chief propagandist He assumed the editorship of the Tory journal, The Examiner, with the assignment of justifying the change in ministry from Whig to Tory, of preparing the public for the peace that the Tory party was working for, and of allaying fears that the Tories would bring back James the Pretender (James II) and popery Installed as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1713
Contd. Swift began in 1720 to engage himself more vigorously in Irish causes, though the character of Irish patriot was not one he relished. As he wrote to Alexander Pope, “What I do is owing to perfect rage and resentment, and the mortifying sight of slavery, folly, and baseness about me, among which I am forced to live.” His task was an exasperating one of rousing a people to look after its own interests The causes he took up and shouldered throughout the remainder of his productive life were mainly the improvement of Irish agriculture and manufacture and the encouragement of home consumption, the protection of the currency against the threats of devaluation from English coinages, the protection of the rights of the clergy, and the care of the poor
Works The most famous – and best – of his nationalistic essays are The Drapier’s Letters (1724-25) and A Modest Proposal (1729), but the condition of Ireland must have been a primary inspiration for his monumental satire on intellectual, moral, and spiritual subservience - Gulliver’s Travels. The passage from the letter to Pope, quoted earlier, might have come from the pen of Gulliver returned from his travels
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal The author assumes the persona of a political arithmetician (forerunner of the modern socioeconomic planner) whose attitudes reflect the very evils he proposes to remedy by his “project.” The full title continues: for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burthen [sic] to Their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick.
Swift’s Satire Swift is a Juvenalian satirist Juvenal is a Roman satirist who wrote at end of the first century CE Juvenal and Swift are misanthropic satirists who feel that evil is rooted in man’s nature and the structure of society The misanthropic satirist finds life not comic but contemptible
A Modest Proposal Not a single sentence deviates from the essay’s bitter tone Its persuasive power lies in its irrefutable indictment of Irish and English indifference and sheer folly in the face of unspeakable injustice and misery Its immediate attraction is its wildly original and creative idea
Ironic Persona Swift employs a narrator whose views are obviously antithetical to his own Always be careful to separate the artist from his art Swift’s audience is multifold: primarily the Protestant Ascendancy of which he is a member; the English legislators, landlords, and economic apologists; the Irish commoners who, if we view Swift as an angry preacher, are being scolded for their sloth, stupidity, and wanton behavior
Historical Parallel An actual plan to solve Ireland’s problems was suggested by Irish patriot, Colonel Edward Despard Despard suggested that he could solve the country’s problems through a separation of the sexes Swift satirically proposed that the Irish institute a system of regulated cannibalism Despard very seriously proposed racial suicide, which, had it been instituted, would have eliminated the entire Irish population in a few short generations In Colonel Despard’s suggestion, what had been ironic in Swift became theoretical truth, for it was seriously proposed