Philosophy of A Modest Proposal Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

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Philosophy of A Modest Proposal
Introduction
Among other, numerous pamphlets written by Swift in support of Ireland, in the history of world literature is also included as an example of a brilliant ironic denunciation of colonial exploitation of his famous "A Modest Proposal ". According to its literal meaning, the author encouraged to eat the year-old Irish babies: it would add to the Irish economy and at the same time would radically resolve the problem of poverty, saving the country from the "extra" hungry mouths. Written with deliberate seriousness, equipped with a variety of arguments, "A Modest Proposal" breathed with a great anger. Calling to legalize cannibalism the writer, and humanist, stated that the British colonialists reduced the extinction of the Irish working people to the last extremes.
However, the irony of the writer was no crueler than the reality itself. Swift depicted these ideas in order to bring this issue to the next level and raise attention to the poverty in Ireland, the problems with property owners, the trade laws and the attitude towards the poor. This pamphlet is also a great example of the right to free speech; such bold and daring statements could have resulted in much more serious consequences. However, Jonathan Swift was lucky to avoid any prosecutions and continued to produce heavy arguments and mock the government. The irony that is such eloquently brought in his pamphlet took its aim at the English policy towards the Irish people.
The history
Swift is one of the greatest satirists in the world that left a bright trace in the history of English journalism and public writing. The pamphlet was a favorite genre of Swift. He never signed his journalistic works, mystifying his readers and raising issues of the day, which fits well into the context of the European Enlightenment and the English major problems. He passionately hated feudalism, however, was extremely perspicacious in the evaluation of new bourgeois relations, which he considered hostile to human nature.
Swift tries his hand at the classic genres, writing odes, poems, and then finds his true calling - to create satire. The role of Swift as a journalist and pamphleteer was so high during this period that it resulted in awe of his political opponents. Swift was seeking neither nor wealth, nor to the title - he is fully engaged in political activities for the speedy conclusion of peace. In 1713, he signed. Soon, however, England stirred up again the political intrigue. Queen Anne died she was the last of the Stuarts. On the throne George I, the representative of the new Hanoverian dynasty. The government once again proved to the Whigs. Political activity of Swift in England came to an end. His satirical poems, where he exposed the flaws of contemporary English society, and, its higher circles, became dangerous to these quarters. Swift had removed from London. Gradually, in 1714 he had become an abbot of Dublin Cathedral. Therefore, he became the second man in the Irish Church. Swift was leaving London with sadness, but it is in Ireland, where he was destined to become famous. Swift’s homeland was then in distress. The British banned the import of Irish products having caused enormous damage to the country's economy and impoverished the Irish people. In Dublin Swift performed church service, the writer became more and more estranged from the political life of England and more imbued with concerns about Ireland.
The most significant of Irish pamphlets Swift wrote was "A Modest Proposal." Here Swift brands superficial English democracy, he says that the king has no right to enslave the entire nation. "A Modest Proposal" - a bitter satire on bourgeois monstrous methods of enrichment, the brutality with which the British Government referred to the Irish.
This and other pamphlets have made a huge political effect and have become an important document in the history of the Irish national liberation movement. British Prime Minister Robert Walpole proposed arrest of Swift, but the local government has failed to do so, saying that it would need an army of ten thousand. Rumors about possible reprisals against Swift reached the Dubliners, and since then, Swift went on trips accompanied by a large detachment of armed citizens. At that time, he was the uncrowned king of Ireland. He continued to struggle. Organized loan office for the development of national industry, having invested a large proportion of their funds, he issued a pamphlet for a pamphlet denouncing the British government, which brought the population of Ireland to complete impoverishment.
Swift's motives for writing "A Modest Proposal", which appeared in 1729, were complex. He felt for his part that he was deported to Ireland where he was favored in England and his personal resentment, which he received at the hands of the English, only increased the anger he felt in England Ireland mistreated. He was not only concerned about the plight of his class but also with the country as a whole. He lived in Ireland, which was a colony politically militarily and economically dependent on England. It was clearly in the interest of England to keep things as they were since weak Ireland cannot jeopardize England and the measures that kept the country weak were profitable for the British. As a result, Ireland was a desperately poor country, as said Swift, beggars that were periodically devastated by famine. England controlled the Irish legislature and English absentee proprietors owned most of the land that was worth owning. Swift was angry at the passivity of the Irish people, who had become so accustomed to the fact that they seemed to be unable to make any effort to change it. Ireland's parliament have ignored the numerous proposals that Swift has made, for example, to tax absentee landlords or to encourage Irish industry to improve the land.
Philosophy of “A Modest Proposal”
"A Modest Proposal” is an angry, sarcastic pamphlet, which has put forward enormous project - to eat the meat of Irish children, especially fattening them for this. Western scientists have believed that here at the manifestation of misanthropy and even painful psyche. Reverse the meaning of the pamphlet is obvious: it is dictated by hatred of the oppressors and the passionate grief of the enslaved. Observing the poverty-stricken, dying of hunger Ireland, Swift directly called cannibals English lords and man.
The main target of Swift's satire were reformers who treat people as objects, thereby equating them to the goods. Some have compared this side of Swift's pamphlet to Marx's proof of the usefulness of crime as the number of population control. However, Swift writes, that this is a necessary step for the government to cut the population of poor people and make a profit out of their children. He proposes some of the most disgusting ideas, like eating the babies, making women a plain incubator of the food, directing small boys to the factories to make leather goods of their skin. He writes, “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“ (Swift). This irony can be referenced to the property owners and the wealthy people of Ireland that had no interests in peoples’ lives that took the lands of poor civilians.
Stereotypes against Irish Catholics make it easier for Swift to use them as the object of his satire. Stereotypes are present in both the cases, the suggestions and in the used language. The general idea of ​​overpopulation comes from the stereotype that Catholics tend to have many children. The first reason the narrator of Swift provides is the adoption of his proposal to eat children so that it will reduce the number of Catholics is perhaps the best example of a satire of religious prejudice. Moreover, he uses the word "papists" in an offensive sense, anti-Catholic rejection of the Pope. In Protestant England, many people might share the stereotypes, but would never go as far as saying to eat children.
Taking his treatise deliberately business like tone, Swift ridiculed many dark projectors that at the dawn of the Enlightenment offered to heal ulcers of society with the help of a simple enough recipe. For example, it was proposed to create a joint stock company to manage the beggars and vagrants. The authors of such initiatives began long mathematical and statistical calculations. Thus, Swift does such calculations in his pamphlet where he equates people to numbers. He writes, “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 distress of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain a hundred 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 a hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. “(Swift). This is an obvious mockery towards the authors of those projects.
He put forward reasons and explanations, practical assessme...