Satire, Humor, and Shock Value in Swifts A Modest Proposal Essay

Satire, Humor, and Shock Value in fasts A Modest Proposal Swifts message to the English government in A Modest Proposal deals with the disgusting state of the English-Irish common people. Swift, as the cashier expresses pity for the poor and oppressed, while maintaining his social status far supra them. The poor and oppressed that he refers to argon Catholics, peasants, and the poor homeless men, women, and children of the kingdom. This is what Swift is trying to make the English government, in particular the Parliament awake(predicate) of the great socioeconomic distance between the increasing number of peasants and the aristocracy, and the effectuate thereof. Swift conveys his message in a brilliant essay, in which he uses satire, humor and shock value. Swift pursues his main point in the archetypical paragraph It is a melancholy object to those who walk through Dublin . . .when they divulge . . .beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning either passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to maneuver for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg hold for their helpless infants, who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work or fight for the phony in Spain. (2181) The last statement regarding the Pretender in Spain is a stab at Catholicism, the Pretender, being the Catholic crowd II, claimant to the English crown. In fact, Catholics are the butt of many sardonic jokes in the essay. ... ...and hammering the condemning social statement into the reader. Swift goes beyond sightly describing the socioeconomic distance between the aristocracy and the poor. He goes beyond masking the deplorable state of the cou ntry. Swift clearly shows the ludicrous nature of the fellowship in which he lived, the feudal system, religious conflicts, the lack of social mobility, the aristocracy, and overpopulation. In condemning Catholics, he is condemning the Irish. In making the Irish kayoed to be a problem that can be solved by this proposal, he shows his disapproval of English involvement in Irish affairs, and furthermore, the expanding British Empire. Thus A Modest Proposal does not present an root to the societal problems of its day, but ultimately raises more questions. Not questions of fact, but questions of a profound socio-philosophical nature.