"A Modest Proposal"
Date: 1729
Author: Jonathan Swift
From: Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion.


What strikes readers from Swift's time to now is the shocking proposal of the nameless projector who unites, in one personality, a cold rationality and a systematically inhuman response to the crisis of poverty and famine in Ireland. His failure to grasp the horror of his solutions suggests the distortion of the culture and the success of prevailing political and economic logic taken to its extreme. By explaining his scheme using arithmetic formulas and an annoying scientific detachment, the projector adopts a tone of superiority and snobbery, which aids in convincing his readers of the wisdom of the argument. Swift crafts this character effectively so the projector seems to compete with all other schemers for the prize for reasonableness and the eternal gratitude of his fellow citizens.

To cannibalize the children of the poor as a commercial venture would obviously by impossible for any culture that considers itself civilized, yet this "modest proposal" does encourage the reader to at least admit the logical extreme leading from England's conduct toward Ireland. The Modest Proposer's outrageous plan unfolds without apology or regret, implying that the efficiency and feasibility of the ideas must surely outweigh other considerations. The difference between the proposer and Swift remains quite distinct, as Swift implicitly urges the reader toward a more compassionate answer to this problem.

The persona of the speaker will remind readers of those social engineers or actuaries who calculate risks, life expectancies, and premiums based on endless lists of statistics and computations. The projector's cool use of figures and bestial imagery (casually referring, for example, to a "child dropped from its dam" and proposing that wives become breeders in some national program, as if we were visiting a national collective farm) becomes an unforgettable emblem of English indifference to Irish humanity and suffering. However, this analysis does not precisely answer the situation as presented: The speaker, whom we have already come to distrust and regard as crazy, is an Irishman, not an Englishman. Swift has little toleration for those Irish who submit to this pattern of brutalization and blindly follow the mad projector's scheme.

This occasional essay, parodying the well-recognized "projects" of many contemporary writers, reveals a straightforward design with clear grouping of paragraphs offering the proposal in a reasonable voice, which heightens the effect of the absolutely mad plan. The first half of the essay (or paragraphs 1–16) presents the scheme as a way of alleviating famine, reducing or eliminating abortion, and putting good scientific methods into practice. Arguing that little money can be made from selling "a boy or girl, before twelve years old" into slavery, Swift shows the merchants willingly engaging in whatever commodity may turn a profit. A later example accuses Americans of using cannibalism as an acceptable food source, which certainly suggests the degree to which Swift blamed the Irish for emigrating to America and depopulating Ireland. The last half of the proposal (which has two sections, containing paragraphs 17–28 and 29–33) continues to puncture dishonesty and complacency by appealing to readers' patriotism and love of his fellow citizens.

The proposer's success in turning the most shameful plan into a reasonable defense has much to do with the success of the essay, as the proposer answers the major objection of cruelty to his fellow man. Professing a complete sense of humanity, he envisions a method for ridding the society of the aged and the sick. Returning to his calculations, he poses the distinct advantages of his scheme, enumerating each while adding a sentence or two of clarification: "Fourthly, the constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum, by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year." Having studied numerous pamphlet proposals and parliamentary debates over the years for the improvement of the Irish, Swift finally grew tired of their impracticality and general self-destructiveness, and created his own hellish projection—one meant to shock the reader by the force of his rhetoric.

The final five paragraphs heighten his tone of despair as he discounts all objections to his proposal—"let no man talk to me of other expedients." The debater's technique of denouncing all other arguments that might refute his own has the effect of sweeping aside what are the implied humane and compassionate solutions while embracing the inhuman expedients. Rising to his final peroration, the proposer announces his qualifications for making such projections and reiterates his most convincing arguments, while suggesting his annoyance that any reader might accuse him of seeking personal financial gain in realizing this proposal. A final sentence undercutting his character delivers the last stroke of irony in this cannibalistic world: "I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny."

Whether one decides Swift wrote the essay because he was angry or in a fit of despair over Ireland's economic condition, the fact remains he blames both the English and Irish for the people's misery. Critics suggest the tone and essential theme recall the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, who rebuked a corrupt people, but Swift complicates this voice with impersonations of a projector, a scientist, and a moralist. As with all of his strongly ironic essays, there is a clear difference between the voices of the proposer and the author, so the projector's political and economic views secure the most commanding presence while nearly muting the author's call for moral understanding. In addition to the "Proposal," numerous other writings reflect Swift's concern with what he saw as England's oppression of the Irish. Some examples are "A Short View of the State of Ireland" (often read as a preface to "A Modest Proposal"), "The Story of an Injured Lady," The Drapier's Letters, and the episodes involving Laputa in Part 3 of Gulliver's Travels.