A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of ness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in
Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or our women: Of introducing a vein of parsi-
Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Pub- mony, prudence and temperance: Of learning
lick,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is to love our country, wherein we differ even
a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anony- from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Top-
mously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that inamboo: Of quitting our animosities and fac-
the impoverished Irish might ease their economic trou- tions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who
bles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen were murdering one another at the very mo-
and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocked heartless at- ment their city was taken: Of being a little cau-
titudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward tious not to sell our country and consciences
the Irish in general. for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at
In English writing, the phrase “a modest proposal” is now least one degree of mercy towards their tenants.
conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry,
satire. and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a reso-
lution could now be taken to buy only our native
goods, would immediately unite to cheat and
exact upon us in the price, the measure, and
1 Details the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to
make one fair proposal of just dealing, though
Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, in- often and earnestly invited to it.
cluding a list of possible preparation styles for the chil- Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me
dren, and calculations showing the financial benefits of of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at
his suggestion. He uses methods of argument through- least some glympse of hope, that there will ever
out his essay which lampoon the then-influential William be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them
Petty and the social engineering popular among follow- into practice.
ers of Francis Bacon. These lampoons include appealing
to the authority of “a very knowing American of my
acquaintance in London” and “the famous Psalmanazar,
a native of the island Formosa" (who had already con-
2 Population solutions
fessed to not being from Formosa in 1706). This essay
is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sus- George Wittkowsky argued that Swift’s main target in A
tained irony in the history of the English language. Much Modest Proposal was not the conditions in Ireland, but
of its shock value derives from the fact that the first por-rather the can-do spirit of the times that led people to de-
tion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars vise a number of illogical schemes that would purportedly
solve social and economic ills.[2] Swift was especially in-
in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise
of Swift’s solution when he states, “A young healthy child sulted by projects that tried to fix population and labour
well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishingissues with a simple cure-all solution.[3] A memorable ex-
and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or ample of these sorts of schemes “involved the idea of
boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in arunning the poor through a joint-stock company".[3] In
fricassee, or a ragout.”[1] response, Swift’s Modest Proposal was “a burlesque of
projects concerning the poor”[4] that were in vogue during
In the tradition of Roman satire, Swift introduces the re- the early 18th century.
forms he is actually suggesting by paralipsis:
A Modest Proposal also targets the calculating way
Therefore let no man talk to me of other people perceived the poor in designing their projects.
expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five The pamphlet targets reformers who “regard people as
shillings a pound: Of using neither clothes, commodities”.[5] In the piece, Swift adopts the “tech-
nor household furniture, except what is of our nique of a political arithmetician”[6] to show the utter
own growth and manufacture: Of utterly re- ridiculousness of trying to prove any proposal with dis-
jecting the materials and instruments that pro- passionate statistics.
mote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensive- Critics differ about Swift’s intentions in using this faux-

1
2 4 INFLUENCES

mathematical philosophy. Edmund Wilson argues that similarities between the two situations.[12] Johnson notes
statistically “the logic of the 'Modest proposal' can be Swift’s obvious affinity for Tertullian and the bold stylis-
compared with defense of crime (arrogated to Marx) in tic and structural similarities between the works A Mod-
which he argues that crime takes care of the superfluous est Proposal and Apology.[13] In structure, Johnson points
population”.[6] Wittkowsky counters that Swift’s satiric out the same central theme, that of cannibalism and the
use of statistical analysis is an effort to enhance his satire eating of babies as well as the same final argument, that
that “springs from a spirit of bitter mockery, not from the “human depravity is such that men will attempt to justify
delight in calculations for their own sake”.[7] their own cruelty by accusing their victims of being lower
than human.”[12] Stylistically, Swift and Tertullian share
the same command of sarcasm and language.[12] In agree-
3 Rhetoric ment with Johnson, Donald C. Baker points out the simi-
larity between both authors’ tones and use of irony. Baker
notes the uncanny way that both authors imply an ironic
Charles K. Smith argues that Swift’s rhetorical style per-
“justification by ownership” over the subject of sacrific-
suades the reader to detest the speaker and pity the Irish.
ing children—Tertullian while attacking pagan parents,
Swift’s specific strategy is twofold, using a “trap”[8] to
and Swift while attacking the English mistreatment of the
create sympathy for the Irish and a dislike of the narra-
Irish poor.[14]
tor who, in the span of one sentence, “details vividly and
with rhetorical emphasis the grinding poverty” but feels
emotion solely for members of his own class.[9] Swift’s
use of gripping details of poverty and his narrator’s cool
approach towards them create “two opposing points of
4.2 Defoe’s The Generous Projector
view” that “alienate the reader, perhaps unconsciously,
from a narrator who can view with 'melancholy' detach- It has also been argued that A Modest Proposal was, at
ment a subject that Swift has directed us, rhetorically, toleast in part, a response to the 1728 essay The Gener-
see in a much less detached way.”[9] ous Projector or, A Friendly Proposal to Prevent Murder
and Other Enormous Abuses, By Erecting an Hospital for
Swift has his proposer further degrade the Irish by us- Foundlings and Bastard Children by Swift’s rival Daniel
ing language ordinarily reserved for animals. Lewis ar- Defoe.[15]
gues that the speaker uses “the vocabulary of animal
husbandry”[10] to describe the Irish. Once the children
have been commodified, Swift’s rhetoric can easily turn
“people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically,
4.3 Mandeville’s Modest Defence of Publick
into tonnage worth a price per pound”.[10]
Stews
Swift uses the proposer’s serious tone to highlight the
absurdity of his proposal. In making his argument, the Bernard Mandeville's Modest Defence of Publick Stews
speaker uses the conventional, textbook-approved order asked to introduce public and state controlled bordellos.
of argument from Swift’s time (which was derived from The 1726 paper acknowledges women’s interests and
the Latin rhetorician Quintilian).[11] The contrast be- – while not being a complete satirical text – has been
tween the “careful control against the almost inconceiv- discussed as well as an inspiration for Jonathan Swifts
able perversion of his scheme” and “the ridiculousness of title.[16][17] Mandeville had become famous with the
the proposal” create a situation in which the reader has Fable of The Bees and deliberations on private vices and
“to consider just what perverted values and assumptions public benefits in 1705 already.
would allow such a diligent, thoughtful, and conventional
man to propose so perverse a plan”.[11] John Locke from the First Treatise of Government
“Be it then as Sir Robert says, that Anciently, it was usual
for Men to sell and Castrate their Children. Let it be,
4 Influences that they exposed them; Add to it, if you please, for this
is still greater Power, that they begat them for their Tables
Scholars have speculated about which earlier works Swift to fat and eat them: If this proves a right to do so, we
may have had in mind when he wrote A Modest Proposal. may, by the same Argument, justifie Adultery, Incest and
Sodomy, for there are examples of these too, both An-
cient and Modern; Sins, which I suppose, have the Prin-
4.1 Tertullian’s Apology ciple Aggravation from this, that they cross the main in-
tention of Nature, which willeth the increase of Mankind,
James Johnson argued that A Modest Proposal was largely and the continuation of the Species in the highest perfec-
influenced and inspired by Tertullian's Apology: a satiri- tion, and the distinction of Families, with the Security of
cal attack against early Roman persecution of Christian- the Marriage Bed, as necessary thereunto” (First Treatise,
ity. James William Johnson believes that Swift saw major sec. 59).
 3

5 Economic themes 6 Modern usage

A Modest Proposal is included in many literature pro-
Robert Phiddian’s article “Have you eaten yet? The grams as an example of early modern western satire. It
Reader in A Modest Proposal” focuses on two aspects of also serves as an exceptional introduction to the concept
A Modest Proposal: the voice of Swift and the voice of and use of argumentative language, lending itself well to
the Proposer. Phiddian stresses that a reader of the pam- secondary and post-secondary essay courses. Outside of
phlet must learn to distinguish between the satiric voice the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is a rel-
of Jonathan Swift and the apparent economic projections evant piece included in many comparative and global lit-
of the Proposer. He reminds readers that “there is a gap erature and history courses, as well as those of numerous
between the narrator’s meaning and the text’s, and that a other disciplines in the arts, humanities, and even the so-
moral-political argument is being carried out by means of cial sciences.
parody”.[18]
The essay has been emulated many times. In his book
While Swift’s proposal is obviously not a serious eco- A Modest Proposal (1984), evangelical author Frank
nomic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of “Swift’s Schaeffer emulated Swift’s work in social conserva-
Modest Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian tive polemic against abortion and euthanasia in a future
Pamphlet”, argues that to understand the piece fully, it is dystopia that advocated recycling of aborted embryos and
important to understand the economics of Swift’s time. fetuses, as well as some disabled infants with compound
Wittowsky argues that not enough critics have taken the intellectual, physical and physiological difficulties. (Such
time to focus directly on the mercantilism and theories Baby Doe Rules cases were then a major concern of the
of labour in 18th century England. "[I]f one regards the pro-life movement of the early 1980s, which viewed se-
Modest Proposal simply as a criticism of condition, about lective treatment of those infants as disability discrimina-
all one can say is that conditions were bad and that Swift’s tion.) In his book A Modest Proposal for America (2013),
irony brilliantly underscored this fact”.[19] statistician Howard Friedman opens with a satirical re-
flection of the extreme drive to fiscal stability by ultra-
conservatives.
A Modest Video Game Proposal is the title of an open
letter sent by activist/former attorney Jack Thompson on
5.1 “People are the riches of a nation” October 10, 2005. He proposed that, if someone could
“create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in
2006” that allows players to play the scenario he has writ-
At the start of a new industrial age in the 18th century, it ten, in which the character kills video game developers.[1]
was believed that “people are the riches of the nation”, Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in America:
and there was a general faith in an economy that paid The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, which con-
its workers low wages because high wages meant work- tains hundreds of private letters written by Thompson
ers would work less.[20] Furthermore, “in the mercantilist over the years, contains a letter in which he uses A Mod-
view no child was too young to go into industry”. In those est Proposal's satire technique against the Vietnam War.
times, the “somewhat more humane attitudes of an ear- Thompson writes a letter to a local Aspen newspaper in-
lier day had all but disappeared and the laborer had come forming them that, on Christmas Eve, he was going to
to be regarded as a commodity”.[18] use napalm to burn a number of dogs and hopefully any
Louis A. Landa presents Swift’s A Modest Proposal as a humans they find. This letter protests against the burning
critique of the popular and unjustified maxim of mer- of Vietnamese people occurring overseas.
cantilism in the 18th century that “people are the riches The 2012 film Butcher Boys, written by The Texas Chain
of a nation”.[21] Swift presents the dire state of Ireland Saw Massacre co-scribe Kim Henkel, is said to be loosely
and shows that mere population itself, in Ireland’s case, based on Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. The film’s
did not always mean greater wealth and economy.[22] opening scene takes place in a restaurant named “J.
The uncontrolled maxim fails to take into account that Swift’s.”
a person who does not produce in an economic or po-
litical way makes a country poorer, not richer.[22] Swift
also recognises the implications of such a fact in mak-
ing mercantilist philosophy a paradox: the wealth of a 7 Notes
country is based on the poverty of the majority of its
citizens.[22] Swift however, Landa argues, is not merely [1] “A Modest Proposal, by Dr. Jonathan Swift”. Project
criticising economic maxims but also addressing the fact Gutenberg. 27 July 2008. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
that England was denying Irish citizens their natural rights [2] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p76
and dehumanising them by viewing them as a mere
commodity.[22] [3] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p85
4 9 EXTERNAL LINKS

[4] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p88 • Smith, Charles Kay (1968), “Toward a Participa-
tory Rhetoric: Teaching Swift’s Modest Proposal",
[5] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p101 College English, National Council of Teachers of
[6] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p95 English, 30 (2): 135–149, doi:10.2307/374449,
JSTOR 374449
[7] Wittkowsky, Swift’s Modest Proposal, p98
• Wittkowsky, George (1943), “Swift’s Modest Pro-
[8] Smith, Toward a Participatory Rhetoric, p. 135 posal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pam-
phlet”, Journal of the History of Ideas, Uni-
[9] Smith, Toward a Participatory Rhetoric, p. 136 versity of Pennsylvania Press, 4 (1): 75–104,
[10] Smith, Toward a Participatory Rhetoric, p. 138 doi:10.2307/2707237, JSTOR 2707237

[11] Smith, Toward a Participatory Rhetoric, p. 139

[12] Johnson, Tertullian and A Modest Proposal, p563

9 External links
[13] Johnson, Tertullian and A Modest Proposal, p562 • A Modest Proposal (CELT)
[14] Baker, Tertullian and Swift’s A Modest Proposal, p219 • A Modest Proposal (Gutenberg)
[15] Waters, Juliet (19 February 2009). “A modest but failed • A Modest Proposal - Annotated text aligned to Com-
proposal”. Montreal Mirror. Retrieved 10 January 2012. mon Core Standards
[16] Eine Streitschrift…, Essay von Ursula Pia Jauch. Carl • A Modest Proposal public domain audiobook at
Hanser Verlag, München 2001. LibriVox
[17] Primer, I. (2006-03-15). Bernard Mandeville’s “A Mod- • A Modest Proposal BBC Radio 4 In Our Time with
est Defence of Publick Stews": Prostitution and Its Dis- Melvyn Bragg
contents in Early Georgian England. Springer. ISBN
9781403984609. • 'A modest proposal For preventing the children of
poor people From being a Burthen to their Parents
[18] Phiddian, Have You Eaten Yet?, p6
or the Country, And for making them Beneficial to
[19] Phiddian, Have You Eaten Yet?, p3 the publick. The Third Edition, Dublin, Printed:
And Reprinted at London, for Weaver Bickerton, in
[20] Phiddian, Have You Eaten Yet?, p4 Devereux-Court near the Middle-Temple, 1730.
[21] Landa, A Modest Proposal and Populousness, p161

[22] Landa, A Modest Proposal and Populousness, p165

8 References
• Baker, Donald C (1957), “Tertullian and Swift’s A
Modest Proposal", The Classical Journal, 52: 219–
220

• Johnson, James William (1958), “Tertullian and A

Modest Proposal", Modern Language and Notes, The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 73 (8): 561–563,
doi:10.2307/3043246, JSTOR 3043246 (subscrip-
tion needed)

• Landa, Louis A (1942), "A Modest Proposal and

Populousness”, Modern Philology, 40 (2): 161–170,
doi:10.1086/388567

• Phiddian, Robert (1996), “Have You Eaten Yet?

The Reader in A Modest Proposal", Studies in En-
glish Literature, 1500–1900, Rice University, 36
(3): 603–621, doi:10.2307/450801, hdl:2328/746
, JSTOR 450801
 5

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