Satirist Jonathan Swift, in his comedic yet poignant essay “A Modest Proposal,” strongly

criticizes the British Parliament. Swift’s purpose is to question the Parliament itself and to

highlight flaws in the kingdom’s society. He adopts a satirical and melodramatic tone to appeal

to pathos and his audience’s common sense by exposing how absurd the rejection of his earliest

proposals is in comparison to his most recent.

First and foremost, Swift exposes the Parliament as being absurd, idiotic and somewhat

pointless. Near line 115, after proposing that the edible children could substitute deer meat, Swift

assures that his proposal is well intended however cruel it may appear. The irony behind his

words is meant to portray any Parliament member seriously considering his modest proposal as

utterly gullible and idiotic, and ultimately to confirm the Parliament’s ridiculousness.

Furthermore, Swift admits himself that the modest proposal is exaggerated and meant to call out

the Parliament, Between lines 180 and 200, after fully proposing his argument, Swift lists every

other sane proposal he has made using anaphora, to prove the Parliament’s inefficiency, by

making a preposterous proposal and juxtaposing it with real, functional proposals. Finally, he

attacks politicians in general. To finish his essay, Swift points out that none of the proposed

policies will affect him personally. This final statement, based on him being a Parliament

member and in the absurdness of his proposal, criticizes lawmakers who apathetically make

inhumane laws so long as the legislature does not affect them.

Secondly and in a slightly more tacit manner, Swift criticizes British society, both the

general discrimination and attitudes of the average Englishman as well as specific social groups.
Throughout the text, he employs an animalistic diction when referring to the Irish to extrapolate

the existing subconscious comparison. Swift refers to the corpses of the Irish children as

carcasses and uses terms as “breeders” when mentioning them. He takes to an extreme and very

blatant analogy when comparing children to roasted pigs in how they should be bought and

consumed. Moreover, he criticizes landlords and ladies who flaunt fortune they haven’t earned

themselves (that is presumably inherited from their families), he criticizes the British elite. Each

group is criticized differently: the landlords are portrayed as monsters as the author uses a double

entendre with the word devour to both refer to how landlords took everything from Irish parents

and to how they would gladly eat children, comparing both acts exposing them as equally crude

and inhuman. His critic to the aforementioned ladies, however, is a bit more cryptic and less

direct: he compares them to Irish, saying they should be treated similarly to Irish children (be

sold and eaten, that is). Even though Swift’s words don’t represent his actual beliefs, he plays off

the preexisting discrimination and by comparing a certain group with Irish people, he subtly

makes his audience repel and disapprove of the action of whatever group. In his essay, he makes

an allusion to a story Salmanaazor told his friend about a young girl eaten in a big banquet

thrown by the emperor shortly after the traitor attempted to poison him, finally affirming that the

kingdom would be better off if these ladies met the same fate.

Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal” presents how flawed the British Parliament and

society are. He explores every nook and cranny of the era’s society and exposes every

imperfection hidden under the facade of progress and wealth of the British Empire.