Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a problem itself until the reader realizes that this is one of the first and greatest ironic essays from the Age of Reason that aimed to criticize the British hegemonic groups. However, there are some issues in the text that can be easily questioned. First of all, Swift refers to women and their children always in a diminishing way by calling them “an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs” and he also says that Dublin streets “are crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger,” as if men were not also part of the poor people living and asking for help in the streets. Then, it is clear that his real concern were not children for they seem to be only the excuse to create the irony against the “fine gentlemen,” and that the real purpose was to raise awareness towards poverty in Ireland in general. In addition, it can be argued that this proposal promotes abortion somehow. “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that will prevent those voluntary abortions and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! Too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes.” Since the essay is completely ironic, the way in which he refers to children and the overpopulation leads to the idea that he is criticizing the Catholic Church that ruled in Ireland and that prohibits abortion until nowadays. Finally, the fact that Swift provides statistical evidence from his own analysis makes the text less reliable and fails in its attempt. In other words, the text is a great piece that certainly criticizes the cruel high classes in an ironic way, but that also presents some problems in how Swift refers to people and how he wrote the essay.
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a problem itself until the reader realizes that this is one of the first and greatest ironic essays from the Age of Reason that aimed to criticize the British hegemonic groups. However, there are some issues in the text that can be easily questioned. First of all, Swift refers to women and their children always in a diminishing way by calling them “an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs” and he also says that Dublin streets “are crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger,” as if men were not also part of the poor people living and asking for help in the streets. Then, it is clear that his real concern were not children for they seem to be only the excuse to create the irony against the “fine gentlemen,” and that the real purpose was to raise awareness towards poverty in Ireland in general. In addition, it can be argued that this proposal promotes abortion somehow. “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that will prevent those voluntary abortions and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! Too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes.” Since the essay is completely ironic, the way in which he refers to children and the overpopulation leads to the idea that he is criticizing the Catholic Church that ruled in Ireland and that prohibits abortion until nowadays. Finally, the fact that Swift provides statistical evidence from his own analysis makes the text less reliable and fails in its attempt. In other words, the text is a great piece that certainly criticizes the cruel high classes in an ironic way, but that also presents some problems in how Swift refers to people and how he wrote the essay.
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