Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' offers a biting critique of the socio-economic conditions in 18th-century Ireland, where the plight of the impoverished is laid bare through a grotesque suggestion: to alleviate poverty by consuming the children of the poor.
“It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms.”
“I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance.”
“Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings neat profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.”
Swift opens with a poignant description of Dublin's streets, teeming with beggars and their ragged children. His words evoke a deep sense of melancholy, illustrating the…
At the heart of Swift's essay is his proposal to sell impoverished children as a food source for the wealthy. This suggestion is deliberately shocking, designed to provok…
Jonathan Swift has 2 works free to read on Lumina, including Gulliver's Travels.
All 2 books by Jonathan Swift →Worlds to get lost in
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