Jonathan Swift 1667-1745

Jonathan Swift 1667-1745

Biography • Born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 • Always a kind of displaced person – an Englishman by blood living among Irishmen, an Anglican by choice surrounded by Roman Catholics or, in his own diocese, Presbyterians • Had an ominous start to life when he was snatched from his cradle by a loving but misguided nurse. He remained separated from his mother for three years • Studied at Trinity University, Dublin’s great Protestant university

• He worked as the Tory party’s chief propagandist • Installed as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1713

• 1720- Began to engage himself more vigorously in Irish causes, as a reluctant Irish patriot. As he wrote to Alexander Pope: “What I do is owing to perfect rage and resentment, and the mortifying sight of slavery, folly, and baseness about me, among which I am forced to live.” • His task was an exasperating one of rousing a people to look after its own interests • The causes he took up and shouldered throughout the remainder of his productive life were mainly: 1) the improvement of Irish agriculture and manufacture and the encouragement of home consumption, 2) the protection of the currency against the threats of devaluation from English coinages, 3) the protection of the rights of the clergy, and 4) the care of the poor.

Works • Most famous – and best – of his nationalistic essays: 1) The Drapier’s Letters (1724-25); 2) A Modest Proposal (1729) The condition of Ireland must have been a primary inspiration for his monumental satire on intellectual, moral, and spiritual subservience, Gulliver’s Travels.

A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal • The author assumes the persona of a political economic planner whose attitudes reflect the very evils he proposes to remedy by his “project.” • The full title is: Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burthen [sic] to Their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick.

Swift’s Satire • Swift is a Juvenalian satirist. • Juvenal is a Roman satirist who wrote at end of the first century AD. • Juvenal and Swift are misanthropic satirists who feel that evil is rooted in man’s nature and the structure of society. • The misanthropic satirist finds life not comic but contemptible.

A Modest Proposal • Not a single sentence deviates from the essay’s bitter tone • Its persuasive power lies in its irrefutable indictment of Irish and English indifference and sheer folly in the face of unspeakable injustice and misery • Its immediate attraction is its wildly original and creative idea

Ironic Persona • Swift employs a narrator whose views are obviously antithetical to his own. • Swift’s intended audience: 1)primarily the Protestant Ascendancy of which he is a member; 2) the English legislators, landlords, and, 3) economic apologists; 4) the Irish commoners who, if we view Swift as an angry preacher, are being scolded for their sloth, stupidity, and wanton behavior

Historical Parallel • An actual plan to solve Ireland’s problems was suggested by Irish patriot, Colonel Edward Despard. • Despard suggested that he could solve the country’s problems through a separation of the sexes. • Swift satirically proposed that the Irish institute a system of regulated cannibalism. • Despard very seriously proposed racial suicide, which, had it been instituted, would have eliminated the entire Irish population in a few short generations. • In Colonel Despard’s suggestion, what had been ironic in Swift became theoretical truth, for it was seriously proposed.