Response
to Swift Essay
The corner on Anglesea Street is littered with papers,
books and pamphlets as the gentlewoman clutches at the stacks on her way to the
cobblestones. Passers-by dive to catch her and prevent her from injury or at
the very least from soiling her fine clothing with Dublin’s filth. They are
un-aware of the cause of her fainting, yet it is still clutched within her
silk-gloved hand. A literary work so heinous
and disgusting that it has brought about similar responses everywhere it’s read.
This work, published under a pseudonym, proposes the sale of the emerald isle’s
impoverished children for the purpose of cannibalism. This was to address the
overpopulation of the poor Irish people and to benefit the general society as a
whole. Through his 1729 satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” Jonathan Swift
is quite effective in his attempt to prompt his contemporaries to re-assess
their opinions on many social conditions. Can we surmise that the mere shock of the
public at large was the intended purpose of this work?
The answer would be both yes and no. Initially any reader
of the text would be drawn in by being made aware of the current plight of
those less fortunate. Swift is clever in this tactic by delaying his shocking solution
by a few paragraphs of seemingly harmless prose. He addresses his audience from
the authority of his pseudonym of which he claims to be a doctor. Many similar
writings of that period began in the same tone and addressed the exact same
issues but none in the way in which Swift crafted. By this I believe we can assume the authors of
such text were among his intended audiences. He may very well have aimed at
shaming them as well as their solutions as inadequate or maybe condescending
toward the peoples they intended to aid, the Irish. His audience included the
English themselves as well as Irish society as he lived in both and was very
familiar with the predatory relationship which existed between the two
cultures. What social conditions existed in that period which pleaded for such
a harsh rebuke by Swift?
England was notoriously oppressing the Irish peoples in
many ways at this time. Swift addressed them
personally when he wrote, "For this kind of commodity will not bear
exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long
continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be
glad to eat up our whole nation without it." Also the economic conditions
within Ireland did perpetuate a cycle of poverty that he was personally witness
to. One only had to walk the same streets he did to be acutely made aware of their
plight. There existed the stereotype of the Irish poor as thieves which he
alludes to by twice mentioning the sentiment within the text. There existed a predatory
relationship between landlords of the time and their victims; the tenants. A
close reading and attention to subtleties within the pamphlet give light to the
religious disparities between Catholic Ireland and Protestant England just as
the news of today does: some things never change. Can we therefore surmise that
Swift was effective at addressing his audience(s) whatever their position
within these social contexts?
From the woman of wealth fainted on Anglesea Road, to the
Landlords who preyed upon their tenants, from the English policymakers who were
much to blame, from the clergy of both sides to the condescending authors of
segmented “solutions” who missed their
marks; Swift by choosing such a tone in his prose met his. He got the attention
of all humanity in that region, regardless of class, in a profound way which
caused quite a stir, thus more conversation on the problems but I think
ultimately towards solutions and remedies. Consider the fact that we are here
almost three hundred years later talking about his tactics, aims and success. Can we identify any of the common rhetorical
tools in the Essay by Mr. Swift?
Of course we can! Being well trained in these classical
appeals, the author employs many of the agents of Aristotle toward his aim. By
relying on the false credibility of a fictitious doctor right on the front
cover of the pamphlet the author has employed the common rhetorical tool of ethos.
He has taken on the “cloak” of credibility by deceiving his audience into think
that he is qualified to speak on such matters. The most obvious appeal in the
text is the emotional one, or in other words; pathos. We feel our emotions
range from sympathy for the impoverished, to horror at the proposed solution;
to anger at the arrogance of the narrator. All examples of the author’s
intended use of the common rhetorical tool pathos. Beyond rhetorical devices are there other
literary methods at work here?
Yes, satire, More precisely Juvenalian satire. Abrasive
and contemptuous in nature, this method juxtaposes the decency or sense of
right order against the alternative producing what I think is a more effective
shock to the reader, Swift does not wish for a passive audience. He desires
action as a result of his work. He proposes an absurd and outright morbid
solution to the problems to propel the reader to ask him/herself what might be
a viable one and then hopefully act in some productive way.
From Anglesea Road 1729 to Downing Street London, from
Broadway in the USA and even in this day and age: the use of satire to engage
one’s audience can be a very effective literary method. Jonathan Swift did
everything right, and in such a profound way that we are discussing and
learning from his writings today three hundred years later. He affected his
audience by causing their collective jaws to drop aghast………just ask the woman
down on Anglesea Road…….that is, when she regains consciousness.
