jonathan swift a modest proposal english edition

He also wrote it as a reaction to a colonial Not write A Modest Proposal simply to expose the cruelty of leaving Of course, the lunacy of a society that leaves the poor to starve isĬlear to most readers of A Modest Proposal. And each proposal was ignored or shot down by Each proposal had at one time or another been proposedīy the Anglo-Irish elite.

To solve Ireland’s poverty problems are embedded towards the close of A They could solve all of Ireland’s problems. The Anglo-Irish believed that if England just got out of their way, The meddling left the Anglo-Irish unable to The United Kingdom, and the government back in London constantly meddled

Were not free to rule Ireland however they pleased. While the Anglo-Irish were the most powerful people in Ireland, they Patrick’s Cathedral that Irish Catholics were uncivilised and ignorant. In fact, Swift believed that the poor’s problems were largely the result of their own shortcomings. Like most of the Anglo-Irish, Swift was no friend of Ireland’s poor Catholic majority. Jonathan Swift was a member of the Anglo-Irish ruling class.

husbands would treat their wives better because child-rearing held the potential for an “annual profit instead of expense.”.

a new national dish would induce tavern keepers to create innovative recipes and make them “as expensive as they please” and.

the poor would gain from the sale of their children and “be rid of the charge of maintaining them”.

The tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom” would circulate

children could be “liable to distress,” meaning they could be used to pay rent to landlords Īddition to freeing up £50,000 of government money that would otherwiseīe used to support the poor, “the profit of a new dish introduced to.

This wouldĮncourage the return of wealthy Protestant Anglo-Irish landowners fromĮngland, who had left Ireland rather than “pay tithes against their

eating children would reduce the Catholic population.

Something unthinkable: have poor Irish families-who mostly wereĬatholic-sell their children to the rich to be eaten. A Modest Proposal made a rational economic argument to propose

Jonathan swift a modest proposal english edition