50 pages 1 hour read

Jonathan Swift

A Modest Proposal

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1729

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Literary Devices

Satire

In the modern Western world, Jonathan Swift is virtually synonymous with satire, a literary form and device that uses wit and irony to mock public figures or societal conventions. In the case of A Modest Proposal, Swift adopts the persona of a heartless and out-of-touch Anglo-Irish elite who contends that eating infants is the solution to poverty in Ireland. Although the narrator’s identity is not revealed, Swift models his rhetoric and argumentative techniques on several influential economic thinkers including William Petty. The success of the satire relies on Swift’s ability to create ironic distance between the narrator’s attitudes and Swift’s own beliefs. Although the satire is presented in a straight and deadpan manner, Swift easily signals his intent through the sheer absurdity of his premise.

Paralipsis

Paralipsis is a device in which a writer or speaker argues a point while professing to deny its relevance or importance. Swift uses this device to great effect late in the essay when the narrator writes, “Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients” (57), before launching into a list of far more sensible reforms that Swift himself likely supports.

Related Titles

By Jonathan Swift

Study Guide

logo

A Description of a City Shower

Jonathan Swift

A Description of a City Shower

Jonathan Swift

Study Guide

logo

A Tale Of A Tub

Jonathan Swift

A Tale Of A Tub

Jonathan Swift

Study Guide

logo

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.

Jonathan Swift