Eating Infants: Swift's Satirical Solution

Jonathan Swift, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1667, is a well-known English satirist. Swift is best recognized for his works that criticize social, political, and religious issues of the day. Swift was born in Dublin but frequently visited England since he felt exiled in Ireland. Although he felt closer to England when his life was examined, he voiced his views on England's colonization of Ireland and his opinion of England's issues in various writings, using harsh and amusing language. He frequently dealt with his point of view on real-life situations in a witty and often ironic style, using harsh satire as a writing language. His satirical essay A Modest Proposal, often regarded as his last primary production and published in 1729, deals with 18th-century England and the social, political, and religious difficulties, as well as England's attitude towards Ireland, in a hilarious but bitter tone. Swift makes a modest proposal in A Modest Proposal to alleviate the problem of poverty and overpopulation in Ireland, his birthplace, by selling infants as food to the wealthy. The relation of A Modest Proposal to its period's social and political context will be discussed in this essay.

The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England. England saw numerous economic, social, and political transformations due to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution resulted in the establishment of many diverse industries, the expansion of cities, and the rise of the middle class through commerce. With the growth of the middle class came intense competition between two political parties with opposing values, the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs ruled as long as they represented landowners and the middle class.

While the 18th century was a period of increased progress and power in England, it was not the same in Ireland. Ireland saw significant political and social turmoil in the 18th century. Ireland, which had long been exploited, desperately needed food. The Irish faced discrimination and exploitation due to the British in power's apparent disregard for them. The powerless Irish government and the Catholics were struggling, many of whom were prohibited from doing business. The dismal status of Ireland ultimately resulted in rebellions, which the British suppressed.

(An Irish peasant cabin. circa 1840)

Jonathan Swift made this idea in response to Ireland's poor and economic difficulties and England's failure to solve any of these issues. Due to England's taxation, those who were poor faced even more significant challenges and could not obtain money or food to feed themselves. As a result, as Swift writes in the first paragraph, the people of Dublin had devolved into begging everyone who came by. Other than begging, the only options were stealing or fleeing the country. Beggars, according to Swift, were usually women. Although men could somehow work, women could not work. As a result, women were forced to beg or sell their bodies for money to feed themselves or their children. These lower-class children, according to Swift, were a burden on society (Swift 3). Low-income families were unable to provide anything for these children, including food. As a result, when these youngsters grew up, they became robbers, fled their homeland for war, or worked as enslaved people for money. Although these stray children may not appear that bad initially, Swift estimates that roughly 120,000 children from disadvantaged homes are born in Ireland yearly (Swift 5). Given their identical futures, the idea that they will all become thieves sounds particularly bad for the country's future. More children and more laborers could not exist at the time. Laborers worked long hours in horrible conditions, and how productive would it be for these hungry people to work long hours?

(A Modest Proposal, by Travis Floyd)

As was already said, this idea will make it such that kids are no longer a financial burden on society. Swift believes that to relieve society of this burden, the plan should encompass not only the children of beggars but also all children without support. The author also likens children and mothers to farm animals by saying, "... a Child, just drop from its Dam...". These poor children are breastfed like farm animals for the first year of their lives but are then left on their own due to poverty and famine. Therefore, another advantage of selling children for food, as Swift suggested, is that it avoids the costs of raising children and the social stigma associated with childbearing out of wedlock (Swift 3). Swift also indicates that in the period, women discreetly disposed of their babies by noting that he believed these two reasons were the basis for women's self-induced abortions, or, as he puts it, "the horrible practice of women killing their bastard children." (Swift 4). While England was the exploiter, it has thus far been proven to be the guilty party, but Jonathan Swift also satirizes Ireland's lack of interest. The reason Swift's proposal is not all that surprising to society is because Ireland has been exploited for a long time and has been used to the misery that everyone has been through all this time.

He exposes the rich's cruelty and exploitation of the poor by impersonating an economist and suggesting that Irish families sell their children to the landlords who own them. Swift claims in this section, where the main satire is utilized that these landlords have already exploited Irish parents enough and use the sale of infants to them to demonstrate the greed of the rich. He further claims that by eating and limiting the number of infants, they will diminish the number of Catholics in Ireland (Swift 5). The satire here highlights the widespread anti-Catholicism in 18th-century England and Ireland. It exemplifies the ridiculousness of the time's religious feud between Catholics and Protestants. Swift exposes the inhuman treatment of people with low incomes and the irrational prejudices of the ruling class. 

To summarise, A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay that proposes to eat newborns in the hopes of curing society's poverty and starvation by portraying the dreadful conditions of the time horrifyingly for some and hilarious for others. Jonathon Swift's biting satire criticizes 18th-century England's oppression of Ireland. The idea that eating infants will solve Ireland's problems, which England overlooks, such as the children of low-income families due to political tensions and economic challenges, is hilarious.

Works Cited

Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. BuK, 2005.