Research Paper on:
Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
scathingly ironic suggestion that the children of the Irish poor be sold as food to the wealthy, thus turning an economic burden to general profit. In fact, the full  title of the work was "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland from being a Burden to their Parents or Country; and for making them  beneficial to the Publick." The work did not attract immediate attention for its Irish orientation. Jonathan Swift embraced the concerns of the Irish reluctantly and his later works and letters  represented an attempt to repair the complaint of his Irish exile by insisting that he was addressing the world, not just Ireland. When  "A Modest Proposal" is examined in the framework of the Enlightenment, contemporary readers can easily ascertain that Swifts intent was to present a new vision of a world in  which his contemporaries assumed their personal right to dominate those lesser that themselves. Prior to what is generally thought of as the "Age of Enlightenment," the consideration of others  as equal entities had not been taken into account. Swift took what was relatively commonplace British colonial policy and carried it to its inevitable conclusion, recommending that since the conquerors  have consumed the island and its resources, it could pursue a useful policy for dealing with Irish children by butchering them and turning them into table meat for British dining  (Contemporary Womens Database 31). The Framework of "A Modest Proposal" and The Enlightenment "A Modest Proposal," is often considered to be Swifts most formidable use of both sarcasm and  irony. But when modern critics take into account the persona of Swift, as well as the period in which it was written, one can prove that through that same use