Satirical Devices
This device is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
What is Irony?
The "Proposal" suggests that poor Irish mothers sell their children at this age.
What is One year old?
The "Proposal" is primarily directed at the callous indifference of the wealthy landlords from this country.
What is England?
This is the specific literary term for the mask or invented character through whom an author speaks in a work like "A Modest Proposal."
What is a Persona?
Jonathan Swift was a prominent writer during this 18th-century intellectual movement.
What is the Enlightenment (or Age of Reason)?
This extreme exaggeration is used in satire to ridicule or emphasize a point.
What is Hyperbole?
Swift's persona claims that his proposal would solve the problems of the Irish poor and their landlords, as well as this social problem related to marriage.
What is Domestic Abuse (or Wife Beating)?
Swift is criticizing the Enlightenment trend of relying purely on cold, impersonal logic and this mathematical approach to solve complex human issues.
What is Calculus (or Statistical Analysis)?
The narrator's tone is characterized as impersonal, detached, and primarily this, given his focus on economic statistics.
What is Clinical (or Statistical)?
Swift uses the language and structure of these common documents to create the format for his essay.
What are Pamphlets (or Political Tracts)?
This device involves minimizing or downplaying something significant to make a point, such as suggesting the consumption of infants is merely a "modest" solution.
What is Understatement?
This nation is the primary target of the narrator's economic "solution" and Swift's political frustration.
What is Ireland?
The narrator expresses frustration with the poor people of Ireland who insist on continuing this activity despite their hardship.
What is Breeding (having children)?
The narrator claims that adopting his idea would lead to an increase in this common trade or business in the country.
What is Tavern-keeping (or Butchering)?
This earlier satirical work by Swift features travelers who visit lands of tiny people and giants.
What is Gulliver's Travels?
The satirist presents the outrageous or absurd as reasonable and logical, using this device, which Swift employs throughout the "Proposal."
What is Verisimilitude?
The speaker of the essay is identified only as a political arithmetician but is usually assumed to be of this profession.
What is an Economist (or Planner)?
Swift satirizes the policies of the British government that encouraged this practice, resulting in Irish farmers not owning their land.
What is Absentee Landlordism?
The speaker establishes his ethos by proclaiming his lack of this, claiming he has nothing to gain from the proposal.
What is Self-Interest (or Motive)?
"A Modest Proposal" is a prime example of a speculative essay, though it is ultimately a dark, sarcastic commentary on this subject.
What is Political Economy?
This is a technique where a satirist presents a serious argument that relies on a single, shocking, and unacceptable premise.
What is a Logical Fallacy (or False Premise)?
This is the primary social or religious group in Ireland whose extreme poverty the "Proposal" purports to address.
Who are the Catholics (or Papists)?
Beyond the English, Swift also criticizes the Irish people themselves for being passive and for failing to implement his real, sensible suggestions, such as using only local goods, known as this.
What is Buying Irish (or Self-Sufficiency)?
The persona insists that his plan is superior to the idea of selling children at age nine because that idea came from this foreign "savage" group.
What are the Americans (or Indians)?
Swift's work belongs to this literary movement, which valued reason, order, structure, and used classical forms to comment on society.
What is Neoclassicism?