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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Women as Livestock:
While the primary targets of the Proposer's dehumanizing language are Irish children, the impoverished mothers of those children are treated with the same indignity. Throughout "A Modest Proposal," the Proposer refers to women as livestock, using the term "breeding" to describe human reproduction. This motif often coincides with the use of statistics:
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about 200,000 couple whose wives are breeders.
In the above passage, the Proposer reveals that he considers women no better than cattle: a resource, to be controlled and regulated like any other. Their value is linked to their ability to reproduce—a reality already faced by women in Swift's society that would be further reinforced by child cannibalism. This motif generates irony within the essay because the Proposer's stated purpose is to alleviate human suffering but his proposal further dehumanizes those he intends to help.
The Proposer takes this a step further, claiming that men would care more deeply for their wives and not abuse them because of this added reproductive value:
Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.
This motif illuminates the plight of working-class women, who were in this period often valued only for their ability to reproduce the laborers that society required (and exploited) in order to function.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Abortion and Cannibalism:
Before he outlines in explicit terms the violent nature of his solution, the Proposer describes the types of violence he wishes to circumvent: namely, women aborting the unborn and murdering their bastard children. The Proposer clearly describes this violence in an attempt to generate pathos and make readers sympathetic to his cause and proposed solution:
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas, too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.
As with the two other rhetorical devices (logos and ethos) that the Proposer employs, the pathos in this passage is a flimsily-executed facade. The Proposer identifies murder as a "horrid practice" but proceeds to undermine this moral appeal throughout the rest of "A Modest Proposal." This particular passage immediately precedes the Proposer's suggestion of infant cannibalism as a realistic solution, which is equally if not more violent—and stigmatized—than abortion or the murder of bastard children. This reality introduces an element of verbal irony to the above passage, since the language and pathos condemn the Proposer's solution despite being put forward as justification for it, ultimately making it clear to astute readers that he's not being serious.
Related Themes:
