A Modest Proposal by Swift - Essay Example

During Swift’s era in Ireland, the Irish were being suppressed by England and a minority Irish Protestant population. This elite rule held the majority of Ireland in dire poverty. The majority of Irish were Catholic, but laws were put into place revoking the right for a Catholic to vote, own property, or have weapons (Baker 1999).

There were no jobs due to repressive English laws on export according to Baker (1999). Baker (1999) explains Navigation Acts, The Cattle Acts, and The Woolen Acts put the majority of the Irish economy at a standstill. The only way to make money was to beg or steal. Many poor married women had large families to feed. This was a burden on both the husband and wife.

Swift wrote about this proposal to show that England and the minority Irish Protestants would not allow any reasonable solution. The English did not care if Irish babies died. He put the theory out to show how ridiculous the English laws had impacted the Irish people. Instead of slowly starving babies and the poor through reasonable laws, why did the English not outright kill the infants? That was the goal in the end. While Swift’s proposal was barbaric, the situation in 18th-century Ireland was equally barbaric. Swift just ripped the façade off the situation with his modest proposal.