Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal In Neoclassical Literature

Improved Essays
2016
A Modest Proposal in Neoclassical Literature
A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay which was written by an author, Jonathan Swift in 1729. The essay criticizes the economy and culture of English and Irish in the eighteenth century. The purpose of the essay is to address the seriousness of the social concern and problems in Irish. The author Swift uses literary techniques, irony and satire, to maximize the seriousness in Irish. The literary techniques are also used as a method that clearly deliver the author’s perspective on the social issue of Irish. A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift, has the neoclassical literature style that the author use sardonic and ironic criticism to satirize and expose depictions of social environment
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In Ireland, there is nothing to do for the poor women to survive except begging for their helpless infant. The author tries to depict the pitiful life for the poor people through the essay. However, he portrays them in a completely different way. The author Swift uses ironic literary technique to expose a wretched life of poor Irish people. Even though the actual life of Irish poor people was painful, he describes the poor people as a great grievance for the country. He uses the irony technique to maximize criticism of Ireland economy. The author’s writing skill, which use ironic literary device, is a characteristic of Neoclassical literature. The Neoclassicism authors usually use two main literary devices, irony and satire, to criticize the politics and economy. Therefore, Jonathan Swift’s essay, A Modest Proposal, is considered as Neoclassicism literature. He also gave statistical information to show how many children could not be reared or provided by their parents. According to his data, twenty thousand children and their poor parents are suffering from the hungers in …show more content…
During this period, poor people in Ireland are suffering from the economic crisis and irresponsible government. The author wants to deliver the horrendous environment of his country by using the neoclassical literature styles. Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay successfully conveys the depiction of social environment, horrendous economic condition and incompetent Irish government by neoclassical literature styles, using irony and satire to criticize the Irish

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