“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Words mentioned by the writer Jonathan Swift in his book called Gulliver’s Travels. However, this is going to be focused on his other popular handiwork called A Modest Proposal, in which we can observe how he is able to see the unseen and critiques the wealthy through it. Swift was born in Ireland in 1667, and thanks to his job as private secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired Whig diplomat, at Moor Park in southern England he…
of United Kingdom while the nationalists wanted to join the Republic of Ireland. The Catholic in Ireland felt discriminated against by the Protestant majority who made up most of parliament. The conflict began in 1968 and ended in 1998. First, Irish people rioted against British rule, and eventually parted from them creating the Republic of Ireland. Then, the Catholic in Northern Ireland, which continued under British rule, faced heavy discrimination. For example, the Catholic were offered…
Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” uncovers the laxity of British and Irish Gentry towards the increasing poverty in Ireland and the exploitation of the Irish. With its metaphors that depicts cannibalism as an acceptable solution to hunger, ‘modest’ can only be seen as an euphemism for this egregious suggestion. This satire dictates an economically insightful proposal that alleviate poor parents of their ‘bastard children’. As a result of this proposal, the outcome suggests to hinder children…
in Ireland separation talk was very common, but this was 10 years before any form of revolution away from England took place. Lady Gregory was a major supporter of Irish separation and the promotion of Irish culture. Most of her plays reflected this. The rising of the moon was no exception, and even the title comes from a rebel Irish song. The play contains a lot of symbolism, and the character themselves represent her views on the struggle in Ireland. The ballad singer is free-spirited, happy,…
“America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts” (Madison, James). Immigration has been around for centuries, from Christopher Columbus coming to the new world and even in the present days. America has changed throughout the years by immigrants from around the world. For example, America has increased in population, new foods have been introduced, and…
satirical genre in order to negatively exaggerate the presence of Britain colonizers, as well as his use of repetition of the suffix (ing) serve to urge the Irish people into making immediate individualistic changes , in addition; his simultaneous use of syntax (long sentence structure) mimic the overbearing struggle and exhaustion that is felt by the Irish. Thus Swift empowers the Irishmen and critiques the unjust English repression of them. Swift utilizes a satirical genre of an exaggeration…
Ezra Pound eloquently highlights the overall impact Thomas MacDonagh had on Irish literature during his short life. Pound states that MacDonagh’s ‘loss is a loss to both Ireland and to literature, and it is a loss bound to be felt as his work becomes more widely known’. He was born in 1878 in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary to a father from Roscommon and a mother from Dublin, both school teachers. Both his family life and the influence of his parents are key to understanding the shape his life took…
explicitly discuss political issues, but rather to allude to the past to understand the present. As a native from Northern Ireland, politics did, however, affect Heaney’s life inexorably as it did with many in the political and sectarian strife between Irish nationalists and British unionists during The Troubles in the 1970s. Though tension between the two sides did culminate and explode in the form of violence during this period of time, the underlying reasons for The Troubles may have had to…
anglicizing the Irish names of the places. The major theme of the play is language, and more specifically how the loss of a language can also help erase people’s history, culture and identity. In the 1800s Ireland was still a predominantly Gaelic-speaking nation. In 1975, only 2.7% of Irish speakers possessed a native speaker ability and about 80% were found to be indifferent towards the language (Brannigan, 71). Friel’s play offers us a glimpse of how this enormous decline of Irish occurred.…
Satire is used in literature to criticize and point out society’s flaws. The criticism is usually masked in humour. Irony is commonly used in satires to expose flaws, an effective example is John Smith’s A Modest Proposal, in this essay he effectively uses irony, to communicate his argument about the poverty in Ireland. Similarly, in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale she criticizes the society that women live in. Atwood uses satire to display the oppression of women in political, religious…