Jonathan Swift's Satirical Masterpieces: A Modest Proposal & Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift's Satirical Masterpieces

A Modest Proposal

First published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729, A Modest Proposal is a powerful satirical essay. Swift provocatively suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for wealthy gentlemen and ladies. He argues, with both sharp economic reasoning and a moral stance, for a way to transform this dire problem into its own solution.

His shocking proposal involves fattening up undernourished children and feeding them to Ireland's rich landowners. Swift argues that children of the poor could be sold into a meat market at the age of one, thereby combating overpopulation and unemployment. This scheme would also spare families the expense of child-rearing while providing them with a small income, improve the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contribute to the overall economic well-being of the nation.

Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels (1726) is a renowned prose satire penned by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift (1667–1745).

Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput (4 May 1699 – 13 April 1702)

Lemuel Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who inhabit the island country of Lilliput. After demonstrating his good behavior, he is granted residence in Lilliput and becomes a favorite of the court. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians in subduing their neighbors, the Blefuscudians, by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a mere province of Lilliput. For this and other alleged crimes, including "making water" in the capital (though he was putting out a fire and saving many lives), Gulliver is charged with treason.

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag (20 June 1702 – 3 June 1706)

Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and discovered by a farmer who is 72 feet tall. The farmer brings Gulliver home, where his daughter cares for him. Treating Gulliver as a curiosity, the farmer exhibits him for money. After a while, the constant shows make Lemuel sick, and the farmer sells him to the queen of the realm. The farmer's daughter is then taken into the queen's service to continue caring for the tiny man. Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives, and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built for him, referred to as his 'traveling box,' so he can be carried around in it.

The King is displeased with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, Gulliver's traveling box is seized by a giant eagle, which drops him and his box into the sea. He is then picked up by sailors who return him to England. This section of the book starkly compares the truly moral individual to the representative man, clearly showing the latter to be the lesser of the two.