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Satire of Society and the Enlightenment in Swift's A Modest Proposal and Voltaire's Candide Jonathan Swift is known as probably the one of the greatest satirists of all time. It is due to his initially anonymous publication of A Modest Proposal, which proposed cannibalism and other things as a solution to overpopulation, poverty and famine in Ireland. Jonathans father died before his first birthday. Swift managed to receive the best education available at the time, and upon the invasion of Ireland by William of Orange fled to England. He got involved in politics there.
Jonathan became a staunch supporter of the Protestant Church, and worked hard to publish the plight of his fellow Irishmen, who were being treated despicably by the English at the time. He kept his edge to the last - his last will and testament provided funds to establish in Dublin a hospital for "ideas & lunatics", because "No Nation needed it so much. " Jonathan Swift was considered a member of the group of intellectual s, philosopher >s and writers that helped to define The Age of Enlightenment. Although there were many satiric writers in the Enlightenment, Swift is perhaps one of the most bright representatives of the time period. Jonathan Swift is an important Enlightenment writer because of his use of satire, which was motivation for social change, during the turbulent religious and philosophical period of that time. In the Enlightenment era, thought was more important than emotion. The literature of the day reflected that change.
The major concerns of the new Enlightenment philosophy were perfection of society, optimism, rationality, order, and individualism. Swift's writing is found to be a reaction against the rapidly changing viewpoints of the seventeenth century. Swift was a members of a group of satirical writers called the Scriblerus Club. The club was associated with Robert Harley, who was a large influence on Jonathan Swift. Arbuthnot, Gay, Parnell, Pope, and Swift were the club's chief members. The Club's activities resulted in the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, which Pope published in 1741. 1 The rapid progress in science raised serious doubts in the minds of those moralists who did not share the optimistic assumptions of the new natural scientists, because they thought it threatened the important concept of virtue.
This reaction is linked to many of the greatest writers in English literature. Jonathan Swift was one of the most famous. Swift, among others, was largely against the modern trends. His favorite method of attack was satire and his mood was largely pessimistic. Swift did not buy into the great hopes of the new theoretical science and rational philosophy.
He did not think that it would contribute to the moral improvement of the people. Jonathan saw it as a very dangerous display of pride and confidence in the powers of human reasoning. This undermined what he believed was the most important point of traditional Christian faith, the belief that human beings are fundamentally flawed creatures. (1). Despite his traditional Christian beliefs, Swift was not for a return to the sixteenth-century's stringent religious viewpoints. He directed his satire primarily at those who proclaimed critical approach to religion. He wanted society to find moderation between the extreme irrationality of the new religions and the excessive rationality of the new natural philosophy.
Satire, in his works, is a literary mode which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be improved. Satires goal is correction. It exposes folly and vice to the ridicule and condemnation of reasonable and virtuous people. All satire is moral in that it makes judgements and asserts and implies a standard of value. It rejects the direct polemical approach and tries to moralize.
His satire is never a direct and forthright expression of criticism or dislike; rather, it must use devices such as humor, irony, wit, persona, and descriptive names. For Swift and the other satirists, the new natural philosophy was a dangerous show of human pride and the rejection of the traditional wisdom. Swift did not trust the optimistic confidence that human problems could be solved by human wisdom, and not wisdom of God, using appropriate methods. He was rather hostile to the growing hopes of theoretical and experimental science. He believed that human beings were not on this earth to be knowledgeable, happy and powerful.
He believed that people had to be as morally virtuous as possible. The central and most difficult challenge as a human being should be the quest for spiritual goodness. 2 Swift's satiric writings took widely held beliefs and stretched them out of proportion with the intent of making them look absurd. Not only was this style pointing out that certain views were unacceptable, it also was entertaining the reader. Perhaps the best example of one of Swift's more entertaining exploits was a satire he wrote in the form of an almanac.
In one specific case, Swift attacked the absurdity of astrology and simultaneously played mind games with his readers. He wrote under the pseudonym of Isaac Bicker staff to parody an almanac that was published. (1). Swift's satire not only criticizes the church and philosophers, it also criticizes the reader. He approaches them as representatives of all people who calmly accept the wrongdoings of the world. He makes his readers uneasy by pointing on their moral imperfection. At the same time, his humor and extreme approach to presenting his opinions makes his writing astonishing.
In his A Modest Proposal, you can see the streets and the roads crowded with poor women followed a number of children all in rags. The mothers, being unable to earn something for living, are forced to spend all the time to beg for their helpless infants. What are the perspectives for their children? They grow up and turn either thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain or become slaves.
The one who could invent a method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve the status of a preserver of the nation. it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets. It is true, a born child may be supported by its mothers milk for a year. But what will happen if a mother has two and more children, as it usually occurred?
Swift discusses the matters and possible to the situation of his times. His writing is a real proposal and a way out offer with number operation: the number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born: the question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed.
For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art. 3 It appears to be disgustingly astonishing to read speculations about how a mother could benefit from bearing a child, and who other used to find use for the children: I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection. Only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter Those who are more thrifty may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen. (3). Swifts proposal was: For first, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as the most dangerous enemies.
Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown. Thirdly, whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old and upward, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a-piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture. Fourthly, The constant breeders, beside the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.
Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen. Sixthly, this would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual profit instead of expense. (3). In 1755 the city of Lisbon, Portugal, was leveled by a tremendous earthquake. More than 30, 000 people were killed. The event, which shocked Europe, had an especially profound effect on Francois Marie About de Voltaire.
Voltaire, then nearly 61, was the leading French man of letters and one of the most influential figures of his time. His first reaction to the tragedy was the moving and angry "Poem on the Disaster of Lisbon, " written in the weeks after the earthquake. Four years later, in 1759, a second fruit of Voltaire's reflections on this tragedy was...
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Research essay sample on Jonathan Swift Hundred Thousand
