Poverty in Eighteenth-Century Ireland
...and breeding. Later on in the essay he writes about his calculations on Irelands’ population, and determines that there will remain hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents. Afterwards, Swift list advantages to why this modest proposal will be beneficial to stopping poverty. One advantage he states, “The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own.” At the end of the essay he professes his heart and states, “that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country.” I believe swift offers this horrifying solution for a number of reasons. One reason is that writing this outrageous proposal brings attention to his essay. By bringing more attention to his essay, he got more people to realize that this was a problem in Ireland. Another reason I believe that he wrote this essay was to show how unconcerned other people can be of his country. In the essay Swift proclaims that he has yet to see anybody else come up with a better idea. Therefore, swift is implying that no one had really confronted the issue back in eighteenth century Ireland. He wanted people to open their eyes and see what was happening to Irelands’ public health. Swift is not actually serious when he claims that killing poor people’s babies for use is what Ireland had to do in order to reduce poverty. I think swift pursues the argument all the way because there is a hidden message behind it. I believe Swift was trying to imply that the poor children and parents have already been “eaten”. By this I mean that eighteenth-century Ireland was becoming so poor that the people might as well be dead instead of trying to survive. Swift also kept pursuing this proposal to show how desperate Ireland was to find a way to correct poverty. Who in the right mind would think of this kind of solution? Obviously Swift wanted to see a change in Irelands way of dealing with the poor. This is true because near the end of the essay there are little hints that he wants some type of different plan to cure the poverty situation in eighteenth- century Ireland. For instance, in the ess...