amodestproposal背景知识

1、文档IntroductionJonathan Swift wrote “ A Modest Proposa”l in 1720 to call attention to abuses inflicted on Irish Catholics by well-to-do English Protestants. Swift himself was a Protestant, but he was also a native of Ireland, having been born in Dublin of English parents. He believed England was expl

2、oiting Ireland.Many Irishmen worked farms owned by Englishmen who charged high rents so high that the Irish were frequently unable to pay them. Consequently, many Irish farming families lived on the edge of starvation. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift satirizes the English landlords with outrageous hum

3、or, proposing that Irish infants be sold as food at age one, when they are plump and healthy, to give the Irish a new source of income and the English a new food product to bolster their economy and eliminate a social problem. He says his proposal, if adopted, would also result in a reduction in the

4、 number of Catholics in Ireland, since most Irish infants almost all of whom were baptized Catholic would end up in stews and other dishes instead of growing up to go to Catholic churches. Here, he is satirizing the rivalry and prejudice characterizing Catholic-Protestant relations in Britain.Swift

5、also satirizes the Irish themselves in his essay, for too many of them had accepted abuse stoically rather than taking action on their own文档behalf.The main literary device Swift uses in“ A Modest Proposal is verbal irony that is, he proposes the opposite of what he really believes. Historical Backgr

6、oundOver the centuries, England gradually gained a foothold in Ireland. In 1541, the parliament in Dublin recognized England s Henry VIII, a Protestant, as King of Ireland. In spite of repeated uprisings by Irish Catholics, English Protestants acquired more and more estates in Ireland. By 1703, they

7、 owned all but 10 percent of the land. Meanwhile, legislation was enacted that severely limited the rights of the Irish to hold government office, purchase real estate, get an education, and advance themselves in other ways. As a result, many Irish fled to foreign lands, including America. Most of t

8、hose who remained in Ireland lived in poverty, facing disease, starvation, and prejudice. It was this Ireland an Ireland of the tyrannized and the downtrodden that Jonathan Swift attempted to focus attention on in “A Modest Proposal” in 1720.SummaryEditors Note: In A Modest Proposal, Swift assumes t

9、he persona of a daft statistician. The following summary of the essay greatly condenses the文档original wording. However, the words in blue type are direct quotations from the essay.Because so many Irish parents cannot find decent jobs to support their children, they spend all their time walking the s

10、treets to beg alms of passersby. Meanwhile, the children grow up to become thieves or emigrants.This situation presents a serious problem for Britain, especially since there are so many Irish children. Each year, several hundred thousand babies are born to Irish parents. If you subtract those who ar

11、e born to well-to-do parents, those who are stillborn, and those who die after birth as a result of disease or accident, you are still left with about 120,000 babies who have to be supported by poor parents.Of course, a mother can feed her child for one year with breast milk. But after that, she mus

12、t beg food for the child. However, I the writer of the essay have a modest proposal to solve this problem. Here it is:I have been told by a knowledgeable American that a year-old-infant is a “ most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled. . .” . Therefore,

13、I suggest that of the 120,000 new infants of poor parents, 20,000 be reserved for breeding and the rest be sold to people of quality.“A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and文档when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned wit

14、h a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter . . . ”.Not only will my plan provide excellent food and relieve the burden on Irish parents and Great Britain as a whole, it will also reduce the number of Roman Catholics, since it is the Roman Catholics wh

15、o have the most children. In addition, my plan will have the following advantages:Inkeepers who serve fat children at their tables will be popular with their customers.A mother of a sold child will pocket a handsome profit and be free to work until she has another baby.The skin from babies can be us

16、ed to make gloves for women and boots for men.Women will take excellent care of their newly born infants, for they will want their babies to be plump and healthy when it comes time to sell them.“Men would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mar

17、es in foal, their cows in calf, or sow when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage”.Only young, tender children would be sold. Older boys, with years of exercise that develops their muscles, would be too tough to eat. Older

18、girls文档would be so close to childbearing age that it would be best to let them breed.An extremely important part of my proposal is that it would eliminate the need to raise taxes to support the poor, thereby enabling the rich to continue to enjoy all of their luxuries. In addition, English landlords

19、 would not have to show mercy to their Irish tenants. In turn, the Irish tenants would have enough money to pay their high rents, thanks to the sale of their children.I must point out that I am not proposing this plan for personal benefit, inasmuch as I have only one child age 9 and thus too old to

20、sell and my wife is too old to have another baby.Complete Title and Year of PublicationThe complete title of A Modest Proposal, published in 1720, is A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them benefici

21、al to the publick.文档Writing and Publishing FormatsA Modest Proposal is an essay originally printed in the form of a pamphlet. At the time of the publication of A Modest Proposal, a pamphlet was a short work that took a stand on a political, religious, or social issue or any other issue of public int

22、erest. A typical pamphlet had no binding, although it sometimes had a paper cover. Writers of pamphlets, called pamphleteers, played a significant role in inflaming or resolving many of the great controversies in Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, as well as in the political debate leadin

23、g up to the American Revolution. In addition to “ A Modest Proposal,” Swift wrote many political pamphlets supporting the causes of the Tory political party after he renounced his allegiance to the Whig party.Type of Work: SatireA Modest Proposal is a satire, a literary work that attacks or pokes fu

24、n at vices, abuses, stupidity, and/or any other fault or imperfection. Satire may make the reader laugh at, or feel disgust for, the person or thing satirized. Impishly or sardonically, it criticizes someone or something, using wit and clever wording and sometimes makes outrageous assertions or clai

25、ms. The main purpose of a satire is to spur readers to remedy the problem under文档discussion. The main weapon of the satirist is verbal irony, a figure of speech in which words are used to ridicule a person or thing by conveying a meaning that is the opposite of what the words say.StyleThe lanugage o

26、f A Modest Proposal is specific and succinct, and it is loaded with irony and wit. Swift, one of the greatest satirists in the English language, carefully selects words with connotations that shock and amuse the reader while also promoting euphony. For example, in the following paragraph from the es

27、say, the word carcassesmeaning remains of a dead animal dressed by a butcher conveys shock value and humor while also alliterating with previous words (constant customers, christenings, and compute, as well as with a following word, Kingdom:Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be

28、 constant customers for Infants Flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the rest of the Kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.文