HUMA1301 Introduction to Humanities

The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift was published in 1729. This essay is seen as an allegory for the oppression of Ireland by England. He was an Irish himself and he seems to blame England for the ruins his city was brought to by a foreign power (Freiburg, 2020). This paper will describe the events or innovations which were made in the age of enlightenment, how the work of Swift is representative of the age of enlightenment along the importance of this work and the Contribution Of Swift To Humanities.

The essay by Swift was written in the enlightenment period. The enlightenment period is also known as the age of reason, which is termed as the reason behind the discourse in politics and philosophy from the end of the 17th century to the early part of the 19th century. The age of enlightenment led to the end of the dominance of traditions and helped in paving way for the scientific temper which shaped the world in its present shape (Enlightenment, 2020).  The historical events which can be termed as the root of the rise of enlightenment start with the English civil wars in the late 17th century which led to the re-establishment of the autocratic monarchy. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 followed by James II to the throne made the political thinkers rethink how the society and government structures can be made better. The movements which aimed at political change were then witnessed such as the glorious revolution when William along with Mary was given the throne because of the new Protestant settlement. This kind of movements was prevalent over the whole of Europe, for instance, movements aimed at changing governance were emerging in France (Enlightenment, 2020).

The emergence of philosophers who reasoned and provided a theatrical basis for the age of enlightenment for instance Denis Diderot made an association of reasoning with maintaining virtue and its importance in checking human nature which can be destructive. One of the famous philosophers Rousseau made arguments such as the man was born to be free but was chained due to the constraints made by the governments around the world.  This philosophy has been considered as the basis of the revolutionary movements of freedom aimed at making the governments more representative of people or democratic in France and America in the latter part of the century (Enlightenment, 2020). The other innovation which helped in the promotion of the age of enlightenment is the prevalence of the print culture which made the books and reading material more widely available to the people which led to an increase in literacy levels of people and helped them to reason.  

The characteristics of writings during the age of enlightenment were irony, satire, sarcasm, skepticism among other characteristics. The essay by Swift depicts three characteristics of the age of enlightenment which are irony, satire and sarcasm (Lawlor & Blackwood, 2020). Swift makes use of irony to present the situation in a way where children are being bought in the market and people are making comment such as to dress them in the dressing before eating them, this irony is subjected towards the British who are unable to feed the people under their rule. Sarcasm was an important characteristic of enlightenment as it allowed one to express the truth differently. For example, in the essay, he looks at the positives of sending the proposal to decrease the population of Ireland (Freiburg, 2020). This sarcasm was directed towards the British people who saw Irish people as goods and not as human beings. The satire was one of the most important characteristics and contribution of the age of enlightenment as in that period it helped people practice their freedom of speech and to criticize the social norms and practices (Freiburg, 2020). Swift makes use of satire to criticize the British government.

The contributions of this work by Swift has been recognized as he paved the way for writers after him to connect with audiences or their conditions by making use of techniques such as satire and sarcasm. These techniques have helped the writers as a whole to be able to criticize their governments to connect with the people to make them aware of the problems and how they can unite to find the solutions (Lawlor & Blackwood, 2020). Also Swift played an important role in inspiring the Irish people to rebel against their conditions and helped them to have feasible solutions for their problems. His contributions have been crucial for humanities as he showed new ways of showing the plight of the people.

References

Enlightenment. (2020). Enlightenment. HISTORY. Retrieved 6 March 2021, from https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/enlightenment.

Freiburg, R. (2020). Jonathan Swift, Irish Political Writings after 1725: A Modest Proposal and Other Works by Jonathan Swift. The Scriblerian And The Kit-Cats, 53(1), 98-101. https://doi.org/10.1353/scb.2020.0047

Lawlor, C., & Blackwood, A. (2020). Sleep and stress management in Enlightenment literature and poetry. Interface Focus, 10(3), 20190089. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2019.0089

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