Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal Essay -- Jonathan Swift Modest Prop

Jonathan Swifts A Modest ProposalSwift was said to declare at one stratum in his life I am not of this vile country (Ireland), I am an Englishman (Hertford website). In his satire A Modest Proposal, he illustrates his despise not only for the Irish, but for the English, organized religions, rich, greedy landlords, and people of power. It is obvious that Swift dislikes these people, but the reader must explore from where his loathing for the groups of people stems. I believe Swift not only wanted to attack these various types of people to defend the defenseless poor beggars, but he also had personalized motives for his writings that stemmed from unconscious feelings, located in what Sigmund Freud would call the id, that Swift developed in his earlier years of life. Swifts biography keister help the reader to gain insight into Swifts irrational proposal as a result of his re movement of the various groups of people he condemns in A Modest Proposal. Swift was born in Dublin, I reland and had a good childhood in which he was well educated, but when he was about three years old his mother left him in the care of his uncle. At this age Freud would have asserted that Swift was going through the Oedipus complex, where he would have had an erotic attachment to his mother. Swifts mother leaving him at this time might have been detrimental to Swift, rendering him futile to complete the transition into manhood, as Freud believes all boys do, by eventually identifying with their father. In a sense, Swifts mother sold him in order to social welfare herself. Being left by a young boys mother, whom he was strongly attached might have been damaging. Swifts uncle sent him to very good schools in Ireland and Swift graduated fr... ...ing some actual proposals that would work to ease the pain for the poor. Swift writes that the rich could quit being so proud and selfish and have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants (Swift). Swift feels despair and r ejection from every caregiver or leader in his own life, just as the poor are rejected by society so they resort to begging. He feels that something drastic will have to carry on in order for things to change, otherwise the misery of being devoured by society will be upon the poor breed for ever, as well as himself (Swift). mayhap it was too late for this drastic change in Swifts life. Perhaps his unresolved childhood complexes are too distant that they would have neer been resolved. Works CitedHertford College. Swift Biography. hertford.ox.ac.uk/alumni/swift.htm. Oxford, 2004Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. 1729