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Tone
Unreliable Narrator
Explanation and Analysis—Violence as a Solution:
Throughout "A Modest Proposal," the Proposer repeatedly claims to wish to alleviate human suffering. His claims are clearly unreliable—the reader cannot take him at face value, given the ridiculous prospect of proposing child cannibalism as a solution to famine and poverty. The Proposer seems to have surface-level empathy for the poor, and he wants to advocate for them, but his word choice and the nature of his proposal run counter to this farcical empathy.
This unreliable empathy in the narrator's tone shines through in several places, like when he's addressing accusations of cruelty:
It is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very unjustly,) as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, has always been with me the strongest objection against any project, how well soever intended.
The Proposer claims that the prevention of cruelty is one of his foremost concerns, ironically stating that to accuse him of cruelty in his proposition of child cannibalism is to behave "unjustly." This shortsightedness and critical lack of self reflection become much more apparent as the essay continues:
I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.
In both this passage and the one preceding, the Proposer demonstrates the limits of his empathy—and, therefore, the limits of his reliability—by refusing to acknowledge the validity of any counterarguments.
At the end of the essay, the Proposer finally reveals that his willingness to propose such a violent solution stems from the fact that it will have little to no effect on him or his family: "I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny," he says. In turn, he essentially undermines his entire argument, since this confession makes him seem like a very unreliable narrator and effectively serves as a winking gesture that hints at his lack of sincerity in proposing such a ludicrous idea in the first place.
Related Themes:
