An extremely well-written,
famous example of
satire at it's finest; the product of
frustration,
disillusionment and
disgust. Having just read this piece for my
Literature and
Composition class, I would like to add a few
notes which may help one understand the piece more thoroughly.
"It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town..."
-Swift is speaking specifically of Dublin.
"But in order to justify my friend, he confessed, that this expedient was put into his head by the famous
Salmanaazor, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London, above twenty years ago..."
-The gentleman that he speaks of actually caused quite a scandal. He was not from Formosa but actually from England - however he went on to write an entirely fictional account of his "homeland" and pass it off as non-fiction. Obviously, Swift has been carefull in his choice of "evidence" in this satirical piece.
"Therefore let no
man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor
houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and
instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our
women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we
differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor
acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being
a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one
degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our
shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to
cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one
fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it..."
-These are all proposals Swift put forth in earlier pamphlets and writings. There is a degree of irony here. Knowing that these are his original concepts makes the paragraph quite a bit stronger.
Swift published this pamphlet anonymously.