Verbal Irony

    Swift uses irony throughout the whole proposal: he satirizes how English landlords abuse Irish family and he suggests that the solution to solving the poverty problem in Ireland is through eating infants at age one. The reason this is an irony is the writer doesn’t actually mean what he writes. As for result of eating babies, the Irish family would get a new food source, social problems would get eliminated, and there would be less Catholics. With the reduction of Catholics, Swift is satirizing Protestants’ prejudice toward Catholics. In addition, Swift also satirizes the Irish for accepting all the bad treatments they receive rather than rebelling against the English landlords.