Stephen L. Cain

November 20, 1995

English 331-010

Defoe and Swift

Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal" and Daniel Defoe's "Shortest Way with Dissenters" are two short satiric works that differ widely in their perception. The "Modest Proposal" has become the premier example and representative work of the genre in the eyes of the modern layman, while Defoe's piece is virtually unknown to the present-day reader, with the exception of literature students. These pieces were also received differently by their original intended audiences. The "Modest Proposal" was seen outright as a short satirical piece on reforming relations with Ireland involving irony, while the "Shortest Way" was accepted as a sincere attack on nonconformists and it was quoted by those Defoe was attempting to satirize.

Our point is, then, that Swift is successful and Defoe isn't due simply to the variance of the appearance of the work to it's audience and the author's treatment as irony. In order to employ the term "Irony," we need a general definition to work with. So, let us create a compiled consensus definition from multiple sources for use as a working definition: an ironic statement implies something other, if not opposite, to that which it explicitly stated (Aaron and Fowler 778, Beady and Price).

First, let's look at our "successful ironist," Jonathan Swift and the appearance of his work to his audience. The "Modest Proposal" is successful irony because he proposed a plan so outrageous, heinous and repugnant that nobody but Aztecs would take him seriously. Griffin cites this shock as the intent of the "Modest Proposal:"

"A Modest Proposal" is designed to shatter the comfortable belief of administrators and reformers, merchants and projectors, English and Irish, that proper measures are surely being taken to solve the "problem" of Irish Poverty. (Griffin 53)

His irony did not fail because he shocked contemporaries with something Western European Man sees as abhorrent. His original readers noticed his blatant irony quite easily; although they saw Ireland as barbaric, most of them wouldn't stoop to eat Irish babies.

Thus, Swift's irony is successful. It is irony according to my definition, because the piece implied successfully the opposite of what it explicitly said. Swift explicitly stated that the English should use the Irish as bipedal cattle, yet he implied that the English should treat the Irish as humans and stem the flow of abuses. Also, Swift is not mistaken in his desire to produce an ironic piece, as it is obvious to all that he is, indeed, being ironic.

Next, let's look at Defoe's piece. He is what we will define as an example of "failed irony" with respect to his "Shortest Way." No one’s irony can be fully successful unless the reader perceives it as irony. If, when irony is read, the audience does not recognize it under it's shell of explicit statement, then the effect of irony is lost.

Defoe, in his proposal to extirpate the dissenters, advocates methods and employs language that has been used since in a serious manner. Consider these selections from the "Shortest Way:"

How can we answer it to God , to the Church, and to our Posterity, to leave it entangled with Fanaticisme, Error, and Obstinacy, in the Bowels of the Nation; to leave them an Enemy in their Streets, that in time may involve them in the same Crimes and endanger the utter Extirpation of Religion in the Nation. . . .

Now let us Crucifie the Thieves. Let her Foundations be establish'd on the Destruction of her Enemies: The Doors of Mercy being always open to the returning Part of the deluded People: Let the Obstinate be rul'd with the Rod of Iron.

The language is that of hate and attack, even genocide. It recommends destruction of those who will not conform; the speaker declares, as if in a bad science fiction movie, "Submit or be destroyed!" This extremity was intended to satirize the Tory churchmen that advocated "bloodthirsty" motives (see headnote to piece), but it wasn't recognized as irony. It just wasn't obvious enough to prevent people from taking it at face value. There have been subsequent cases where similar language was used to further parallel but more extensive causes. Look at the following piece from the Nazi Goebbels in 1937:

Look, there is the world's enemy, the destroyer of civilizations, the parasite among the peoples, the son of Chaos, the incarnation of Evil, the ferment of decomposition, the demon who brings about the degeneration of mankind.

The language is comparable to the two paragraphs from the "Shortest Way:" vitriolic and hateful. Both tracts were taken by the audience as propaganda toward eliminating an undesired group from society. Defoe didn't intend this route, but he failed to make the irony apparent to all concerned, and thus the irony also failed. The Nazi piece wasn't irony, but was taken as advocating removal of a group like the "Shortest Way."

One of the problems with the reception of the "Shortest Way is that Defoe chose to suggest a course of action near and dear to Western Man: persecution of those unlike yourself. That idea is a recurrent theme in human history since the Neanderthal culture moved up the European rivers twenty-five millennia ago. It wasn't flagrantly vile like cannibalism, but mainstream violence against dissenters; in short, a very reasonable proposition.

Thus, we can call Defoe's piece a "failed irony." It does not fulfill the definition I gave at the beginning; to some people, notably the Tory High Churchmen mentioned in the piece's headnote, the opposite meaning of the statement was not implied fully enough to make an impression. They accepted it as a factual and non-ironic piece. He explicitly advocated extirpation and more subtly placed his irony.

In the explicit form of the two pieces, both authors say they are advocating their negative plan, that is extermination and cannibalism, while denying the more positive solutions, like tolerance and reforming Irish poverty. Swift, however, says that his method is more feasible than other methods because nobody else will try other programs of reform, such as taxing absentee landlords and consuming domestic products:

THEREFORE, let no man talk to me of these and the like Expedients; till he hath, at least, a Glimpse of Hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere Attempt to put them in Practice.

Defoe makes no mention of mitigating his severity. All through the "Shortest Way," his tone is that of a Crusader, hoping to piously smite the unpious. He would have made a magnificent High Tory:

Let all true Sons of so Holy and Oppressed a Mother, exasperated by her Afflictions, harden their Hearts against those who have oppress'd her.

Defoe doesn't indicate that he is not serious about killing the nonconformists.

So, Swift meets the conditions of the definition of irony I gave at the beginning while Defoe does not. Swift's irony was seen as irony while Defoe's irony was seen as seriously-intended propaganda. Swift's piece revolved around a totally outrageous plan while Defoe chose one of Western Man's favorite pastimes as an option. Thus, we can call Swift's "Modest Proposal" a successful piece of irony and Defoe's "Shortest Way" a failed one.

Works Cited

Aaron, Jane and Fowler, H. Ramsey. The Little, Brown Handbook. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

Brady, Frank and Price, Martin. Quoted in "Irony and the Ironic: Concepts, Definitions." Handout by Dr. Mell.