Question

Which of the following is best described as hyperbole in Swift's "A Modest Proposal?"

"Whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum"
"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."
"Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh . . . I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses..."
"I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance"

Answer 1

The most suitable answer is "Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh . . . I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses..."

We can easily see that this is an exaggerated situation.

• Dublin will not suffer from financial problems.

• As far as the government improve sanitary conditions, infants from Dublin will not die from starvation neither disease.