Final answer:
Jonathan Swift's use of the phrase 'dropped from their dam' in 'A Modest Proposal' serves to strengthen the satirical irony of the work. The correct answer is option: C.irony
Step-by-step explanation:
In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift uses the phrase "dropped from their dam" to strengthen his satirical irony. This phrasing starkly dehumanizes the subjects—infants—by referring to them as if they were animal offspring, enhancing the shocking, sardonic tone of the proposal that Irish children be bred and consumed as a solution to economic problems.
Swift's work is replete with irony, as his outrageous suggestions serve to mock and draw attention to the cruel indifference of the ruling class toward the suffering poor, and this phrase works as a particularly vivid example of that technique.