How did Jonathan Swift use comic incongruity in A Modest Proposal?

In A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift employs comic incongruity by adopting the persona of a detached, rational economist to present an utterly horrific solution to Irish poverty.1

The core of this satire lies in the jarring contrast between the essay's formal, logical tone—modeled after a serious economic treatise—and its monstrous conclusion: that the impoverished Irish should butcher their children to serve as food for wealthy English landlords. By maintaining a veneer of calm, objective deliberation while discussing the systematic consumption of human infants, Swift forces the reader to confront the moral bankruptcy of England’s exploitative policies toward Ireland.12

This technique creates a powerful sense of irony, as the "rational" voice of the narrator highlights the irrationality and cruelty of the status quo. The incongruity between the civilized style of the essay and the barbaric nature of the proposal serves as a scathing indictment of the dehumanization inherent in the economic systems of the time.1