Over to you
- • ‘Promises and piecrusts are made to be broken, they say.’ (Jonathan Swift, Irish writer, 1667–1745)
What point is Jonathan Swift making, in your opinion, and how is his use of language effective?
- • ‘To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.’ (Mark Twain, American novelist, 1835–1910)
Do you agree with him?
- • Look at what some people promise one another during a wedding service:‘… to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish, till death us do part.’ (part of Church of England wedding vows)
What wedding vows do people make in your country? Can you translate them?
- • In the UK and the US, witnesses in law courts swear that the evidence they give will be ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’.
What oath do witnesses have to swear in your country?
Possible Answer
- Swift is making the point that many people don’t take promises seriously. His point is effective
because of the comparison of a solemn thing like a promise with such an everyday thing as a
piecrust, which is of course intended to be broken; it has to be broken for the pie to be eaten.
- Most people probably do agree with Twain that making someone promise not to do something
may often serve to put the idea of doing it actually into their head!
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