¶ … Nonexistent Knight is a character driven narrative and, therefore, should be summarized within the framework of those characters and their exploits throughout the novella. The titular character, the nonexistent knight, Agilulf, who exists not in the flesh but in a suit of armor, seeks to restore his honor by confirming that his good deed that earned him his knighthood, saving the virginity of a young royal woman from the lecherous ways of two brutes, did indeed happen per his recollection. The youth, Raimbaut, is a young knight in the making who falls in love with a dastardly lady knight. The lady knight, Bradamante, falls in love with the chivalric and impeccably noble ways of the nonexistent knight and sets up a love triangle of sorts. Then there's Torrismund, another knight, who ends up falling in love with a woman that was at one point thought to be his mother. Lastly, there's the nihilistic narrator, a nun, who is full of vim and verve and a dolt called Gurduloo who exists, but does not know he exists. In short, the Nonexistent Knight is a satiric rendering of a medieval tale that aims to explore, among other things, the existential underpinnings of life.
Historical and Aesthetic Content
To know something about Italo Calvino is to know something about magic realism and post-modernism. While both tropes are manifested in the pages of the Nonexistent Knight, perhaps it would be better to understand the book as an extension of a special genre of parody novels, novellas, essays, that are at once both serious and silly. Serious in terms...
Journal Writing "a Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift As the name suggests, this is a proposal put forth by the writer on the way to help Ireland out of the problem of beggars along the streets and an ever increasing population of poor people within the nation. Indeed, he not only views his suggestions as viable towards decreasing the population of the poor, but to also earn the country foreign money that
Abortion A Modest Proposal: Abortion for Two Perhaps the most significant debate of recent decades on a political, religious, and social level is that of abortion. Many questions are raised about whether this is a justified right inherent to any fertile woman, or an inhumane practice fostered by a barbaric society. Those who believe it is not right to abort the unborn struggle to make it as difficult as possible for anyone
Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, tells the conditions of poor, rural Irish families facing starvation and desolation caused by brutal oppression from their neighboring and bullying country England in 1729. The length of the title of this essay introduces the satirical form that Swift uses in
Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is a work of satire in which Swift suggests, as a solution to the problem of famine in Ireland, that the starving Irish should eat their babies. This, he states, is a way to cope with the problem of both hunger and overpopulation. Swift makes deliberate use of hyperbole throughout his essay. He uses some of the most common, racist criticisms about the Irish leveled
The primary reason for this is the fact that people like Swift's projector and various politicians like him are far too successful in manipulating language to their own advantage. While Orwell did not live in our day, he was truly a visionary and he is not far off the mark when it comes to politics and the power of persuasion. Swift reinforces this notion with his proposal, which is
Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift is satire? The combination of the bland mealy-mouthed title attached to a horrifying vision of mass-murder might at first seem inherently ironic. But this is no guarantee of satirical humor: after all, when the bureaucratic-sounding title attached to a monstrous plan is the "Final Solution," we have left the realm of ironic satire and entered the realm of actual atrocity. The notion that Swift's
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now