Pope and Swift: Satirists of Their Day
In Swift's Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift and Pope's An Epistle to Arbuthnot, the authors seem to vindicate their use of satire, while satirizing others. Alexander Pope, in his preface to An Epistle to Arbuthnot, identifies the motivation of the poem as a response to attacks on his "Person, Morals, and Family" and to give "truer information" of himself (Pope 1733). Pope warns readers that many would recognize allusions to them in it, "but I have, for the most part spar'd their Names, and they may escape being laugh'd at" (Pope 1733). In 1731, shortly before Pope wrote his Epistle, Pope's friend Jonathan Swift completed Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift and published it almost a decade later in 1739. After his friend Esther Johnson died, the theme of death "became a frequent feature in Swift's life" (Wikipedia, 2012). Swift then began composing this poem as a satirical take on his own obituary. In a letter to a friend, Swift describes the letter as an occasion "to tell what my friends and enemies will say on me after I am dead" (Lynch 2012).
In both Swift's Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift and Pope's An Epistle to Arbuthnot, satire is used to discuss the public, relationships with contemporaries, and plagiarism. Both poets adopt an implicit moral superiority as they chide contemporaries of their day for their faults. Yet this tone they adopt is akin to that of contemporary standup comedians. Although comedians rail against and insult others of their times, their task is a genre that is understood to function in this way. Therefore, Swift and Pope's characterization of plagiarism, the public, and their friends and contemporaries is quite convincing, especially considering that, on the one hand, they were genuine literary talents, but on the other, they were prone to "accusations of plagiarism, posing and hypocrisy" (Deutsch 1993, 8). I agree with...
" For example, of the materialism and penchant for "conspicuous consumption" among Romans of the time, Juvenal observes: in Rome we must toe the line of fashion, spending beyond our means, and often non-borrowed credit. It's a universal failing: here we all live in pretentious poverty. To cut a long story short, there's a price-tag on everything in Rome. What does it cost to greet Cossus, or extract one tight-lipped nod from
(Jonathan Swift's Religious Beliefs) Nowhere did Jonathan Swift show his capacity for satire than in his work, 'A 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. Jonathan mentions within this work, "the streets, the roads, the cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by there, four, or
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Satire and Irony in Dublin LIFE OF JONATHAN SWIFT Jonathan Swift is widely regarded as the greatest writer of satire in English literature. Yet it is crucial for understanding Swift's satire to know that he was not really English. Swift was born in Dublin in 1667, to a family that originally had emigrated from England -- for this reason, he is generally described as "Anglo-Irish." Swift did his university studies
Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift are two of the greatest satirists in literature because they capture elements of truth that force us to look at ourselves as a society. While both authors reflect on political and economic conditions of the eighteenth century, their work is timeless because their topics ultimately return to humanity. Their achievements lie in the fact that they depict man in circumstances that are both thought provoking
Just as in Swift, we find in Cervantes social criticism, irony and sarcasm as well as the satirical method and exaggeration and allusion as methods. Humor was also used centuries earlier in Don Quixote as well. Cervantes is as gifted and accomplished of a satirist as Swift. For instance, Cervantes humorously has Don Quixote jousting windmills who are giants that he is preparing to deprive of life. This is an
Swift was outraged at the dire conditions present in Ireland. However, rather than writing angrily about the Irish famine, Swift instead wrote a Modest Proposal, suggesting that the Irish should eat their own children to solve both hunger and overpopulation. Another example of hyperbole is found in the character of Dr. Pangloss in Voltaire's Candide. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes idealistic philosophy. Dr. Pangloss is such an absurdly idealistic philosopher,
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