

            One similarity between “A Modest Proposal” by Dr. Jonathan Swift and “I am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” by Wendy Molynuex is that they are both satirical pieces. Their styles of writing both use humor, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to make fun of an idea, decision, or vice. Another similarity is in the cultural contexts of the two writings in that they both make fun of an idea or way of thinking (instead of someone’s vice or decision), and in that the way of thinking they make fun of tends to be held by a particular group of people. “A Modest Proposal” makes fun of the way that some upper-class people view the poor and “I am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” makes fun of the way that some men view women. These similarities signify that both Dr. Jonathan Swift and Wendy Molynuex both had a problem with commonly held beliefs during the time period that they lived in. The relationship between these two pieces shows that both of these authors decided to use their satirical style of writing as an outlet to voice their opinion and to ridicule and tear down the idea that they did not agree with.

 

One difference between the two pieces’ styles of writing is that “A Modest Proposal” takes a ridiculous idea and argues it in a very serious way using very little exaggeration while “I am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” uses heavy exaggeration and sarcasm. This leads to the satire in Dr. Jonathan Swifts piece to be much subtler while the satire in Wendy Molynuex’s piece is easily recognizable. Another difference between the two pieces is the historical context.  “A Modest Proposal” takes place in the 1700’s while “I am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” takes place in the present day. This difference has little effect of the overall shared theme however because both of the ways of thinking that these two pieces make fun of still persist today. These differences signify the range of styles that satirical pieces can be written in. While Dr. Jonathan Dunn writes a longer piece with a very serious tone it still falls under the same genre of satire as Wendy Molineux’s short piece with heavy exaggeration. Also, the fact that these two pieces were written 300 years apart signifies the effectiveness and longevity of the satirical genre. The style and time period differences show that satirical pieces can take many forms and have been used as an ideological tool for hundreds of years.

 

Understanding the similarities and differences between these two pieces give us a better understanding of satire by showing us that while the goals of these two pieces may be different, there purposes were the same. While “A Modest Proposal’s goal was to get the upper-class to start treating the poor like human beings instead of animals and “I am Sorry I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece’s” goal was to get men to realize that there are no gender limitations on comedy they both attack a certain idea using humor, irony, and exaggeration with hopes of eradicating that way of thinking. This comparison gives us a better understanding of the texts by clearly pointing out which style of Satire each piece uses, whether it be subtle ridicule or heavy exaggeration. While both of these writings are very tongue and cheek “Im Sorry I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece is definitely more brazen in its lack of seriousness, understanding the way the satire is used is key in fully comprehending the writing.

 


The secondary source I will be using to compare to “A Modest Proposal” is “Gulliver’s Travels” also written by Jonathan Swift. Both of these pieces use satire to expose flaws in western European society during the 1700’s, which coincidently happened to be the time period that Jonathan Swift lived in. Both of these writings use the literary tool of characterization to express irony instead of talking directly to the reader. In “A Modest Proposal” Swift uses the “speaker” a cold, calculating, inhumane character who proposes solutions to social ills while totally ignoring morality and human decency. On the other hand, in Gulliver’s travels Swift uses the fictional character of Gulliver to express how someone unaware of a monarchial government would be overwhelmed by the intrusiveness of absolute power. These two pieces use similar satirical styles and literary tools while at the same time using a different format to expose different social problems. Jonathan Swifts use of characterization in both writings signifies the effectiveness of using a “blank” character to illustrate your point. You can assign whatever morals or values you want to a blank character in order to best make your point, while if Jonathan Swift was speaking directly to the reader he would be limited to the values that he holds. In conversation with each other these texts would likely talk about social ills facing 1700’s era western Europe, the governmental overreach of the ruling class, and the extreme amount of wealth inequality between the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. The overlap of the issues that these texts seek to expose is likely because they were written by the same author during the same time period.

The secondary source I will be using to compare to “I’m Sorry I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece” is “This is Why Feminism Hurts Men” by Micah J Murray. Both of these writings use satire to discuss issues related to women’s causes. The similarities between these two articles signify the prominence of feminism in satirical articles. While Wendy Molunuex plays in to the female stereotypy Micah J Murry flips around classic arguments for feminism to make a sarcastic argument that feminism is harmful to men. One example of this is “Because of feminism, women make more money than men in the same jobs.” If these texts had a conversation with each other they would likely talk about the different ways that they feel men oppress women.
