“A Modest proposal” by Jonathon Swift is a satirical essay which provides a “modest proposal” to the crises surrounding the Irish in 1729. Swift lists a number of possible solutions to the problems surrounding British rule in the late 1720’s. Swift states that by eating children, the Irish could solve a number of problems, both economically and socially. While providing a satirical and funny reasoning to real problems, Swift is able to engage the reader to actual problems. Swift uses several key elements of a satirical essay in his work. The first being verbal irony, verbal irony is when a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to portray a meaning that is opposite of the actual meaning. Some examples of verbal irony in “A Modest Proposal” include, “Infants flesh will be in season throughout the year” and “I recommend buying these children alive”. So, when Swift uses these examples of verbal irony, he is not speaking about actually eating infants to improve society. Swifts verbal ironic tone is to portray outrageous solutions to real problems. By saying one thing and meaning another, Swift grabs the attention of the reader and points the reader into the direction of actually solving the problem at hand. For Swift and the Irish, these were economic problems, famine, overpopulation and distrust in the government. Furthermore, Swift also uses situational irony in several occasions. 

“I am sorry I didn’t write a comedy piece”, by Molyneux is a satirical essay describing the stereotypes of women. Molyneux starts by describing that she saw an article on a website asking women to submit more comedy pieces, Molyneux then describes stereotypical events in a “women’s” life. She describes her gigantic closets, binge watching of Grey’s Anatomy and elaborate dinners.  Molyneux uses this basis to use situational and verbal irony within the essay. This target text corresponds with “A Modest Proposal” by using verbal ironic statements but differs in the same respect by using situational irony. Swifts “A Modest Proposal” attacks satirical essays by using verbal irony. Verbal Irony, which means saying one thing and meaning another, sheds light on the problems the Irish faced in the beginning of the early 18th century. Molyneux uses Situational irony within her story. Situational irony is the involvement of a situation in whose actions have an opposite effect from what was intended, resulting in an outcome that was opposite of what was expected. This is best used in Molynuex’s piece. Molyneux describes that she “must write a comedy piece” and her actions throughout the story, suggest that she is writing a comedy piece about women. But, instead of writing a comedy piece, her actions throughout the day were just her regular actions and not a comedy paper. This outcome was different then the intended action, which created situational irony and brought attention to the story. Molyneux and Swifts example of irony are both different but have the same intended actions. Both stories used an ironic and “funny” genre to bring light to real world issues, which is extremely valuable in my opinion. 