Most things in life are labeled with stereotypes, or things that automatically come to mind when you think of them or hear the name or word. Literature, and more specifically certain genres of literature such as poetry, drama or satire, are not exempt from this and all have certain characteristics that are popular to each individual genre. Just because two pieces are of the same genre, however, does not mean that every component or detail will be exactly the same. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal and Wendy Molyneux’s I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece are almost a perfect representation of how authors can follow the common guidelines of satire in their literary piece while at the same time maintaining their uniqueness and individuality. 

Immediately from the beginning of Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the reader can get sense of his satirical style of writing for this piece.  A note before he starts the first paragraph states “For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick”(514). This makes it evident right away that the author will be using satire. The main idea of this piece is Swift stating to the people of Ireland that, due to the financial state of the country in the eighteenth century and the excess of small children belonging to poor families, they should sell the children as mentioned by the author in stating “That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune…” (516). Swift also proposes the people use the children for food and their skins for women’s gloves as well as men’s boots. That being said, it is easy to decide that the audience is the people of Ireland and the reason behind the piece is economic issues. Thoughts such as Swift’s that were dealing with said economic issues and the way Ireland was handling the situation were not very popular in his time period, causing him to publish his writing under a pseudonym so nobody would know that it was him. 

Certain ideas in each of these pieces are presented very differently, despite the same genre. In I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, Molyneux takes a different approach to her narrative style. She decided to make the narrator a two-dimensional character, also known as one of three characters for a caricature, which takes part in the stereotypical properties of her satirical writing. A two-dimensional character is defined as a character that is predictable and shows emotion such as the one in Molyneux’s piece. As opposed to Swift’s economic purpose for his writing, it is evident that Molyneux decided to write this paper in response to social issues. More specifically, this piece was a response to Christopher Hitchens’ essay Why Women Aren’t Funny.  The reader can come to the conclusion that the author is tired of the stereotypical ideas of women, such as the ones proposed by Hitchens. These include all women liking Grey’s Anatomy, cats, famous men that they could never realistically be with (more specifically John Stamos), the idea that women need to cook for men, and that they cry all the time, along with the idea that women cannot be funny, all of which are included in this piece. Molyneux is also writing in a more modern time period whereas A Modest Proposal was published in the seventeen hundreds, making it a little easier for the reader to relate. Overall, the main purpose and audience for both of these pieces tend to be completely different, with a change in time period being a main cause. 

In comparing both of these writings, one will find that, due to the satire present in each, there are many similar components. One thing that is interesting about them however is that even though the components are the same, the breakdown of said components differ. For example, both pieces were prompted by what was a big issue in each author’s world. Swift’s purpose just happened to be about the absurd conditions in Ireland for its citizens while Molyneux was attempting to erase, what she believes to be, the false accusations of women. When put side by side, I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece and A Modest Proposal  both show the traditional characteristics of satirical writing while still differing and leaving the reader with an interesting piece of work.
