Jonathan swift’s “A modest proposal” and Wendy Molyneux’s “I’m sorry I didn’t write a comedy piece” are both satirical works which contain a plethora of elements to compare the forms of satire that are used in both works. For example, “A modest proposal” is a satirical essay in which Jonathan Swift focuses on the past economic issues that ran abundant in Ireland in both the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. While “I’m sorry I didn’t write a comedy piece” is a response to a critical view on female humor, she responds to this view with humorous sarcastic irony whilst also focusing on female gender stereotypes and the issues and stigmas that fall behind them.

The elements that are primary in satire are its uses of sarcasm, irony, and humor, to either expose, criticize, or ridicule people’s stupidity, and serious problems that need to be addressed. One example of this is swift’s modest proposal, since he creates a crazy and ironic plan to try and prevent poverty by selling off children as food. Jonathan Swift’s motivation in his essay was to shine a light on the poverty during his time and how the cause of such problems was not only the English, but the Irish as well. It seems that most protagonists in satire genre are either the writers as the narrators, such as Jonathan Swift in his paper or the targets of the satire themselves. Most motivations in satirical works are to shine lights on larger issues that either don’t get enough attention, or are hard to bring up without looking at it from humorous perspective. “A modest proposal” seems to set, as well as follow the generic definitions for satire quite well, as Jonathan swift targets issues set in his essay with irony and humor and by presenting a solution that would normally be seen as atrocious.  Jonathan Swift draws the reader in, begins to reveal the deeper meaning behind this humor, and then begins to bring the attention to the conflicts of this period.

Wendy Molyneux’s “I’m sorry I didn’t write a comedy piece” corresponds with the generic definitions of satire quite well, as her article was to target the stupidity of a man named Christopher Hitchens, and how he sees woman as not funny. The text shares the same normal satirical conventions that “A modest proposal” had created, but one large difference is the way it is presented. “A modest proposal” puts up an idea that would seem crazy, and then justifies how it would work to help put a stop to Irelands poverty, while Wendy Molyneux in “I’m sorry I didn’t write a comedy piece” makes herself the target. She creates this stereotypical two-dimensional caricature of herself as a humorous ironic response to Christopher. To first make fun of the way he sees a woman, and second to make something that was funny to counteract and disprove the stereotype that Christopher had previously set. The expectations that you have when coming from “A modest proposal” to “I’m sorry that I didn’t write a comedy piece” are that you think the topic was going to be Narrower than it turned out to be. With Wendy, the topic is narrowed but well defined, as it reveals the hidden issues with female stereotypes. 

While comparing these two works, you can see the normally expected points of this genre, such as the irony and sarcasm that was being used often throughout the writing. But when you decide that instead of comparing them side by side, that you should compare them as if you were looking through one into the other you can make out quite the differences. When you look through Swift’s work you see that it begins itself as completely serious and only at the end can you really determine that it was satire. After see that and then looking at Molyneux’s work she begins by outright addressing the issue she was targeting then began to make a sarcastic reply to that issue, you know from the beginning that hers was a satire. The works define the many elements that are important to satire, one to be sneaky with the irony and sarcasm, while the other loud and in your face.
