For the upcoming essay, I've been hunkered down in research and writing over the past few weeks. I'm gonna make it easy for everyone to follow.....
Prior to the November 10th class, I have always been fascinated with Jonathan Swift and his use of satire in his essays and poems. Specifically, I will be focusing on how the satirical elements were incorporated into the texts and who/what they lampooned. The intent is to understand how Swift used satire on certain themes and provoked his reading audience. I am examining satire in Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and "The Lady's Dressing Room", because these two works show his sense of humour and way of critiquing society for its faults. In "Modest Proposal", Swift uses the extreme notion of cannibalism to control the growing Irish population, provide for the upper and middle class, etc. Ironically, the speaker of the essay claims to have learned about cannibalism from an American (possibly Native American, riffing on the 'Indian eaters of men'?). By using such extreme notions, he is satirizing England and Ireland for their role in the predicament of the Irish.
"The Lady's Dressing Room" concerns the satirization of narrow-minded men, their romantic notions of idealized women, and women themselves. Swift depicts his protagonist Strephon as a foolish man who sees females as something other than human beings. Upon snooping in the dressing room of the woman he is courting, he is bothered by the pile of dirty clothes, brushes, make-up, and ointments/powders which she takes to accentuate her appearance (Swift pokes fun at her taking five hours to get dressed). After discovering a chamber pot, Strephon is horrified at the notion of his beloved having bodily functions, and henceforth he views all women as being disgusting. However, it should be noted that the poem could be a defence of women, because Swift satirizes the 18th Century male's romantic notions of women.
Overall, it should make for an interesting essay.
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