Clever Tom Clinch Going To Be Hanged

Thesis Statement: The use of different satires gives readers a reason to criticize or ridicule on Swift’s views on the lives of Irish people. In the 18th century, families in Ireland were so poor they are made to live on the streets without food, money, shoes, or even clothes to wear. So, to make money the children’s parents made the rash decision of sacrificing them to settle their own financial problems in a humorous but grotesque way.

Charles Dickens uses satire to point out the faults in the Victorian London courts, such as the way anyone would be proven guilty and then executed for the smallest of crimes.This is seen when Dickens states: "That, for these reasons, the jury, being a loyal jury (as he knew they were), and being a responsible jury (as they knew they were), must positively find the prisoner Guilty, and make an end of him, whether they liked it or not...in short, that there never more could be, for them or theirs, any laying of heads upon pillows at all, unless the prisoner's head was taken off," (Dickens, Page 69). Dickens is satirizing this system because it is extremely harsh and unfair, with execution becoming the sentence for everything. He is bringing the problem to light so that it may be resolved before it contributes to civil unrest.

William Blake’s “London” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” appear to have little in common. Although at first they may seem different, they have many hidden similarities. Ultimately, Blake and Owen enhance the overall message presented in their poems by allowing the reader to fully gasp the meaning by connecting them through their senses, the overall consequences of the event, and the importance of the issue.

During the 17th and early 18th centuries there was a roar of wittiness and logic that came to the forefront of literature in the form of multiple well known Horatian, Juvenalian and Menippean satires (wiseGEEK). The essayist often brought a profound examination and keen persuasive rhetoric that exposed insincere idiocies and outlined the moral and economic decay (wiseGEEK). Satirical works often highlight ideals of reason, order, and social awareness, and thus these works contain a persistent undertone of civility (Holmes). The author superficially uses a façade of conventional traditions, edicts, egotism, and moral codes to incite a new sense of moral and political superiority (Holmes). The satirical literary device was at its peak during the Neoclassical Period in which the enlightenment writer, Jonathan Swift, was exceptional at this writing style (Jokinen). He excelled at rebuking Britain’s flaws and pointed out the hypocrisy at the time by extensive ridicule of the conventual school of thought. Jonathan Swift’s, A Modest Proposal is an inspiration to many aspiring satirical authors, as he is admired as a rhetorical virtuoso that shed light on the profuse moral and political decay. He also exposed the corruption in society by using a sly, yet polished voice. An example of a modern work inspired by A Modest Proposal, is Dan Geddes, A Modest Proposal to Convert Shopping Malls into Prisons. Though this is seen obviously in the Dan Geddes’s title of his essay, he also uses

There were a few similes, such as in stanza 1, line 1 – ‘like old beggars under sacks’ that emphasised the description made. There were several instances of alliteration; one of them in the last stanza, line 3, with the words ‘watch the white eyes writhing’. They all help to stress the meaning and importance of these lines, bringing a vivid picture to mind. We noticed the use of internal rhyme in stanza 2 lines 3 and 4, ‘stumbling/flound’ring’, drawing attention to the description. The rhyme scheme of alternating rhyming end-lines, with 10 syllables per line, gives the poem rhyme, metre, structure and order, making the words flow; making it easier to read, more memorable, and drawing attention to the sounds of the words. There are some disruptions to this, such as the short, sharp, last line, which makes the reader more aware, and places emphasis on, the meaning and importance of those words. We both noticed that stanza 2 appeared to be shorter than verse 1 with a shorter, 2 line stanza following it. I interpreted this as another disruption to the scheme of the poem to place importance on the words of the 2 line stanza. The final verse is longer than the others, again a disruption for effect. It also contains a Latin quote that, at that time, would have been taught in grammar schools, so Owen would have expected his readers to understand the Latin quotation at the

Surprise can often be good or bad, but it is always intriguing. Authors surprise their audiences by using a device called situational irony to make the story interesting. Situational irony can produce other emotions too. For example, O.Henry uses situational irony to produce an element of humor in “The Ransom of Red Chief”. Another example is in “The Necklace,” Guy de Maupassant uses situational irony to produce and effect of justice. By examining these two stories , it is clear that authors utilize situational irony to affect the reader's emotions.

         However these are the only real differences in the three poems.  Although they all seem to be trying to say the same thing,  maybe with exeption of the second poem,

The first poetic device I encountered was on lines 1-2 “when rage grows, hot as an army of red ants”. From this we can tell that the author is furious, or mad at someone or something. Red ants are usually thought of as harmful, and the color red usually can be used to generalize anger or frustration. So from the first couple of lines we have a sense that the author is mad. This kind of gives of a frustrated tone to start of the poem.

“Satire is a literary technique in which people's behaviors or society's institutions are ridiculed for the purpose of bringing about social reform” (Holt). Swift’s use of satire to address controversial concerns during the time period is one of the reasons this story is still relevant and analyzed by students today. Swift keenly uses satirical elements such as incongruity and parody to deliver uncompromising commentary on English politics and humanity as a whole, and it does it so effectively that he has been called “the greatest satirist in the English Language” (Holt).

William Shakespeare, the playwright of Romeo and Juliet, includes many ironical instances where the audience knows the outcome of a situation, but the characters don’t. Dramatic irony leave audience members in anticipation as they are waiting for the fate of the characters to unravel before them. The whole idea of dramatic irony is to create a sense of suspense as a story unfolds. Shakespeare wrote this play with an intent to add tension in the atmosphere as the play unveils itself. While the characters may not know what lies ahead of them, spectators are left alone with their thoughts, questioning if the worst is yet to come.

Christopher Marlow’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepard” uses similar imagery, but their different tones demonstrate the opposing views of how romantic and ironic the two poems are. Both of the poems are expressed through the tone of their speakers expressing their thoughts. In “The Passionate Shepard “the young man is expressing his love to this young lady who he would love to be with. He is very sincere in what he is saying to the woman and is trying his best to swoop her off her feet. In Raleigh’s Nymph the speaker is tone is very contradicting toward what is being said in Marlow’s Passionate Shephard.

Wilde’s poem, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ details the prisoner narrator’s first-hand experience in the prison and provides an account of a condemned man’s last days before being hung. The emotional nature of the poem allows the prisoner to express how he feels about the events he sees and the significant impact this has on him. ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ is likely largely biographical and details Wilde’s own personal experience of being in prison. Largely, the poem explores themes of punishment, retribution, forgiveness and societal influence. Initially, the poem appears to be clearly about attacking the judicial system, however others would argue that the prisoner’s personal experience is more important because it evokes more feeling for readers and is more influential as changing societal views on prisoners compared to being an attack on the judicial system.

During the restoration in the eighteenth century, wit and reason came to the forefront of literary works. Keen intellect and sharp observation exposed moral corruption of the neoclassic British society through the use of satiric literature. Although they placed importance on the ideals of order, knowledge, and rational, there was an underlying obsession with maintaining a façade of moral and political supremacy. British satirists, such as Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, aimed to expose their society’s shortcomings, and to ridicule centuries of conditioned thought. Although Pope and Swift used different mediums to present their satire, they both focused on the ludicrous aspects of British nobility, and found ways to point out their morally corrupt standards of living.

“The Hangman (upon his Death bed) concerning his beheading his late Majesty, Charles the first, King of Great Britain; and his Protestation and Vow touching the same; the manner how he was terrified in Conscience” (Brandon 1649). Literature such as this introduction to the confessional of King Charles’ executioner, John Milton’s “Lycidas,” and Richard Lovelace’s “The Grasshopper” prove that where there is social unrest, there will be writing that responds to it, and mid-seventeenth century England had a lot of chaos to consider. War disagreements and corruption within England’s church were key occasions that censored and shaped the work of Milton and Lovelace. Milton’s repeated use of symbols, metaphors, and indirect allusions to the clergy in his poem speaks volumes about the political control and religious tensions in England. Lovelace’s royalist themes, and careful juxtaposition of words and allusions in his poem convey the leisure and political opposition of the Cavalier men to the Puritans. The context and literary devices in both contribute to making them skillfully crafted cultural references indicative of the rising tensions during which they were composed.

The purpose of satire is to show what is bad or weak about something or someone through humour and exaggeration. Jonathan Swift is known as ‘The Godfather of Satire’, Swift himself defined satire as; “satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s faces but their own’. Here, Swift explains how everyone who reads his satire will see how he is mocking everyone else, apart from themselves. The use of satire gives ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’ complexity when looking at the meaning, similarly to Sonnet 130, making it eligible for the canon of English Literature, as one of the requirements to be eligible is that the work has “…complexity…”. Swift published ‘A beautiful young nymph going to bed’ in 1734, the poem is satirical, and it satirise women’s artificiality; “Takes off her artificial hair” and their use of the male gaze. He wrote the poem in the 18th century, when around 63,000 prostitutes were working in London, a terrible time, as prostitutes became more popular and more common, sexually transmitted