How to Identify Swiftian Irony Anonymous College

Johnathan Swift was an expert at satire, using irony and sarcasm as mediums to expose people’s stupidity and foolishness. The main targets of his irony were usually government and society. By writing Gulliver’s Travels in an adventurous style, he can hide the satire and irony in the story more easily, making it seem like the characters opinions and ideas rather than his own. There are many instances within Gulliver’s Travels that display Swift’s use of irony that would later be known as Swiftian irony. The reason why Swift’s irony is easily detectible is because he is so brute and bare about it, now-a-days we would say that this method is known as, not having a filter. Swift, through Gulliver, makes ironic statements that attack government in different ways in each part of the book.

In part 1, Gulliver is in a city called Lilliput which is filled with a lot of tiny people where he has been held hostage by the emperor. There is an irony in itself just about the size of these people, they have so much pride for being significantly smaller than Gulliver. Swift intended this to be a satire not only on the government but to human nature in general, he is saying people in power are overly prideful because of the resources that they...