Irony in Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad

Abstract

Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad is considered by many as one of the masterpiece of piece of literary creations in English. It covers almost all elements of irony, personal, social, political and intellects, as well. Composed in order to settle his personal debts on hack writers of his time, Pope’s The Dunciad went on to become one of the finest literary creations of his time and continues to have equal impact to date. It covers a simple story line upon the death of the King of Dunces, an assembly of the dunce organize a competition to elect their king and every character of dunce presented in the poem, is an allegorical figure to an old literary enemy of Pope. The poem is a mockery on the contemporary intellectuals of his time, who claimed themselves as innovative writers, and in the process, Pope goes on to present the social and political scenario of his time.