Quote #51811
She wears her clothes, as if they were thrown on her with a pitchfork.
Jonathan Swift
About This Quote
This quote needs no introduction—at least for now. We're working on adding more context soon.
Interpretation
Swift’s line is a characteristically barbed piece of social satire: it mocks a woman’s appearance by suggesting her clothing sits on her so awkwardly and carelessly that it might as well have been hurled onto her by a farm tool. The humor depends on incongruity—fashion and refinement contrasted with rustic, violent imagery—and it also reflects Swift’s broader habit of puncturing pretension through bodily or material details. Read more generally, the remark targets not only the individual but the social performance of “proper” dress: failure to wear clothes with grace becomes a sign of disorder, vulgarity, or indifference to decorum.




