Speaker

All poems have a speaker – a specific character who narrates the events of the poem. Sometimes, the speaker is involved in the events of the poem, but in this case, the speaker seems to be an outside voice (this is fairly typical for Swift's work). The speaker has a clever, sardonic tone. His function is to relate what happens, but also to comment on it in a sarcastic fashion. In this poem, the speaker's presence is explicitly revealed at the very end, with the first usage of the pronoun "I" occurring in line 129. This allows him to enter and interpret the poem for the reader, after the narrative has already been told.

Celia

The first character introduced is Celia. She is a beautiful and fashionable young woman, who spends a great deal of time and expense in making sure that she always looks fashionable and attractive. However, readers...