The inclusion of realistic alternatives, which are printed in italics, helps Swift's purpose because:
This refers to a figure of speech which shows the unexpected outcome of a situation which is contrary or opposite to what was expected.
With this in mind, we can see that the use of realistic alternatives was a useful tool by Jonathan Swift to show that his words were serious which was written in italics format.
REad more about irony here:
https://brainly.com/question/11821145