The satire is a literary technique that blends ironic humor and wit with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing folly, stupidity in individuals and institutions. It aims to correct or improve the society. Though writers of all ages use satire, it is the chief device practiced by the writers of the Neo-classical period. The tone of satire varies from light and witty chiding to passionate indignation to bitter denunciation. Its chief device is irony. Other satiric devices include sarcasm, innuendo, burlesque, prosody, and caricature.
Satire is sometimes divided into formal satire and indirect satire. In formal satire, the author, or a person speaks in the first person directly to the reader or, sometimes to a character who responds and leads the speaker on. In indirect satire, the satirist creates a story or play peopled with characters who speak and act in such a manner that they themselves are the targets of satire. One form of indirect satire is Menippean satire, which according to Northrop Frye, “deals less with people……….than with mental attitudes”. Satire may also be classified as Horatian satire and Juvenile satire. Horatian satire is gentle, amused and mild in nature. In contrast, Juvenile satire is harsh, amused, and bitter.
Pope’s Rape of the Lock and Swift’s Gulliver Travels are the most pungent satires ever written in English. Byron’s Don Juan is a satiric epic in which the poet makes a sever criticism of marriage without love.
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