Genre studies Unit-IV The Satire

 

                                                            The Satire

            The satire is found in both poetry and prose. It has no set form. A verse satire might be written as an ode, an elegy, a ballad, or anything else.

Origin

            The satire is of classical origin. The plays of the Greek Aristohanes are masterpieces. Its chief exponents in Latin literature were Horace, Persius and Juvenal, who were imitated all over Europe during and after the Renaissance. They set the model for Elizabethan and Augustan satire in England.

            Satire may be defined as a literary composition whose principal aim is to ridicule folly or vice. Some of the notable satires in English poetry are Dryden’s “Absalom and Achitophel”, “Mac Flecknoe”, Butler’s “Hudibras”, Pope’s “Dunciad” and Byron’s “Vision of Judgement”.

 

Essentials of a Good Satire

            The satire may be inspired by either a personal grievance or a passion for reform. It is an attack on a person or group of persons or on social evil or foil. It is primarily light literature, hovering at times on the confines of burlesque. It is intended to ridicule, not to abuse.

            The satire, like an arrow, has to take the shortest route to its target. It must be terse and concise so as to say a great deal in a brief space. Prolixity destroys its effect.

 

Subjects of the satire

            The satirist’s trade is censure. He condemns whatever he does approve, and each age has had its own set of vices to ridicule. The satire, like the drama, holds the mirror up to nature, and lashes out at contemporary follies and foibles. Chaucer and Langland attacked corruption in the church and other vices such as dishonesty on the part of traders and men of law. Victorian era was a great period of verse satire. Personal attacks have gone out of fashion, but social conditions and problems and every aspects of modern civilization, offer countless subjects to the satirist, and the plays of Bernard shaw are as an example of how widely and effectively a gifted writer.