Contrast Between Satire in The Rape Of The Lock and A...

Contrast Between Satire in The Rape Of The Lock and A Modest Proposal Although Alexander Popes, The Rape Of The Lock and Jonathan Swifts A Modest Proposal are both witty satires, they differ on their style, intention, and mood. To begin, in The Rape Of The Lock, Alexander Pope uses Horation satire to invoke a light, whimsical, melancholy mood to illustrate the absurdity of fighting over the cutting of ones hair. In fact, Horation satire is defined by K. Lukes as a device that is: urban, smiling, witty and seeks to correct the human foibles. and is further reiterated in The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary terms as: Horation satire, often contrasted with the bitterness of Juvenalian satire, is a more†¦show more content†¦Of course, such an event is viewed by Pope as foolishness: an idiotic event which has no bearing on the movement, creation, or destruction of the universe. In fact, a calamity in which the worst consequence is that Belinda has a sister lock that now sits uncouth, alone (English, 1125). Thus, the intent of Pope is not to be invective or bitter but rather to give insight to the comical nature of the event, to bring to light that the universe does not move to the cutting of ones hair and that to have such a mistaken belief is foolhardy. This mockery and satire of aristocratic society is revealed by Pope throughout the poem: Belinda is depicted as a heroine goddess whose beauty causes The tortoise here and elephant unite, / Transformed to combs, the speckled and the white (English,1113). Furthermore,her trinkets are depicted as being spoils and ornaments of war, as one would use to prepare for battle: files of pins extend their shining rows, / Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, [and] billet-doux (English,1113). This is comical in that such commoneveryday items suddenly have grave importance to the preservation and transformation of Belindas beauty. They bring her from the mundane to God-like. Yet, the irony exists that these are just everyday items. The tortoises and ele phants did not giveShow MoreRelatedEssay about A Swift Change Is Imminent1714 Words   |  7 PagesAt a first glance, a misogynist’s paradise is apparent when perceiving Jonathan Swift’s The Lady’s Dressing Room and a cannibalistic one in A Modest Proposal. However, Swift’s intricate feelings do not depict Ireland’s crude social convention, but rather for Swift’s revolutionary vitriolic satire, which permeates humanity’s blindness through political stand points. By using grotesque metaphors, to open the figurative eyes of the public, Swift’s poetry forced society to analyze the ways of livingRead MoreThe Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wylde658 Words   |  3 Pagesshe believes, are educated. However throughout the play, the reader comes to comprehend that Lady Bracknell herself does not possess the intelligence or knowledge to be considered â€Å"educated,† which leads them to see that the divergence in education between the upper and lower class is rather minor, if there is any at all. Ensuing Lady Bracknell’s opinions, those of the lower class ought to lack the intellect of the upper class. Instead, a member of a lower class system, Miss Prism, is illustrated as