Misogynist World
The age of satire, a time when ridicule through prose and verse was the epitome of writing. The standard paradigms were portrayed in satires as either degrading or embellishing societal norms, groups or individuals. I will focus on two authors that played an important role during the age of satire: Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Both men were literary geniuses and developed their own style but had slightly different satirical tone. “Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope and “The Lady’s dressing room” by Jonathan Swift both entail satire upon the same subject, women. Both Pope and Swift were misogynists that used satire to ridicule the daily life of women and their position in society. Before continuing, I must inform you that while both of these men may be considered misogynists, Swift is more extreme than his counterpart Pope. In “The Lady’s Dressing Room” Swift, a master of verse, paints grotesque imagery of seamlessly everyday activities of a woman getting ready to start the day. The poems first stanza implies that all women need no less than
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A great example of this in “Rape of The Lock” is how Belinda acts after losing a lock of hair to the Baron, “Forever cursed be this detested day, Which snatched my best, my favorite curl away!—Oh, hadst though, cruel! Been content to seize Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!” (Pope 147, 175). Pope exaggerates elements of the story by using personification to elevate the subject to a higher level. Pope wrote the Mock Epic to show how superficial culture was in the 18th century. In Swift’s writing he uses hyperbole and a mocking tone in various parts of the poem to get his point across. This emphasizes the absurdity of much of what is being discovered about Celia. Swift’s satirical style was more scathing than Pope’s gentle chiding
Swift’s use of these three devices created a captivating and somewhat humorous satire. He used irony and ethos to emphasize the ridiculous nature of the essay, and to show how the practice of eating children would be unethical. He used ambiguity to make the essay a more comedic work rather than a horror about the gruesome practice of child cannibalism. Overall, the satirical essay was
Even though the sarcastic tone isn’t always explicit, a reader who knows the intended purpose of the essay is able to find examples. For starters, in line 28 Swift writes about the horrors that overpopulation causes. He says, “There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! Too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.” This line is written as serious. It calls the death of babies a crime, and describes the “savage” and “horrid” infanticide; yet the thesis of the essay is about the systematic murdering and consuming of one year old children. The sarcasm in this line is that it intentionally misses the point of the thesis it supports, in a way that is almost
Although Alexander Pope's, The Rape of the Lock, and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal are both witty satires, they differ on their style, intention, and mood.
Swift wants his readers to interpret his speaker as a kindhearted, sensible gentleman with a sincere concern for resolving problems for the Irish people. In the first eight paragraphs, the reader meets an affectionate man with precise insight into the predicament he will shortly address. By doing this, the speaker establishes himself up as someone who would not make an outrageous proposition. This makes his words even more effective.
...ture the attention of the audience by means of “political pamphleteering which is very popular during his time” (SparkNotes Editors). The language and style of his argument is probably why it is still popular till this day. By using satire, Swift makes his point by ridiculing the English people, the Irish politicians, and the wealthy. He starts his proposal by using emotional appeal and as it progresses, he uses ethos to demonstrate credibility and competence. To show the logical side of the proposal, he uses facts and figures. By applying these rhetorical appeals, Swift evidently makes his argument more effectual.
The main theme in Drake’s work is feminism, with the author seeking to disprove the male stereotypes that have painted women as being intellectually inferior. Written as a letter to a female friend, as is thus indicated: “In a letter to a lady”, the author is said to have been inspired to write the essay by some conversation between ladies and some gentleman. In vindicating the
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
In the poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” written by Jonathan Swift, one may say he portrays himself to be a chauvinist by ridiculing women and their cryptic habits. However, others may say he wants to help women from the ideals placed upon them by society and prove to be an early feminist. This poem written in the 18th century represented women to be fake and sleazy at first. Then during the 20th century, the feminist movement used it as an attack against women, depicting the poem’s meaning as not valuing their rights and freedoms. The truth far hidden from these points of views became uncovered recently.
Anne Finch is considered to be a very outspoken woman in her lifetime and a well-known feminist today. In The Introduction, Finch uses language to educate the reader on the impacts of a woman living in a male-dominant society. From the beginning of the poem, we are introduced to the notion that her poem will never hold a place in society simply because she is a woman. She states this as a fact when she says: “True judges might condemn their want of wit/And all might say they’re by a woman writ” (Finch 239. 7-8). Here, the use of the word “wit” is a negative connotation to the belief that all women lack intelligence and that they can try to find and prove their intelligence but will always fail. This line not only gives the reader insight into the life of a woman during the 17th century, but it also helps to explain the message behind this poem in particular. That being said, she continues to use language almost sarcastically when she mocks the roles imposed on her by men: “They tell us we mistake our sex and way; /Good breeding, fashion, dancing, dressing, play /Are the accomplishments we should desire;
Elizabeth Gaskell's Nineteenth Century novel, Mary Barton, is an example of social realism in its depiction of the inhumanities suffered by the impoverished weavers of Manchester, England.
Political irony and satire are essential to both texts under review. Swift knows that people in a country are always prone to look at the problems they see in their political leaders
In 'The Rape of the Lock' Alexander Pope (1688-1744) employs a mock-epic style to satirise the 'beau-monde' (fashionable world, society of the elite) of eighteenth century England. The richness of the poem, however, reveals more than a straightforward satirical attack. Alongside the criticism we can detect Pope's fascination with, and perhaps admiration for, Belinda and the society in which she moves. Pope himself was not part of the 'beau-monde'. He knew the families on which the poem is based but his own parents, though probably comfortably off, were not so rich or of the class one would have to be in to move in Belinda's circle. He associated with learned men and poets, and there can have been little common ground between the company he kept at Will's Coffee House and those who frequented Hampton Court.
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own” (Swift). Such beholders, as Jonathan Swift astutely emphasizes, are intended, through guidance of satiric narrative, to recognize social or political plights. In some satires, as in Swift’s own A Modest Proposal, the use of absurd, blatant exaggeration is intended to capture an indolent audience’s attention regarding the social state of the poor. Yet even in such a direct satire, there exists another layer of meaning. In regards to A Modest Proposal, the interchange between the voice of the proposer and Swift’s voice introduces another medium of criticism, as well as the opportunity for readers to reflect on how well they may fit the proposer’s persona. In such as case, the satire exists on multiple levels of meaning—not only offering conclusions about moral problems, but also allowing the audience to an interpretation of their place among the criticism.
Weinbrot, Howard D. Eighteenth-Century Satire: Essays on Text and Context from Dryden to Peter. 2007;
In the end, a story that appears to poke fun at the carefree lives of upper class women actually gives great appreciation to the subtle powers women hold over men. It could be argued that one of the most important powers of women is that of controlling men with their trivial problems and needs. Perhaps Pope was demonstrating women's skill in controlling men by simply playing the part of the vain shallow debutant. Whatever his intentions were it is clear that Alexander Pope did not in fact find the women of his time to be completely powerless, instead they were the driving forces of the household and of society.