Satire and Tone in "The Once and Future King" Essay

Use the guided analysis exercises within the lesson as a model for this part of the assignment.

1. Locate an example of satire. Copy and paste it here, making sure to note the source where you found it in a proper citation.

Satire is a literary manner built on wit and humor with a critical attitude directed to human institutions and humanity.  A successful satiric play will show certain truths about society and then try to improve upon them.  Satire is meant to be constructive rather than destructive.  Aristophanes uses satire in Lysistrata to convey many different themes such as war and peace, the struggles of power and class, and the life and death issues that are seen in war.  Satire is successfully used and seen in Lysistrata by stereotyping women in general and then the different classes of women as well.  Double entendres are seen throughout the play to help add humor to the play.  Sex is

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is truly a satire. In The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde mocks the society in Britain, and the rules it followed in the 1800s. He uses satire in the description of every character and other themes like marriage, intelligence, morality, and lifestyle primarily aimed at the upper class of the time. At the turn of every page the use of satire proves again and again to be ideal when questioning the morals and values of people.

Chris Lilley's Summer Heights High is a highly controversial mockumentary that showcases 3 different over exaggerated characters. One of them is Jonah Takalua, a stereotypical Tongan delinquent. Many have praised his work, saying that it is a clever use of satire to convey important criticisms of today's society. However after learning about satire myself throughout this unit I have determined that Summer Heights High is an unsuitable and highly ineffective show for teaching satire in secondary school due to the high levels of crude language and stereotypical humour shown in Jonah that conceals the satirical techniques used. Jonah has been represented extremely ineffectively through the poor use of the satirical techniques of exaggerated caricature and ridicule which certainly have the potential to influence students negatively. Lilley’s social criticism of the view that all Polynesian students are seen as trouble makers, is lost by his overemphasis on the very behaviours he is satirising.

Voltaire's Candide is the story of how one man's adventures affect his philosophy on life. Candide begins his journey full of optimism that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds," but he learns that it is naïve to say that good will eventually come of any evil.

The most important character in the story of King Arthur in both versions is Arthur himself or “Wart” as he was known as before becoming King. While the movie does a decent job at portraying him as this weak unaware character, the movie does not give him enough credit for the feats he accomplishes himself. In the film, when Wart is transformed into a fish, Archimedes ultimately has to save Wart from the pike that almost kills him. However, in the book Wart manages to escape from the Pike by his own volition of knowledge, instead of the sheer power the Pike was using. Another time when Wart is portrayed as incompetent is when he is first introduced as a character. He ruins Kay’s shot at the deer and he is not even able to get the arrow back with ease. However as the story develops in the book, Wart’s character also develops. While he might start out as weak, he eventual grows into an intellectual character with depth and confidence. During his lesson with the birds of prey and his ordeal, Wart is put into a situation where he needs to outsmart Colonel Cully. He does this through distracting the Colonel by using fear as a tool: “There is a cat behind you,” said the Wart calmly, “or a pinemarten. Look” (The Sword in the Stone). On the other hand, during his lesson with the geese Lyo-lyok helped him analyze the inhumane characteristics of humanity when she said: “But what creature could

In Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut uses satire in the topics of war, aliens, fate and the reasons for life itself. In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, the author uses many literary devices to bring across his point including black humor, irony, wit and sarcasm. He mainly uses satire throughout the book. Satire is a literary device found in works of literature that uses irony and humor to mock social convention, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous to make a point.

In Sea Oak, George Saunders applies satire to examine social classes. Specifically, he utilizes the narrator’s aunt, Aunt Bernie, to explain a valuable lesson: one should appreciate what they have by making the most out of it. It is essential for us to acknowledge what we have, on the grounds that one day it might be gone. Inside Sea Oak, Aunt Bernie experiences two lives: a before life and an after-life.

“How to poison the earth” by Linnea Saukko can be seen in two different aspects. The first one would be by looking at it in a literal way, in which it will make it a very harsh, inhumane and cold text. On the other hand, it could be seen as a satire, sarcastic and ironic text in which Saukko expects to catch the reader’s attention. Saukko exaggerates the sarcasm, and satire in her writing in order to make the readers realize and understand the main purpose of her essay, which is to warn readers about threats to the future of our planet.

William Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men is novel that explores the political society and its influences. Like several politicians in modern society, several characters have qualities that seem unsuitable to the impression that have made. These ironies in All the King’s Men reveal how the characters have flaws, which can result in critical consequences. Jack Burden, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin and Willie Stark are characters that with ironic traits.

    "Like all true literary classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is still capable of engaging us, both emotionally and intellectually" (Twayne back flap) through its characters and themes. This essay illustrates how Jane Austen uses the characterization of the major characters and irony to portray the theme of societal frailties and vices because of a flawed humanity. Austen writes about the appearance vs. the reality of the characters, the disinclination to believe other characters, the desire to judge others, and the tendency to take people on first impressions.

Introducing perhaps the most major difference between the two versions of Arthur is the age difference and experience. In First Knight, Arthur appears to be old and full of wisdom. His appearance is nearly identical to those of his knights. He does seem old enough to fit the ideal status and although he more so preaches that “rules”. Arthur also seems to think that he can make decisions without notifying or asking his knights first. The knights are naturally startled when one of their enemies enters the room. Arthur then says “Malagant is here on my invitation” (First Knight) referring to their former knight. His age becomes even more evident towards the beginning of the film Arthur remarks “As you all know, I am soon to be married, And about time too,

During the years that King Arthur ruled over England, his reign is always remembered as a time of peace, a golden age, a great era, and a glorious time. However, this all comes to a halt, when two of Arthur’s most noble knights bring an affair into the open, causing his round table and kingdom to fall and bringing Arthur to his death. Written by Sir Thomas Malory in the latter half of the 15th century, books 20 and 21 of Morte D’Arthur (Death of Arthur) describe how over time, the tragic hero, King Arthur slowly loses control over his kingdom due to his ignorance, leading to a few errors in judgement that inevitably lead him to his own demise and to the passing of the great era that was the reign of the legendary King Arthur. King Arthur is a tragic hero due to his ignorance, overly trusting manner, and the careless mistakes that he makes during his time as king.

Although King Arthur is one of the most well-known figures in the world, his true identity remains a mystery. Attempts to identify the historical Arthur have been unsuccessful, since he is largely a product of fiction. Most historians, though, agree that the real Arthur was probably a battle leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons in the sixthth century. In literature, King Arthur's character is unique and ever changing, taking on a different face in every work. There is never a clearly definitive picture that identifies Arthur's character. It is therefore necessary to look at a few different sources to get better insight into the character of Arthur, the once and future king.