A Lock of Hair and a Wounded Heart Throughout the course of history and its literature, authors and poets have served as messengers for the times in which they lived, whether it be about political upheaval or social constructs or the lives of the common man. One way this was accomplished was through satire. Alexander Pope, whom of which lived in the literary Restoration period and wrote the poem, “The Rape of the Lock,” in 1714, provides a work as an excellent example of satire. He parodies the
The Roaring Girl Though its primary function is usually plot driven--as a source of humor and a means to effect changes in characters through disguise and deception—cross dressing is also a sociological motif involving gendered play. My earlier essay on the use of the motif in Shakespeare's plays pointed out that cross dressing has been discussed as a symptom of "a radical discontinuity in the meaning of the family" (Belsey 178), as cul-tural anxiety over the destabilization of the social
1. allegory: a literary work that has a second meaning beneath the surface, often relating to a fixed, corresponding idea or moral principle. 2. alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds. It serves to please the ear and bind verses together, to make lines more memorable, and for humorous effect. • Already American vessels had been searched, seized, and sunk. -John F. Kennedy • I should like to hear him fly with the high fields/ And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless
Medieval Kardashians: (A discussion of the effectiveness of Chaucer reaching his intended audience through his use of satire in selected text from Canterbury Tales) There were very few enjoyable aspects of the 1300’s in England. At that time food was terrible, everyone stunk; there was no cure to the plague, and no reality TV to pass the time. Then Chaucer entered the picture and made life a little more bearable. According to Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature Geoffrey Chaucer was
is his love for the theatre. Author Horatio Alger Jr. states, “He (Dick) was fond of going to the Old Bowery Theatre.”# According to Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes in Buffulo Bill in Bologna, “With it’s legion of famous performances and a host of Burlesque entertainers, vaudeville, by the turn of the century, had become a staple in the lives of millions of Americans.”# “According to one study, roughly 15 percent of America’s urban population attended at least one vaudeville show a week, enabling theatres
there was once an Oxford student named Nicholas, who studied astrology and was well acquainted with the art of love. Nicholas boarded with a wealthy but ignorant old carpenter named John, who was jealous and highly possessive of his sexy eighteen-year-old wife, Alisoun. One day, the carpenter leaves, and Nicholas and Alisoun begin flirting. Nicholas grabs Alisoun, and she threatens to cry for help. He then begins to cry, and after a few sweet words, she agrees to sleep with him when it is safe to
himself which is ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’ and for his horse which is ‘Rocinante’. Additionally, since “a knight errant without a lady-love is a tree without leaves or fruit, a body without a soul” (1/1 p.29) he finds “a good-looking peasant girl” called Aldonza Lorenzo and decides to call her ‘Dulcinea del Toboso’. So this peasant girl becomes a princess, the most beautiful lady in the world for him to whom he may serve “as if he really were in love” (1/1 p.31). Don Quixote refutes the common perspective
Horatian and Juvenalian Satire Satire has many definitions, but according to Merriam Webster satire can be defined as “A literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn” (Webster). This definition is likely used by many authors who exercise the application of satire. Satire has been in literature since ancient times; it is derived from the Latin satura, meaning "dish of mixed fruits," (Weisgerber). Many satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises
In a significant number of his tales Chaucer uses the comic genre of fabliaux, which are short, typically anti-intellectual, indecent tales of bourgeois or low life. The plot usually involves an older husband who is cuckholded by a younger man whom (often) the older man has himself brought into the house, and his often younger wife. The Miller, the Reve, the Merchant and the Wife of Bath all tell tales which are essentially amoral - in fitting with the genre; tales which would not have been acceptable
Have You Eaten Yet?: Swift’s Final Solution 	As a lately favored eighteenth century essay, Jonathan Swift’s "Proposal" has been canonized as a satirical model of wit. As will be discussed shortly, Swift’s essay is often seen as an allegory for England’s oppression of Ireland. Swift, himself and Irishman (Tucker 142), would seem to have pointed his razor wit against the foreign nation responsible for his city’s ruin. Wearing the lens of a New Historicist, however, requires