18th Century the Age of Satire
Satire can be described as the
literary art in verse or prose, the function of which is to expose the vices or
follies of some person or persons, with the purpose of ridiculing or
bantering. The objective of satire is critical, but a good satire, as noted by
Dryden, has clinical and corrective effects too.
The 18th century is essentially an
Age of Satire. Judging and condemning became common to the society of this age,
and this habit naturally gave birth to the spirit of satire. Actually in the 18th century satire is everywhere in the air. There is satire in poetry, in
drama, in prose, as well as in the essay and novel. Indeed it is a great age of
Prose-Satire, and Jonathan Swift, the greatest of prose Satirists in English,
belongs to this period. Addison and Steele are the other remarkable prose
satirists of the century. So Satire is the predominant form of literature of
the 18th century and Swift, Addison and Steele used this powerful
weapon in their famous work.
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