DorisAnn McGinnis Literary Analysis Essay 2

But satire, ever moral, ever new, Delights the reader and instructs him, too. She, if good sense refine her sterling page, Oft shakes some rooted folly of the age, Nicolas BoileauDespreaux. Nicolas is stating how satire is used in writing and what it is supposed to mean. Sometimes authors hide criticism within their writing and sometimes you may be able to find satire and irony behind the words. Shakespeare is a great example of criticizing other poets using satire. In Shakespeares Sonnet 130, he writes about his true love and her flaws. In a typical love poem the poet would over express how perfect his girl is, whereas in the Sonnet, Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that your love doesnt have to be perfect. For example instead of describing his love by floating when she walks, she treads on the ground. This quote gives off the connotation that she isnt very graceful. Or when the average poet would describe his mistress as having eyes like the sun, he says the exact opposite, My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun. At this point, one might think that Shakespeare is just being critical or mean. However he makes up for it in his last line stating And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare, showing the true meaning of the sonnet. Throughout the poem he criticizes her and who she is but in the end all that matters to him is her. She doesnt have to be perfect. She doesnt have to have eyes like the sun she can just be ordinary and he still loves her. His message is telling other poets that you dont have to describe your love as perfection because she doesnt have to be perfect and other poets shouldnt build their mistresses up to be something they are not. Expanding on his point about perfection hes using satire to describe what he believes to be true love and how it should be written. In Mark Twains Advice to Youth, the speech he gives is full of satire and humor criticizing the stereotypical advice that adults try to pound into childrens heads. His tone is sarcastic like. He says that you shouldnt over react to things that you should simply wait for

DorisAnn McGinnis your chance to hit him with a brick, and that is and that is how far you should go. Now

obviously we know by common sense that you should never hit someone with a brick. However Twain is trying to connect with these kids on a different level. He wants to make them think in a different light on behavior. Also when Twain talks about lying he never says that lying is wrong only that you need to be careful otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Twain uses this technique to show the kids that they know the difference between right and wrong. When he never says you shouldnt lie. Kids obviously know lying is wrong he is just humoring them because he knows that they hear the same thing all of the time. He thought it was time they heard a different kind of behavior speech. In Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour, she uses irony to prove her satirical point that you shouldnt be selfish in your marriage. In the story, Chopin is criticizing the wife who is the main character. She foreshadows Mrs. Mallards death when she is told her husband is dead and she went to her room alone, and would have no one follow her. Also foreshadowing comes from the window in her room always being mentioned as being opened. This might indicate that Mrs. Mallard planned on jumping out of the window. We later find out that Mrs. Mallard is glad her husband is gone. But when she finds out that this was a mistake and her husband was alive, she died on the spot of heart failure. Chopin could be indicating that she deserved to die because she wanted her husband dead. When Mrs. Mallard shouts Free, free, free, we see that she was happy that she was getting her freedom back from her husband. So instead of killing her because she was depressed, Chopin killed her because she was happy, showing Chopins ironic point. In the world of writing there are those few people who choose to go against the norm. They stand out when they write against what is popular. When writers use irony or satire in their writing usually they are criticizing other authors, poets etc. They might do this because it is a good way to get their point across using satire and irony, whereas if they just plainly stated that point, it wouldnt be as interesting and people wouldnt be interested in their writing.

DorisAnn McGinnis