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'Fools rush into my head, and so I write' (Satire II.i, l.4). Discuss the role of satire in the work of Pope and Swift.
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'Fools rush into my head, and so I write' (Satire II.i, l.4).Discuss the role of satire in the work of Pope and Swift. Satire can be defined as trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly, it seems a contradiction in terms to say that satire need have no moral lesson or didactic purpose, for the essence of satire seems to be aggression or criticism, and criticism implies a systematic measure of good and bad. An object is criticised because it falls short of some standard which the critic desires that it should reach. Inseparable from any definition of satire is its corrective purpose, expressed through a critical mode which ridicules or otherwise attacks those conditions needing reformation in the opinion of the satirist. 1 The genre of satire is arguably different from most other criticism in that satire's ultimate aim is to improve human institutions...
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