Comparing Satire in Canterbury Tales, Pride and Prejudice and The Rape

Use of Satire in Canterbury Tales, Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock Jane Austen and Alexander Pope had had a myriad of writing styles and techniques from which to express the desired themes of their works.   Satire, however, seemed to be the effective light-hearted, yet condescending, tool that enabled them to surface the faults and follies of their moral and elite society.   In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, satire is used to the full extent in revealing the glutton within a pious and sacrificing nun, the vain hunter within a poor and meditative monk, and the vulgarity within a honorable woman of society.   In Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock, Austen and Pope use contrasting forms of satire to obtain the same result as Chaucer:   to ridicule society's hypocritical and supercilious   manner by forcing it to see the absurd truth of what society pretends to be and what it really is.   In order to create satire in their literature, Austen and Pope must place an ironic, mocking language in an environment, and allow the la nguage to transform its surroundings into a parody of human moral regression.   The essence of satire in Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock begins with the writer's mocking use of diction, and then spreads to how the characters, tone, and theme of the literature are heightened to a level that identifies with supercilious society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Characters in Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock are necessary tools in establishing satire within the stories.   Austen uses a range of different character types in order to highlight the absurdity of society.   For example, Elizabeth Bennet differs greatly from her other sisters and young ladies of Hertfordshire because h... ...rning within society to undermine its flaws.   Austen and Pope were great writers and observers of their time, and though they have passed, their writings continue to reveal the hidden follies of humanity.   Humanity has not made any extremely valuable changes beside the obvious advancements that are expected through time.   However, there will always be literature to magnify humanity's growth and regression, urging its readers to never hide from the truth. Works Cited: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992. Pope, Alexander. "The Rape of the Lock". The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1993.