Around the World in Eighty Days

by Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days: Satire 1 key example

Definition of Satire

Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:

In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:

On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.

Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:

In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:

On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.

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