Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh

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Brideshead Revisited: 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

Key Examples in Brideshead Revisited

Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Archaeologists:

During the Prologue, Charles remarks on his uninspired military surroundings, making observations about the architecture as an archaeologist might observe a dig site. These observations end up being rather satirical in nature:

The smoke from the cook-houses drifted away in the mist and the camp lay revealed as a planless maze of short-cuts, superimposed on the unfinished housing-scheme, as though disinterred at a much later date by a party of archaeologists.
“The Pollock diggings provide a valuable link between the citizen-slave communities of the twentieth century and the tribal anarchy which succeeded them. Here you see a people of advanced culture, capable of an elaborate draining system and the construction of permanent highways, over-run by a race of the lowest type.”