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Personification
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
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Selfish and Cowardly:
The young Boy conscripted into the war satirizes the various conmen and criminals who make up the late Falstaff’s gang:
As young as I am, I have observed these three
swashers. I am boy to them all three, but all they
three, though they would serve me, could not be
man to me. For indeed three such antics do not
amount to a man: for Bardolph, he is white-livered and red-faced, by the means whereof he faces it out but fights not; for Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword, by the means whereof he breaks words and keeps whole weapons; for Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest he should be thought a coward.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—The Phrase of War:
Following the successful siege of Harfleur, the English Captain Gower satirizes those soldiers who avoid fighting but return home to England with tall tales of their imagined accomplishments:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Why, ’tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and
then goes to the wars to grace himself at his return into London under the form of a soldier; and such fellows are perfect in the great commanders’ names, and they will learn you by rote where services were done—at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Pistol the Gentleman:
As the tide of battle turns in favor of the English, Pistol apprehends a French Soldier whom he intends to ransom for money. In a satirical scene full of dramatic irony, the French soldier mistakes Pistol, a low class criminal, for an English nobleman. The Boy translates for the Soldier, stating:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He gives you upon his knees a thousand thanks,
and he esteems himself happy that he hath fall’n
into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most
brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy seigneur of
England.
Related Themes:
