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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
Book 1, Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Casaubon:
With the character of Casaubon, Eliot is satirizing a certain type of wealthy and self-important intellectual with poor social skills. For example, the letter that he writes to Dorothea declaring his love for her is laughably awkward and stilted:
I have discerned in you an elevation of thought and a capability of devotedness, which I had hitherto not conceived to be compatible either with the early bloom of youth or with those graces of sex that may be said at once to win and to confer distinction when combined, as they notably are in you, with the mental qualities above indicated.
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Book 1, Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Rosamond:
Though Eliot is sympathetic to Rosamond at different points throughout the novel, she also portrays her character in a satirical light. Rosamond as a character is meant to satirize upper-class young women who attract and marry men strategically in order to maintain or increase their class position. This comes across in how the narrator describes Rosamond’s internal experience when first meeting her soon-to-be-husband Lydgate:
Unlock with LitCharts A+(Every nerve and muscle in Rosamond was adjusted to the consciousness that she was being looked at. She was by nature an actress of parts that entered into her physique: she even acted her own character, and so well, that she did not know it to be precisely her own.)
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