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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
Key Examples in Oliver Twist
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Poor Laws:
Throughout the novel, Dickens uses the ironic tone of the narrator to satirize English laws for dealing with poverty, especially the Poor Law of 1834. An early instance of this satire occurs in chapter 2, which describes Oliver's infancy under this law:
[Oliver is] despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food, or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Mockable Marriages:
Dickens's novel repeatedly satirizes the convention of marriage and the trope of the marriage plot, in which the central tensions of a novel are resolved at the end with a wedding. In Chapter 5, the depiction of the Sowerberrys' marriage challenges the notion that marriage leads to happiness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here there was another hysterical laugh, which frightened Mr Sowerberry very much. This is a very common and much-approved matrimonial course of treatment, which is often very effective. It at once reduced Mr Sowerberry to begging as a special favour to be allowed to say what Mrs Sowerberry was most curious to hear, and, after a short altercation of less than three quarters of an hour’s duration, the permission was most graciously conceded.
Related Themes:
Chapter 12
Explanation and Analysis—Poor Laws:
Throughout the novel, Dickens uses the ironic tone of the narrator to satirize English laws for dealing with poverty, especially the Poor Law of 1834. An early instance of this satire occurs in chapter 2, which describes Oliver's infancy under this law:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Oliver is] despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food, or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week.
Related Themes:
Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—Poor Laws:
Throughout the novel, Dickens uses the ironic tone of the narrator to satirize English laws for dealing with poverty, especially the Poor Law of 1834. An early instance of this satire occurs in chapter 2, which describes Oliver's infancy under this law:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[Oliver is] despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food, or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week.
Related Themes:
Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Mockable Marriages:
Dickens's novel repeatedly satirizes the convention of marriage and the trope of the marriage plot, in which the central tensions of a novel are resolved at the end with a wedding. In Chapter 5, the depiction of the Sowerberrys' marriage challenges the notion that marriage leads to happiness:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here there was another hysterical laugh, which frightened Mr Sowerberry very much. This is a very common and much-approved matrimonial course of treatment, which is often very effective. It at once reduced Mr Sowerberry to begging as a special favour to be allowed to say what Mrs Sowerberry was most curious to hear, and, after a short altercation of less than three quarters of an hour’s duration, the permission was most graciously conceded.
Related Themes:
