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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 The Alchemist
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Antiquity :
Through the figure of Sir Epicure Mammon, Jonson satirizes what he considers to be the greed of those who live in London in the early 17th century. Jonson employs allusion and fallacy in his satirical portrait of the greedy Mammon in a scene in which Mammon attempts to convince his skeptical acquaintance, Surly, that alchemy is real:
Mam. Pertinax, [my] Surly,
Will you believe antiquity? records?
I'll shew you a book where Moses and his sister,
And Solomon have written of the art;
Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam—Sur. How!
Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High Dutch.
Sur. Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch?
Mam. He did;
Which proves it was the primitive tongue.Sur. What paper?
Mam. On cedar board.
Sur. O that, indeed, they say,
Will last 'gainst worms.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Puritans:
Through the figures of Ananias and Tribulation Wholesome, Jonson satirizes the Puritans, a religious group that, in 17th-century England, believed that the Church of England had not gone far enough in “reforming” itself after splitting from the Catholic Church. Jonson, like other playwrights of his time, satirizes the Puritans as being religious hypocrites, whose religious zeal masks a desire for wealth and power. When Ananias, for example, suggests to Tribulation that it would be unholy to work with an alchemist, Tribulation’s response reflects his own willingness to bend his principles in order to achieve his goals:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Tri. The children of perdition are oft-times
Made instruments even of the greatest works:
Beside, we should give somewhat to man's nature,
The place he lives in, still about the fire,
And fume of metals, that intoxicate
The brain of man, and make him prone to passion.
Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?
Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men?
More antichristian than your bell-founders?
What makes the devil so devilish, I would ask you,
Sathan, our common enemy, but his being
Perpetually about the fire, and boiling
Brimstone and arsenic?
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Quarreling :
In The Alchemist, Jonson satirizes various social classes and professions, revealing what he believes to be the vanity and greed that motivates many people in 17th-century London. In one heavily satirical scene, Subtle offers to teach Kestrel, a wealthy young man who has recently moved to London, how to “quarrel”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sub. Must you! ay, if your fortune will, you must.—
Come, sir, the captain will come to us presently:
I'll have you to my chamber of demonstrations,
Where I will shew you both the grammar and logic,
And rhetoric of quarrelling; my whole method
Drawn out in tables; and my instrument,
That hath the several scales upon't, shall make you
Able to quarrel at a straw's-breadth by moon-light.
