Satire
That which attempts to correct,
censure, and ridicule the follies
and vices of society – a kind of
protest, a sublimation and
refinement of anger and
indignation
Mockery
To make fun of something
Mockery
example:
“Man is the only animal that blushes – or
needs to.”
- Mark Twain
Sarcasm
A harsh, personally directed
comment; to use praise to mock
someone
Sarcasm
example:
to refer to a 98 lb. Weakling as a “real
he-man”
Hyperbole
Overstatement – to say more than you
mean to say; to exaggerate
Hyperbole
example:
“I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse!”
Understatement
To say less than you mean to say
Understatement
example:
Mount Everest is not small
Understatement
example:
Mr. Collins was not a sensible man.
From Pride and Prejudice
Parody
Mockery of a specific, known person,
literary work, movie, event, etc.
Parody
example:
General MacArthur said, “Old soldiers
never die, they just fade away.”
Parodies:
“Old blondes never fade, they just dye
away”
“Old soldiers never die, but young ones
do”
Irony
To say one thing, yet to mean another
When there is a difference between
appearance and reality
Irony
example:
In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo & Juliet,
when Romeo tells Mercutio that his
wound is slight, Mercutio says, “No, it’s
not so deep as well, nor so wide as a
church door; but ‘tis enough, ‘twill
serve.”
It’s not that deep, but deep enough to kill
him.
Irony
examples (according to A. Morisett)
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride, when you’ve already paid
It’s a free advise, that you just can’t take
It’s a death row pardon, two minutes too
late
It’s meeting the man of your dreams, and
meeting his beautiful wife
Zeugma
A figure of speech in which a verb or
an adjective is applied to two nouns,
though appropriate only to one of
them
Zeugma
example:
in Henry V, Fluellen says,
“Kill the poys and the luggage.”
The verb “kill” cannot apply to luggage.
Zeugma
example:
from The Rape of the Lock by A. Pope
“One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;”
by describing the gossip – it makes the gossip
about the queen equal to that of the screen –
trivializing all of the gossip
Zeugma
example:
from The Rape of the Lock by A. Pope
“When husbands or when lap dogs breathe
their last”
by combining the death of the lap dog and the
husband, it trivializes the death of the husband
Mock Epic
Imitates, yet exaggerates and distorts,
the literary epic and its style
Mock Epic
example:
“The garbage man, tall and strong, lifted
his glittering can of rubbish high, as if it
were a feather, and with the strength of
Thor, hurled it into the dumpster.”
Invective
Speech or writing which is
denunciatory, abusive, or vituperative
Invective
example:
Swift’s writing denouncing the English
nobility in Gulliver’s Travels
Reversal
Peripeteia – the reversal of fortunes, a
fall
Reversal
example:
In drama, usually the sudden change of
fortune from prosperity to ruin; but it can
be the other way about
Wit
Suggests intellectual brilliance and
ingenuity; verbal deftness. It is
commonly verbal. Most definitions
point to the element of surprise in wit,
which often induces laughter. It has
been considered, since 1600, to be one
of the principal sources of comedy.