Elements of Satire

M. Mowery

Walter Payton College Prep

Chicago, IL

What is satire?

Satire: a manner of writing that mixes a critical attitude with wit and humor in an effort to improve humankind and human institutions. Satire uses irony and other related rhetorical devices to cause the desired effect.

What is irony?

Irony: the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning; an expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.

I. Verbal Irony

Verbal irony is the use of words to convey something other than, and especially the opposite of the literal meaning of the words, to emphasize, to aggrandize, or to make light of a circumstance or subject:

A man stares out a window looking at a miserably muddy rainy day and remarks, “Lovely day for a stroll.” This remark is ironic because it expresses the opposite of the circumstances.

II. Socratic Irony

Socratic irony is when a person pretends to be ignorant of something or someone in order to expose the weakness of another's position. Utilized in a debate or argument, one party may feign a lack of knowledge about a topic and thus will make the other party explain his/her position in great detail. It is in explaining the topic that hopefully the person will expose the fallacy or weakness in the position.

III. Tragic or Dramatic Irony

Tragic irony or dramatic irony heightens the suspense in a given situation. In this form of irony the words and actions of the characters, unbeknownst to them, betray the real situation, which the spectators fully realize. In other words, the character cannot see or understand the contrast, but the audience does. An example is in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when Romeo commits suicide after he believes Juliet to be dead.

IV. Situational Irony

Situational irony occurs in literature and in drama when persons and events come together in improbable situations, creating a tension between expected and real results:

If Bill Gates were to win a contest whose grand prize was a computer system, the irony would be situational because such a circumstance would appear ridiculous or "funny" for a number of reasons. Bill Gates doesn't need a computer, he runs the world's largest software company, and he's already rich, so winning a computer seems silly and "ironic.”

Situational Irony continued

The true "oddness" cannot be explained logically, even though everyone would find that particular situation weird, funny, and "ironic.” This sense of being "unfair" or "unfortunate" is a trademark of situational irony.

V. Understatement

A form of irony in which something is intentionally represented as less than it is:

“Michael Jordan was a pretty good ball player.”

VI. Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which exceptional exaggeration is deliberately used for emphasis rather than deception:

“I am so tired that I feel dead.”

Parody

To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing in order to ridicule the original. For parody to be successful, the reader must know the original text that is being ridiculed.