Named after the Roman satirist Horace, Horatian satire is more tolerant and witty. It is one of the two types of satire, a kind of Irony which means you say one thing but mean another.
Before we move any further, Let’s just pause a while and see what we will be reading in this post. Well you guessed it perfectly right, Horatian Satire. But apart from this, we will be having a brief of
What is Satire
It is a literary art of deprecating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward attitudes of amusement. Usually, satire is meant to be humorous, but constructive criticism at social level is more often its main motive. The usage of wit to draw attention toward the wider issues in society. We should also know that laughter is generally not an essential component of satire, in fact you will be thrilled to know that there are types of satire that are not meant to be “funny” at all.
You must have noticed in political arena, people using humor to make fun of a serious matter in order to point out foolishness of people. That’s satire.
What is Horatian Satire
Named after the Roman satirist Horace, Horatian satire is more tolerant and witty. It is one of the two types of satire, a kind of Irony which means you say one thing but mean another. This includes indulgent and witty voice. It is clever and humorous form that generally mocks others. This humor is not negative in nature. One of the famous example is Gulliver’s travel. I am sure you have heard this story before. We will discuss about it later in the post.
At present, this form of irony is practiced by cartoonists, writers and comedians to express their views.
What is Juvenalian Satire
The other type is Juvenalian satire which is names after another Roman satirist, Juvenal. In this, the speaker attacks vice and error with contempt and indignation. Juvenalian satire is more personal and it tries to generate anger in the reader. This from in its fidelity and its harshness is in strong contrast to the former Horatian satire.
Horatian is mild and lighthearted humor. On the other hand Juvenalian is more abrasive. The former criticizes some social vice whereas the latter addresses social evil.
Horatian Satire Examples
From time to time, we come across several examples of satire in literature. We have listed below popular examples of Horatian and Juvenalian Satire by Jonathan Swift.
Swift is a famous satirist from Ireland. The Irish satirist shows the difference between Horatian and Juvenalian Satire with his famous work listed below.
A well known example of Horatian satire is Gulliver’s Travels. What happens in this story is that Gulliver takes four different voyages and he encounters four strange lands. In each land, The author is attempting to satirize some aspect of English society. For example, when Gulliver is in Lilliput, he learns that people are appointed to office based on their ability to walk a tightrope. He is satirizing and trying to highlight the way the English nobility of his day chose, based on connection to the court and bloodlines. Second example of horation sarcasm is Simpsons by Matt Groening, a long running cartoon which mocks american life in a funny way.
Juvenalian Satire Examples
The other illustration of Swift’s Juvenalian satire is ‘A Modest Proposal’. This is a much more personal and outraged piece of satire, where the author suggests an outlandish and unconventional solution for England to deal with the Irish problem, cannibalism.