10 Examples of Satire

The satire It is a genre or literary text that can be in prose or verse and in which, with humorous or burlesque procedures, ways of being and behaving are criticized. For example: The Metamorphoses, by Apuleius.

In satirical texts, the irony, ridicule, caricature and sarcasm to show disapproval with respect to a person, a social group, an issue or a phenomenon with the aim that the reader receives a moral teaching or modifies certain habits.

According to specialists in the subject, satire is a typical Roman composition that arose in the 2nd century BC. C., but which takes up the irony of Greek iambic poetry and the comedies of Aristophanes. However, others maintain that the texts of Menippus of Gadara from the 3rd century B.C. c. They were the first satires, which later gave rise to Menippean satire.

In any case, satire as a poetic composition and as literary genre It was written and developed in different periods and subsequent artistic movements, such as the Golden Age and Neoclassicism.

To keep in mind:The concepts of satire and parody are not synonymous, although they are two forms of irony. In satire, the ridiculed or criticized object is a subject, a social group or a way of thinking. Instead, in the parody the object on which irony is made is another text, procedure or literary genre. However, this does not imply that in the same work there can be satire and parody.

• See also: sarcasm and irony

satire features

• Types of texts. Satire is present in different types of texts:

• texts in verse. They are generally poems. For example: sonnets, romances, epigrams and letrillas.
• prose texts. They are generally Narrative texts. For example: novels and essays.
• menippean satires. They are those in which verse and prose are mixed.
• Theater plays. They tend to be comedies, although there may also be satire in tragedies.

• Topics. The subjects or the objects towards which the satire is directed can be the ways of behaving, a specific person, a social group, an ideology, a political regime, a way of thinking, philosophical or scientific theories, among others.
• Style. The style of satire is always ironic, but it is also often burlesque, humorous, or sarcastic.
• Aim. The objective of satire is to criticize to transmit a moral teaching, to modify people's behavior and to show the author's disapproval of the ironized subject.
• Rhetorical figures and literary devices. The rhetorical figures and literary devices used in satire are the hyperbole, the comparison, the caricature, the double meaning, juxtaposition, among others.

Examples of satire

1. fragment of Book XIII, from Gaius Lucilius (148 or 147-102 or 101 B.C. C.). It is a satire in verse in which banquets are ironized.

Add a bag of cordovan coming from Syracuse...
Suppress first of all solemn banquets and carousing.
This same thing is done at a banquet; you will present oysters bought for many thousands of sesterces.
But when we sit down at the table, amply supplied, at great expense...
The food of the banquet was identical to that eaten by the almighty Jupiter.
And not like a poor man, with a broken plate of Samos soil. (…)

1. Fragment of "First satire" of the Book I, of Fifth Horace Skinny (65-8 a. C.). It is a satire in verse in which the behavior of certain subjects is criticized.

Why is it that no one well found
He lives, or Maecenas, with that state
That, perhaps, chance destines him,
Or to whom by choice, perhaps, he bows?
And he has to have any
How happy is the one who follows another career?
Happy the Merchant! Says the Soldier,
Of years and fatigues broken.
Oh! The Merchant cries, on the other hand,
When his ship suffers adverse wind,
It is better, yes, the profession of Mars.
What is he reduced to? In a moment,
The fight is locked
And in speedy death he ends,
Or in a festive and glorious expiration.
The lawyer with envy praises
To the Labrador, if before the rooster crows
The Litigant is knocking at his door:
And to Labrador himself, when he abandons
His estates, and in Rome he appears
because of his person
A guarantor responds, it seems to him
That only the Citizen is enviable.
Of this there are so many examples every day,
That even Fabio, the indefatigable talker,
If he were to quote them, he would get tired.
And for not entertaining you further,
Listen to what end my talk I direct.
If a God told them: Go in-good-time;
That I come to tell you; you, Soldier,
You have to be a Merchant; and you, Lawyer,
In Labrador you will return now:
Change your roles: go: ea! (…)

1. Fragment of “Sixth satire. Against the Avaricious”, by Aulo Persio Flaco (34-62 d. C.). It is a satire in verse in which greed is criticized.

(...) The vulgar here does not worry me, nor does it worry me 
Gone with the cruel midday wind 
He guards the unhappy herds.
Not even if by chance the neighboring estate 
it's better than mine. Congratulations 
Enrich those who unworthy
Condition rise; not for that
Premature old age saddens me,
I will not diminish my food, nor anxious
I'll go put from a tasteless bottle 
The nose on the stamp. what else thinks
Diversely. Horoscope, you guide
To two twins in different directions:
The only one in his native prodigal 
Dried legumes that dexterous moistens
With brine bought in a vile vessel,
Sprinkling the dish with pepper himself
That which sacred thing participates,
While the other with great teeth
His rich patrimony squandered.
I will enjoy my fortune,
Without that, for that reason, it serves my freedmen 
The exquisite turbot, or want
That exercised the palate distinguishes
Of all species. Live alone
With what your own harvest yields;
The grain grinds that your barns keep
What is it that intimidates you? (…)

1. Fragment of "Satire V", by Décimo Junio ​​Juvenal (60-128 AD. C.). It is a satire in verse in which the king's behavior at a banquet is criticized.

(...) If you are still not ashamed of the plan you are carrying out and your attitude is the same,
namely, to consider the highest good to live on the crumbs of others,
if you are capable of enduring what not even Sarmiento would have endured
nor the man sold from Gaba at Caesar's discriminatory table,
Even if you swear to me, I would be afraid to trust your testimony.
I know of nothing more frugal than the stomach. Suppose, however,
that you lack exactly what an empty belly needs:
Isn't there a free step? Isn't there somewhere a bridge and a piece
of mat even less than half? Do you appreciate an insulting dinner that much?
Is your hunger so starving, when it is possible to tremble with cold there,
but more honorably, and bite into a piece of filthy, dog-friendly bread?
First of all, get into your head that when you are invited to eat
You receive a full salary for your past services.
The fruit of an important friendship is food: the king puts it on your account,
and, as weird as it sounds, he puts it on your account, yes.
(...) Look what body the lobster they bring to the master has, how
enhances the tray, and with what a complete asparagus garnish,
and that tail with which he dismisses the crowd as he approaches
carried aloft by the hands of the imposing waiter.
Instead, a prawn is served to you in a tiny bowl
enclosed within half an egg, a funeral offering meal.
The master sprays his fish with Venafro oil. On the contrary,
the faded cabbage they bring to you, wretch, will smell
to lamp. Because the oil is put on your plates
that have transported with sharp prow the ships of the Micipsas (...)

1. Fragment of "Icaromenipo or above the clouds", by Luciano de Samósata (125-181 AD. C.). It is a Menippean satire that is written in the form of a dialogue and in which various philosophical currents are ironized.

(...) Menippus. "Listen, then, since the spectacle of leaving a friend with their mouths open does not seem polite to me, especially if, as you say, he is hanging by the ears."

As soon as I, in my investigation of life, began to discover that all human endeavors were ridiculous, petty, and insecure - I mean riches, positions, and powers-choosing to despise them considering that the effort to achieve them was an obstacle to achieving the truly serious ones, I tried to look up and contemplate the Universe. At that time, what philosophers call “Cosmos” caused me great perplexity from the outset, since I could not discover how it had been formed, who was its creator, what its beginning and to what end it tended. (…) 

Finding myself at that point, I understood that it was best to learn all these issues from those well-known philosophers, believing that they could explain the whole truth to me. Therefore, after selecting the best of these, according to what he could surmise from the seriousness and pallor of the face and the thickness of the beard -very grandiloquent and knowledgeable of the firmament, such men immediately appeared to me-, I gave myself into their hands through the disbursement of a large sum, partly in cash at that time, agreeing to pay the rest later, after reaching the top of the wisdom; He hoped, therefore, to acquire the science of celestial phenomena and to understand the system of the Universe. But they were so far from getting me out of my former ignorance, that they caused me to fall into greater perplexities, by pour over me, day by day, first principles, final causes, atoms, voids, elements, ideas and other things for the style. But what was most difficult for me of all was the fact that none of them agreed with another when he explained, but that all the doctrines were contradictory and opposed; and yet each one tried to convince me and win me over to his own theory.

Friend. —Strange is what you say. It is surprising that these men, being wise, fought among themselves because of their theories and did not share identical ideas on identical issues. (…)

1. Fragment of "Gourd of the Divine Claudius", by Lucio Anneo Seneca(4 a.m. c.-65 d. C.). It is a Menippean satire in which the deification of Claudius, a Roman emperor, is ironized.

(…) Listen to what happened in heaven. My informant is solely responsible for the veracity. It is announced to Jupiter that a person of good stature has arrived, well into gray hair; that he threatens I don't know what, because without stopping he shakes his head, and that he drags his right foot; when asked what nationality he was, he answered I don't know what, with an altered tone and a confused voice; you don't understand his jargon; he is neither Greek nor Roman nor of any known people.

3. Then Jupiter commands that Hercules, who had traveled the whole world and seemed to know all the countries, go and find out which nation he belongs to. Hercules, at the first glance, suffered a tremendous start, as if he still had monsters to fear. Upon noticing the appearance never seen before, in the pilgrim walk, in the voice not of a terrestrial animal, but like sea monsters usually have, hoarse and jumbled, he thought the thirteenth had come to him. job. Looking more closely, he thought he saw some kind of man. So he approached him and -very simple thing for a countryman from Greece- blurts out:

“Who are you and where do you come from? Where is your city [and your parents]?”

Claudio rejoices that there are men of letters there, and hopes that there will be some place for his stories. Thus, he also responds with another verse from Homer, implying that he is Caesar:

"A wind carried me from Ilio brought me closer to the Cicones",

but the next line was more exact, and no less Homeric:

There I razed the city and exterminated the people. (…)

1. Fragment of "Aula de cortesanos", by Cristóbal de Castillejo (1490-1550). It is a satirical poem in dialogue in which the subjects of the court are criticized and ridiculed.

(...) Lucretius: And so it goes
the world, where there will never be
in this case moving;
that no one is worth more anymore
of what he has and reaches,
as we see
in a thousand ruins that we know
show off gentlemen,
of whom great case we make
for just having money
And power,
and others who, due to lack
of these temporal goods,
no one misses them
being noble and loyal;
by way of
That I make an effort, even if I don't want to,
for not sleeping on the straw,
find path or career
to improve my jewelry.(…)

1. "To Don Francisco de Quevedo", by Luis de Góngora (1561-1627). It is a sonnet, in which the objective of the satire is a special person, the writer Francisco de Quevedo.

Spanish Anacreon, there is no one to stop you,
that does not say with much courtesy,
that since your feet are of elegy,
that your softnesses are of tuck.

Will you not imitate Terenciano Lope,
that of Belleforte every day
on clogs of comic poetry
he puts on spurs, and gives him a gallop?

With special care your cravings
They say they want to translate into Greek,
not having looked at it with your eyes.

Lend them to my blind eye for a while,
because I brought out certain lazy verses,
and you will understand any greguesque later.

1. Fragment of “Second satire. To Arnesto. On the bad education of the nobility”, by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (1744-1811). It is a satire in which the habits, knowledge and education of the nobles are criticized and ridiculed.

 (...) Such is it, so rancid and so unparalleled his lineage,
that although muffled and brown hair,
He owes nothing to Ponces or Guzmanes.
You don't appreciate them, you think more than they do,
and he lives like this. Her fingers and his lips,
calloused from cigarette smoke,
index are from his upbringing. Never
he went from B-A ba. never his travels
beyond Getafe they spread.
He went there once to see some steers
together with Pacotrigo and la Caramba.
By signs, that he returned with stars,
excessively drunk, and slept in the open.
Examine him. (...) nothing knows.
tropics, era, geography, history
they are exotic words for the poor. (…)

1. Fragment of "Vanity", by Voltaire (1694-1778). It is a satire in which a moral reflection on vanity is made.

Why freak accident?
Tell me, poor creature,
Does that grim frown cover your broad brow?
What is, tell me, the cause
How bulging your eyes twinkle
The rage and fury? -The universe
Avenge must thus my outraged honor;
For him I am contemplated,
and future centuries
with impartial justice
See the malice of my opponents.
-The universe, friend, nothing thinks
He hasn't even thought about you, let alone
Posterity will have to do with you.
So take care of your business
With sensible sanity, and of your life
Take advantage of fleeting moments (…)

Interactive test to practice

Follow with:

• Difference Between Prose and Verse
• Lyric
• aesthetic discourse
• literary caricature
• types of literature
• types of poems

References

• Hutcheon, L. (1992). Irony, satire and parody. A pragmatic approach to irony. in h. Silva (Ed.), From irony to grotesque (173-193). Iztapalapa Metropolitan Autonomous University.
• Ministry of Education and Training (Spain). (2010). Introduction to literary genres: theory and exercises. Technical General Secretariat.
• Munguía Zatarain, M. AND. and Gidi Blanchet, C. AND. (2015). Satire. In Spanish Dictionary of International Literary Terms. Available in: DETLI
• Rest, J. (1991). modern literature concepts. CEAL.