Question

2. Although the story is about a missing nose, it is also a social satire that makes fun of social/moral attitudes, behaviors and habits of people. Can you give one good example of such a satirical criticism and explain it?

Answer 1

A good example of satirical criticism is given below. It criticised upper middle class in a satirical way.

The Rape of the Lock (By Alexander Pope)

Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is an example of poetic satire in which he has satirized the upper middle class of eighteenth century England. It exposes the vanity of young fashionable ladies and gentlemen, and the frivolity of their actions. For example, Pope says, about Belinda, after losing her lock of hair:

“Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honor, or her new brocade…”

The line mocks the values of the fashionable class of that age. The trivial things were thought of as equal to significant things. For Belinda, the loss of her virtue becomes equal to a China jar being cracked. It criticises the so called values of the fashionable age and upper middle class.