Exam 25: The Limits of Reason

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The lofty goals of the Enlightenment did not often match the harsh realities of eighteenth-century life.Satire was the most popular way of expressing this disconnect and became the favorite weapon of social reformers,who drew attention to the vast contradictions between morals and manners,intentions and actions.
The satires of Jonathan Swift,particularly Gulliver's Travels,are social statements on the vagaries of human behavior.Swift wrote many pamphlets and letters protesting social and political ills,serving as an inspiration to other writers,such as Voltaire.Voltaire's satirical masterpiece Candide addresses the age-old question of how evil can exist in a universe created and governed by the forces of good.With a sure hand,Voltaire manipulates the principal satirical devices:irony,understatement,and overstatement.His mock optimism underscores the contradiction between the ideal and the real that lies at the heart of all satire.
Satire has appeared in other forms too,as in Chinese literature,as well as the visual arts.Although protesting different social issues,Chinese satire was also effective in attacking some of the more socially inhibiting practices of traditional Chinese culture,such as female footbinding.In William Hogarth's prints,London,a city of vast contrasts between rich and poor,is portrayed as a place crowded with thieves,drunks,and prostitutes,all of whom threatened the jealously guarded privileges of the rich.