1. Satire Key Terminology

2. Irony
A perception of inconsistency, sometimes humorous, in which the significance and understanding of a statement or event is changed by its context. Example: The firehouse burned down.

3. Dramatic Irony
The audience or reader knows more about a character’s situation than the character does and knows that the character’s understanding is incorrect.
Example: In Medea, Creon asks, “What atrocities could she commit in one day?”The reader, however, knows Medea will destroy her family and Creon’s by day’s end.

4. Structural Irony
The use of a naïve hero, whose incorrect perceptions differ from the reader’s correct ones.
Example: Huck Finn.

5. Situational Irony
Irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.

6. Verbal Irony Example: A large man whose nickname is “Tiny.”
A discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant; sarcasm.
Example: A large man whose nickname is “Tiny.”

7. Satire Examples: Animal Farm; Gulliver’s Travels; A Modest proposal
Using humor to expose something or someone to ridicule.
Examples: Animal Farm; Gulliver’s Travels; A Modest proposal

8. Philosophical Optimism
This is a school of philosophy that believes that everything that happens in the world has some point and, in the end, everything happens for the best. For example, in the event of a disaster, the “good end” of what seems to be a tragedy may not be apparent at the moment, but there is good that will come out of the disaster. Voltaire opposes this point-of-view because he thinks it makes people complacent and discourages them from working to make things better in the world.

9. The Problem of Evil
The presence of evil in this world is something philosophers, theologians, and average people have long grappled with. Philosophers pose this question: “If God is all good and all knowing, how can He allow such terrible, evil things to happen in a world that He has created?”

10. Divine Providence
Allied with the belief in Philosophical Optimism was a religious notion that there is a divine will that guides our fate; that is, everything that happens to us is God’s will. Related to the question of Divine Providence is the question of Free Will. If our lives are ordained by God, are we responsible for choosing good or evil in our lives? Do we have any control over our lives, or are we simply pawns of fate?

11. Cause and Effect
This idea is used by philosophers to prove the existence of God. They argue that for every effect there must have been a cause; in tracing this back we eventually reach the “uncaused cause”: God.

12. Sufficient Reason
In Leibnitz’s philosophy, the sufficient reason is that which justifies the existence of things. Like the uncaused cause, the ultimate sufficient reason is God (Perfection Learning).

13. Humor
Voltaire conveys his satirical messages through humor. There are three basic types of humor.
• Humor of situation involves exaggerated events or situational irony.
• Humor of character often involves exaggerated personality traits or characters who cannot recognize their own failings.
• Humor of language may involve verbal irony, puns, hyperbole, or absurd language.