Satire In Dorothy Parker Essay, Research Paper

Dorothy Parker was born in 1893 and died in 1967. She is known for using a mixture of humor, satire, and sarcasm in her poems. Satire is a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule of scorn. Three poems in which she uses humor, satire, and sarcasm are “R?sum?”, “Comment”, and “One Perfect Rose”.

In the poem “Comment” she uses an example of sarcasm. Sarcasm is harsh or bitter derision or irony. This poem is about how life is sweet bliss. The sarcasm displayed in the poem is the reference to Maria of Romania and the quote “And I am Maria of Romania”. Maria of Romania was a lady who had a horrible life; her life wasn’t sweet bliss as described in this poem. The point showed in this poem is described by this quote, “Dorothy Parker was famous for her wit and sarcasm”.

In her poem titled “R?sum?” she uses a mix of satire and humor. Humor is a sudden, unpredictable, or unreasoning inclination. This poem is about many ways of committing suicide, it tells you that u can uses razors, guns, acids and other things but they all hurt you in some way. The humor and satire is displayed from this line from the poem, “You might as well live”. This line is basically saying suicide is painful so just live. “Dorothy caustically shows her disapproval by use of sarcasm and satire.”

In the poem “One Perfect Rose” she tells how her boyfriend sent her one rose ever since she met him but she wants something better. The lines “Why is it no one ever sent me yet one” and “One perfect limousine, do you suppose?” shows how she wants more than just a rose. These lines show her use of humor in the poem. “The senses of adventure and fun combine with a practical turn of mind to produce works that make fun of the stated or implicit ideals”. This quote shows how she used the element in the poem.

In conclusion, Dorothy Parker uses different elements in her poems to get her point across. Some of the elements she uses are humor, satire, and sarcasm. She used these elements in different ways not the ways we use them in our writings. Her three poems “R?sum?”, “Comment”, and “One Perfect Rose” are very good examples that display how she uses the elements of humor, satire, and sarcasm.

Bibliography

Harmon, William, American Light Verse, New York: Oxford Press, 1979

Kaufman, George, Humor, New York: McGraw Hill, 1989

Parker, Dorothy, Comment

Parker, Dorothy, One Perfect Rose

Parker, Dorothy, R?sum?

Parker, Dorothy, The Way Into Thought, New York: Prentice Hall INC, 1990

Webster’s Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1998