Roshni Joseph
Mr. Schwager
AP English Literature
11 March 2014
Rewrite: Satire Essay
In the eighteenth century, satire was used to bring into light the situations that were seen
to be ridiculous. English satirist, Joseph Addison, created a character to ridicule the everyday life
of people. He employs the use of parallelism, pathos and tone, and imagery and detail to
strengthen his satire.
Joseph Addison employs parallelism in his passage to strengthen his satire. Throughout
the week, Addison's character goes through the same motions. He wakes up, he eats, and he goes
to bed. However, as the week progresses, small details change. This can be seen when the diarist
chose not to go to the club on Thursday. The diarist said, "did not go to the club to-night. Went to
bed at nine o'clock." Parallelism brings into light how boring life is. By adding in the one small
detail change, Addison has put more emphasis on his use of parallelism throughout the passage.
Addison depicts the life of his character to be stiff and depressing. Joseph Addison is clearly
trying to bring attention to the same, monotonic life people of his day seem to be leading.
Through utilization of parallelism, Addison characterizes his diarist and his society as having no
real purpose or desire for anything.
Addison also adds pathos and tone to attribute to his satire. Since his goal is to bring
attention to the morbid and boring lifestyle of his diarist and his society, Addison makes the tone of the passage to be monotonic. This diarist seems to be going through the same schedule each
day and it is boring! There is barely any new detail or excitement. The diarist goes about his day
and usually takes a nap, eats some sort of food, and goes to the coffee house. Addison adds in
pathos to his passage by adding in one or two minor detail changes as the week progresses. His
addition of two changes which were not going to the club and not taking a nap brings attention to
the mundane lifestyle of the diarist. The diarist said "could not take my nap" on Thursday. The
change is not even a profound addition to the schedule, so the reader is left disappointed by the
uninteresting news. However, he also makes the reader feel happy to witness one change in the
life of the diarist. After all, it is something different. By employing satire in the depiction of the
life of the diarist, Addison makes the reader of the essay want to change the life of the diarist. Tone and pathos contribute to the satire of the passage by making the reader aware of the
mundane life the diarist leads each day.
Finally, Addison utilizes imagery and detail to add to the satire of his passage. As the
reader is going through the diarist's week, he or she comes up with the same image: a middle
class man who eats, sleeps, and goes out occasionally. The detail and imagery of the passage add
to the satire as the same imagery is being used each day. The passage continuously says how the
diarist "rose in the morning...tied his knee-strings...took an afternoon nap...went to the
club...went to bed." Addison has applied detail to the passage to bring to light the lack of desire
for change in society. Imagery and detail contribute to satire as the diarist goes through the same,
redundant motions every day.
Joseph Addison's use of satire brought awareness to the monotonic and unenthusiastic
society of his diarist. Through parallelism, pathos and tone, and imagery and detail, Addison brought attention to the morbid lifestyle of society by exposing the reader of the essay to the lack
of a desire for change.
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