Anybody that picks up a book with Dryden’s poetry, might find it challenging to understand his satirical writing. For example, in Mac Flecknoe, he references authors, plays, and ideas of his time, that are not popular today. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult for the casual reader to understand his jokes, comparisons and other mechanisms he used to make fun or criticize his contemporaries. Although it is difficult to understand every single idea he wrote, one thing is clear; he knew how to cleverly insult, criticize someone. This idea of satire still exists today, but I think it has change in how it is deliver. Most people today are not going to pick up a book of poetry to read how someone is making fun of someone else. For the majority of people, poetry is not the preferred method to be satirical. Instead, they will produce music videos, write blog posts, create memes, film movies and do any other creative project they feel will transmit their messages. A few examples of t
When reading Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, it is difficult to point the author's attitude towards the institution of slavery. At times, one might feel that she condemns slavery but at other times, one might feel that she accepts it. In his essay, Captains and Slaves - Aphra Behn and the Rhetoric of Republic, Warren Chernaik explains how Aphra Behn writes about the practice of slavery through the character of Oronooko and how critics interpret her story as a pro slavery narrative. One quote that resonated with me and sounds accurate when trying to decide whether or not the author is pro slavery or not is, "the narrator (Behn) objects to the royal class of people being enslaved, not to the act of enslavement itself” (99). Since the beginning, Behn makes a clear distinction between Oroonoko and the other slaves. At all times, Oroonoko seems to be better than the other slaves, as he is described to have English like values, Roman education and innate beauty. She does not have such a high regard towards the other slaves of the island. To the author, the only mistake or wrongness that Oronooko has dwells in his skin color. Additionally, Behn makes Oronooko the most important character of her story by making him die like a true hero. It is clear that to the author, Oronooko is very important. Behn does not seem to have this vehemence when writing about the institution of slavery itself. To the author, what slave traders to do Oroonoko seems not right, not because slavery is wrong but because Oroonoko is the one taking the punishment.
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