Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich :: Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich Essays

Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle RichJonathan Swift has suggested that Satire is a select ofGlass, wherein Beholders do generally discover every bodys Facetheir own which is the master(prenominal) reason...that so few are offendedwith it. Richard Garnett suggests that, Without humour, ridiculeis invictive without literary form, and it is simple clownishjeering. (Encyclopaedia Britannica 14th ed. vol. 20 p. 5).Whereas Swifts statement suggests that throng are not offendedby satire because readers identify the characters faults withtheir own faults Garnett suggests that humour is the blusher elementthat does not make satire offensive. With any satire person isbound to be offended, but the technique the author uses can reposition something offensive into something embarrassing. Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich isa nonthreatening, humorous, and revealing satire of the chastefaults of upper class society. The satire acts as a moralinstrume nt to expose the effect money can have on religion,government, and anything within its touch. Writing most suchtopics is hard to do without offend people. Leacockstechnique combines money with humour, and accompanies his moralmessage with ironic characters their exaggerated actions, and aconstant comical tone to prevent readers from being offended. Leacocks utopian conception is filled with humorous labels thatrepresent the Plutonians personalities. Ourselves Monthly amagazine for the ripe self-centered, is a Plutonian favourite.To fill their idle days, the Plutonian women are in an endlesssearch for trends in literature and religion. Without thedistractions of club luncheons and trying to deliver the goods the HigherIndifference, the women would have to do something productive.Readers that identify themselves with the class of people thePlutonians represent would be embarrassed rather than offended byLeacocks satiric portrayal of them. The Yahi-Bahi Oriental Society exaggerat es the stupidityof the Plutonians to a point where the reader laughs at thecharacters misfortunes. The con men give ridiculous propheciessuch as Many things are yet to happen before others begin.(Leacock 87), and eventually teach their money and jewelry. Theexaggeration increases the humour while the moral message isdisplayed. The characters of the raw are ironic in the sence thatthey percieve themselves as being the pinicle of society, yetLeacock makes the facial expression like fools. For someone who pridesthemself on being an expert on yet about everything, Mr.Lucullus Fyshes (as slimmy and cold as his name represents)perceptions are proven false. Mr. Fyshe makes hypocraticstatments about ruling class tyranny, while barking down the neckof a abject waiter for serving cold asparagus. Leacock exposes the whole Plutonian buisness world to be