Defining Satire

By the eighteenth century Europe had undergone a series of religious wars. Out of this cultural climate grew a belief that social and political life must be based on reason, not religion. This new program of cultural reform as represented by the “Great Age of Dictionaries” stressed paying attention to all forms of language. Language needed to be purified of passionate rhetoric and misleading metaphors, which, like religion, were seen as promoting discord and divisiveness within society.