Sunday, March 16, 2008

"Satyre against Reason and Mankind"

In "Satyre against Reason and Mankind", Rochester employs his reason as a means in which to discount man's reasoning and the actions that result. Due to each man's baseless faith in their own reasoning and under the impression that theirs is the superior, Rochester demonstrates that this thinking results in "mountains of whimseys" and only leads one "to death", destroying their happiness. Comparing his reasoning with that of others, Rochester refers to his as a "friend" that summons an appetite and enables him to enjoy life. He continues to question which is more base between man and beast, reaching the conclusion "savage man alone does man betray", referring to lust for power, envy, "pride, sloth, and gluttony" as vices in human nature that attribute to this. Rochester concludes that man differs more from his own kind then from "beast", due to their ability to "reason".

by Sara Burback

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