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Motifs
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Fogg's reason for firing Forster is ludicrous, but it plays on real fears people had in the 19th century. With industrialization came mass production, intensified assembly lines, and the idea that human beings were only valuable if they could perform very specific jobs with machine-like precision. People feared—rightfully so, in many cases—that human workers would come to be seen as replaceable. First they would be replaced by one another, and later they would be replaced by machines like the cotton gin.
Forster is fired for not behaving more like a machine. But the novel also demonstrates that employers want human workers to act like machines for silly reasons. Machine-like workers aren't better, they are simply fashionable. It seems possible that the water may have cooled by as much as two degrees during the time it took Fogg to measure the temperature. A machine may be as exact as Fogg wants, but even that might be a stretch. Forster is clearly a detail-oriented servant if he gets the shaving water so close to Fogg's desired temperature, and it seems unlikely that Fogg is going to find anyone who can do a better job every single time. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Fogg would be able to tell the difference between 84° shaving water and 86° shaving water were he not using a thermometer to check. What would have been perfectly fine to his human senses is a problem only once he involves technology. This early moment in the novel seems to suggest that Fogg's unrealistic expectation of Forster actually makes him more unhappy than he would be if he were to simply accept that his servant is human.
This early moment sets the tone for the novel's sustained satire on industrial society. A moment of situational irony at the end of the novel, in Chapter 37, punctuates the satire:
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey, and this merely because he had travelled constantly eastward; he would, on the contrary, have lost a day, had he gone in the opposite direction, that is, westward.
Fogg's entire goal in the novel is to prove that he can operate like a machine, and that the entire world operates like a machine. But it is only due to random chance and human error that he succeeds at all. The irony of this resolution drives home the idea that pursuing machine-like precision is a fool's errand for humanity. Fogg barely makes a profit from his journey. Although he technically proves that he can travel around the world in 80 days, he also proves that humanity will always be fallible.
Related Themes:
Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Fogg's reason for firing Forster is ludicrous, but it plays on real fears people had in the 19th century. With industrialization came mass production, intensified assembly lines, and the idea that human beings were only valuable if they could perform very specific jobs with machine-like precision. People feared—rightfully so, in many cases—that human workers would come to be seen as replaceable. First they would be replaced by one another, and later they would be replaced by machines like the cotton gin.
Forster is fired for not behaving more like a machine. But the novel also demonstrates that employers want human workers to act like machines for silly reasons. Machine-like workers aren't better, they are simply fashionable. It seems possible that the water may have cooled by as much as two degrees during the time it took Fogg to measure the temperature. A machine may be as exact as Fogg wants, but even that might be a stretch. Forster is clearly a detail-oriented servant if he gets the shaving water so close to Fogg's desired temperature, and it seems unlikely that Fogg is going to find anyone who can do a better job every single time. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Fogg would be able to tell the difference between 84° shaving water and 86° shaving water were he not using a thermometer to check. What would have been perfectly fine to his human senses is a problem only once he involves technology. This early moment in the novel seems to suggest that Fogg's unrealistic expectation of Forster actually makes him more unhappy than he would be if he were to simply accept that his servant is human.
This early moment sets the tone for the novel's sustained satire on industrial society. A moment of situational irony at the end of the novel, in Chapter 37, punctuates the satire:
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on his journey, and this merely because he had travelled constantly eastward; he would, on the contrary, have lost a day, had he gone in the opposite direction, that is, westward.
Fogg's entire goal in the novel is to prove that he can operate like a machine, and that the entire world operates like a machine. But it is only due to random chance and human error that he succeeds at all. The irony of this resolution drives home the idea that pursuing machine-like precision is a fool's errand for humanity. Fogg barely makes a profit from his journey. Although he technically proves that he can travel around the world in 80 days, he also proves that humanity will always be fallible.
Related Themes:
