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Why is The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great considered a grim satire?
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Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding, frontispiece to Fielding's Works (1st ed., 1762), engraving by James Basire after a drawing by William Hogarth
The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743) is considered a grim satire because it employs a mock-heroic idiom to draw a derisive parallel between the criminal underworld and the political elite of England.1
By narrating the life of a notorious historical criminal, Jonathan Wild, Henry Fielding satirizes the concept of human "greatness," specifically critiquing how it is often confused with the exercise of power over others. The work is characterized by its unremitting irony, which serves to expose the moral corruption inherent in both criminal and political spheres. Because of this sustained, biting tone, it is regarded as one of the grimmest examples of satire in the English language.2