What purpose did satire serve in the enlightenment? which enlightenment writers employed this technique?

  In the enlightenment period the main focus was reason, logic, scientific method, egalitarianism, social and scientific progress. It can be defined as an intellectual movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries focusing on rational thought, knowledge, and civil liberties. The results of the Enlightenment were the American and French Revolutions, social and civil freedoms, the rise of capitalism, and the beginnings of socialism. For the first time, society could criticize religion and monarchy without fear of persecution. This is why satire became popular.

    Printed material became widely available, and writers became celebrities. Literacy increased, criticism, gossip, information, and commentary were the new entertainment. Satire, during the Enlightenment period, served as a dramatic means of criticizing what is happening in society like being hypocritical of people in power, etc. A satire is a literature full of wit that it employs sarcasm and only those who are aware of what the satire is truly about will understand the hidden message it is trying to convey. Others simply accept it as a work of fiction and literature. The most famous writer that used satire during the Enlightenment period was Voltaire, a french philosopher.