Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Today I happily welcome all of you to the University of Queensland's open forum on satire in society, particularly on the topic of satire in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. The Oxford Dictionary states that satire is: the use of humour, irony, exaggeration to expose and criticize the stupidity or vices of people, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other current affairs (Dictionary of Oxford). Satire is an effective method of conveying a message to the audience, often convincing them to see the author's point of view. “Fools are my theme, let satire be my song” by Lord Bryon, an English poet and politician is a perfect example of satire, as it suggests that Lord Bryon enjoyed mocking the foolish people in his society ; therefore, he used satire to ridicule them because they didn't understand or were too ignorant to actually believe he was talking about them. Another example of satire is Pride and Prejudice: particularly in chapter one, Austen uses techniques such as satire and sarcasm to mock both media ...