ABSTRACT
There are psychologists and sociologists who believe that the achievement of success in a competitive society, and socially approved aggressive behavior in general, are essentially forms of compensation. The compensation theory assumes that the satirist is inferior or frustrated; being inferior in some way, or feeling that he is inferior in some way, makes the satirist write satire. The inability of most satirists to write effective romantic scenes can be regarded as evidence either of lack of sentimentality or of suppressed sentimentality. In addition to explaining the satirist as a frustrated idealist, frustrated sentimentalist, or frustrated poet, some critics have made the broader charge that the satirist is frustrated because he has proved inadequate in the ordinary competition of daily life. The "frustrated-idealist" theory assumes that the satirist is a man who at one time had a high and noble vision of what society should be and how men ought to behave.
