What literary approach is characterized by ridiculing or examining human vice or weakness?

The correct answer, satire, refers to a literary approach that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to criticize and expose the flaws, vices, and weaknesses of individuals, societies, institutions, or human behavior in general. Satire serves to provoke thought and encourage change by highlighting absurdities or injustices in a way that can be both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Satirical works often aim to bring about awareness and reform by drawing attention to the issues they portray, making them effective tools for social commentary. By presenting human flaws in a humorous or pointed manner, satire engages audiences and encourages them to reflect on their own beliefs and behaviors.

While parody also employs ridicule, it is primarily focused on imitating and mocking a specific work or genre rather than critiquing societal issues at large. Irony involves a contrast between expectation and reality, often without the explicit critique of societal flaws that defines satire. Allegory, on the other hand, is a narrative technique in which characters or events symbolize deeper moral or political meanings, but it does not primarily focus on ridiculing human weaknesses.