Analyse, discuss and compare the epic features of the Invocation in book 1 of Paradise Lost with that of The Rape of The Lock.
An epic is defined as a grand poem narrating the deeds or adventures of heroic or legendary figures, or the past history of a nation. An epic is characterized by certain features which include an invocation to a muse, journey to the underworld, presence of supernatural force, the use of grand complex epic smiles and an epic battle besides many others. Both the poems, Paradise Lost by Milton and The Rape of The Lock by Alexander Pope fulfil the features that are required for poems to become an epic poem.
The Paradise Lost is a traditional epic where as The Rape of The Lock is a mock epic. The traditional epic usually originates from the ancient oral tradition, where as a mock epic is created to satirise contemporary manners and attitudes of the society ( the English society in the …show more content…
Epics are divided in books and cantos where as mock epics are divided into cantos. Paradise lost has 12 books where as Pope’s Rape of the law has only 719 lines. (Paradise lost book 1 in itself has 700 lines).
The epic starts in medias res that is in the middle of the story and uses retrospective narration. Where as a mock epic starts with the beginning of action. Paradise Lost begins with the fall of man and then explains what has happens before and after where as The Rape of the Lock begins from the initiation of the action.
The descent into underworld is a chief feature of an epic, in Paradise Lost this descent comes when the fallen angels are punished and sent to hell. In The Rape of the Lock there is a descent to the cave of spleen. In showing Umbriel’s journey into the cave of spleen he mimics the journey to underworld taken by epic heroes like Aenias and Odysseus.
There are some allusions that The Rape of the Lock makes to Milton’s Paradise lost (book
An epic is defined as a grand poem narrating the deeds or adventures of heroic or legendary figures, or the past history of a nation. An epic is characterized by certain features which include an invocation to a muse, journey to the underworld, presence of supernatural force, the use of grand complex epic smiles and an epic battle besides many others. Both the poems, Paradise Lost by Milton and The Rape of The Lock by Alexander Pope fulfil the features that are required for poems to become an epic poem.
The Paradise Lost is a traditional epic where as The Rape of The Lock is a mock epic. The traditional epic usually originates from the ancient oral tradition, where as a mock epic is created to satirise contemporary manners and attitudes of the society ( the English society in the …show more content…
Epics are divided in books and cantos where as mock epics are divided into cantos. Paradise lost has 12 books where as Pope’s Rape of the law has only 719 lines. (Paradise lost book 1 in itself has 700 lines).
The epic starts in medias res that is in the middle of the story and uses retrospective narration. Where as a mock epic starts with the beginning of action. Paradise Lost begins with the fall of man and then explains what has happens before and after where as The Rape of the Lock begins from the initiation of the action.
The descent into underworld is a chief feature of an epic, in Paradise Lost this descent comes when the fallen angels are punished and sent to hell. In The Rape of the Lock there is a descent to the cave of spleen. In showing Umbriel’s journey into the cave of spleen he mimics the journey to underworld taken by epic heroes like Aenias and Odysseus.
There are some allusions that The Rape of the Lock makes to Milton’s Paradise lost (book