The Rape of the Lock

A woman puts on her armor before battle. An army of guardians defend their goddess. The enemy wounds the hero, starting a war and handicapping her for eternity. These heroic metaphors create just a dent in Alexander Pope’s satirical epic The Rape of the Lock. In reality, the woman’s armor is her makeup, the guardians are just a group of ineffectual sprites, and a lock of hair is stolen from the hero’s head, causing a trifling temper tantrum. The Rape of the Lock can be compared to Beowulf in that it follows the guidelines of a heroic epic. However, The Rape of the Lock transforms the ideas of heroism by heavily satirizing it. The reason for this mocking lies in Pope’s society at the time the poem was written: a society that had fallen far below the standards of classical heroism and nobility that ancient epics usually consist of. It seemed as if Pope believed that epic tradition was unsuited to the ways that people behaved in his time, and should be adjusted accordingly. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope transforms heroism to fit his society by using the form of a heroic couplet to juxtapose the serious with the trivial. Pope’s competitive emulation with his muse John Milton kick started his alteration of the heroic epic; comparing The Rape…

Vanity has played a part in culture forever, the way people look can determine popularity or even a potential suitor. Business and commerce has been shown to capitalize on this sense of vanity each person beholds making for a more optimized marketplace. Belinda, the protagonist in Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock, has completely immersed herself as well as her essence and identity in the vainness of perfect appearance whilst her sylphs continue suit. Pope’s portrayal of Belinda’s vanity is…

The supernatural machinery developed in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock as Sylphs, nymphs, gnomes and salamanders , which are crucial in mock-epic poetry, strongly develop the literary mockery as well as brings the fundamental action of epic to the metaphysical world. Within the poem the readers are presented with the explanation as to where the spirits originated from, in essence they were once women recognized for certain traits such as Sylphs who were once beautiful women and…

Alexander Pope comments on this very form of cultural and economic cannibalism in “The Rape of The Lock.” In the first Canto of Pope’s mock-epic poem, he describes a young woman, Belinda, of incredible beauty and purity; upon her toilette sits “the various Off'rings of the World” (“The Rape of The Lock” 130). This line is intended to be satirical, as the offerings of the world are not enlightenment, self-actualization or some other grand treasure. Instead all the world has to offer are a handful…

I will firstly discuss “The Rape of the Lock” and how Pope here makes effective use of the mock epic through the course of the poem. The opening of this poem is a letter written to the actual subject matter of the poem Mrs Arabella Fermor, in this opening letter he discusses why he wrote the poem, what inspired him to do so, why he published this piece and also his reasoning for dedicating it to Arabella. The poem is split into five canto’s. The poem begins with Belinda the heroine of this story…

Pope”s use of mock-epic form in “The Rape of the Lock” In general the term epic conventions can be defined as the literary devices employed in the epic poetry of the great epics of Homer’s Iliad, Vergil’s Enid, Horace’s and Dante’s divine Comedy to explore the thematic issues which elevates the portrayals of the heroic characters that are showcased on a higher pedestal as their heroic deeds are of greater significance to their contemporary societies. On the contrary, the Augustan…

In a mock epic, the comedy arises from the discrepancy between its trivial subject matter and its grandiose treatment (source). In “The Rape of the Lock” Pope wrote about a man cutting off a lock of a woman’s gorgeous, curly hair which was a big deal. Later in the story, everyone found out that the lock of hair that was cut turned into a comet. The lock of hair turning into a comet was ironic because the woman wanted the lock back and the man that cut it thought that he was going to get to…

When you first take a look at The Rape of the Lock, and A Modest Proposal, they seem like wildly different pieces of writing. In one, a person presents a proposal to fix the poverty issue in Ireland by eating children. The other tells a story of a superficial woman who makes a big fit about getting her hair stolen. But while Rape of the Lock and A Modest Proposal are two very different pieces of writing thematically, they share a lot of the same propaganda and humor techniques that were a…

Women have had expectations and oppression brought on them for centuries. However, the present does not compare to the discrimination of the distant past and the poems, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning demonstrate in satirical, but actual works the prejudice on women in society. The poems capture the preconception on women in the past and how men have either belittled or thought of women as subservient beings whose only job is to stay lovely and pure…

The two fundamental methods of parody are amiable prodding and savage assault.' Discuss The Rape of the Lock and A Modest Proposal in the light of this announcement. The Rape of the Lock and A Modest Proposal were both distributed interestingly right on time in the eighteenth century (1712 and 1729 individually). Moreover, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift were dear companions. Given these actualities, one could undoubtedly expect that there would be various likenesses in style and contentions.…