The ‘rape of the lock’ to which the poem’s title refers, and the major event of the poem, is the seizing, by force (‘rape’ coming from the Latin rapere, to seize), of a lock of hair from a young lady named Belinda by her suitor, the dastardly Baron. This does not happen until the end of the poem’s third canto, with the delay itself being a parody of the way in which Milton, for instance, makes his reader wait until over halfway through Paradise Lost before narrating the crucial event of the Fall of Mankind.
The rest of Pope’s poem is given over to intricate, comical descriptions of Belinda’s boudoir, the trials of the card table and the activities of the gloomy gnomes and sprites at the court of the Queen of Spleen, who sends Belinda, via Umbriel the gnome, a bag of ‘sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues’, and a vial filled ‘with fainting fears, / Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears’
Why did Pope write The Rape of the Lock?
The work was inspired by the scandalous news that Robert, Baron Petre (1690–1713), had surreptitiously snipped a curl from the head of Arabella Fermor (c. 1689–1738), a society beauty. The incident caused ‘estrangement’ between two Catholic families, so John Caryll, Petre’s guardian, asked Pope to ‘laugh them together again’.
In Pope’s verse, Belinda represents Arabella, while the Baron represents Lord Petre. The first version, with just two cantos, was dashed off in a fortnight in 1711 and privately circulated. It was then printed anonymously in Lintot’s Miscellany of 1712. Two years later, Pope produced this expanded five-canto version, adding the dark Cave of Spleen episode and the supernatural ‘Machinery’ – a band of sylphs who protect mortals, like the gods in ancient epics. In 1717, Pope produced a third version, which includes Clarissa’s speech promoting ‘good-humour’ for women.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9800/9800-h/9800-h.htm (this is link of poem and pope's other work.)
(this is video of the rape of the lock summary. you can watch video and you can better understand this poem and questions written further.)
1.) According to you, who is the protagonist of the poem Clarissa or Belinda? Why? Give your answer with logical reasons.
2.) What is beauty? Write your views about it.
3.) Find out a research paper on "The Rape of the Lock". Give the details of the paper and write down in brief what it says about the Poem by Alexander Pope.
4.) Write your views about the significance of hair. Is it symbolic?
Q-1. According to you who is the protagonist of the poem clarissa or belinda? why?
Representative of Social Class of 18th Century:
Belinda is a true representative of fashionable, aristocratic ladies of Popes age. Pope calls her a moving toy shop who keeps flirting. All the ladies of that age were regarded as petty triflers, devoid of serious concerns with life, and engaged in trifling pursuits like playing cards, having pets, sleeping till noon, dance and gaiety. Belinda’s fall represents the corruption of her class. Pope satirizes the flippancy and depravity of 18th century English society through Belinda’s Character.
“Here files of pains extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux”
Belinda’s character is an outstanding portrait by Pope in his mock epic The rape of the lock. Among all the other heroines in English Literature like Shakespeare’s Cleopatra Ophelia Emilia; Fielding’s Pamelia; Eliot’s Maggi; Belinda had been the favorite character of Pop. The way Pope pays attributes to Belinda’s beauty with his pen; it seems that he has been enamored with his own creation. Pope describes her paragon of beauty and wittiness: the goddess of beauty, the nymph, the fair, the rival of the sun’s beams. Pope’s Belinda resembles Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. Like her, she is a paragon of beauty and the winner of men of her age.
“This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
Nourish’d two locks, which gracefully hung behind”
Belinda is a perfect creation of wit and beauty. Pope describes the way she paints and decorates herself with ornaments, diamonds, powders, patches, perfumes and puffs in front of a mirror. Then she leaves to win the heart of lovers.
“Favours to none, to all she smiles extends
Oft she rejects, but never once offends,”
Pope depicts that she passes smiles to the all to win them and flirt on them. All the young fall in spell of her beauty. Her sunny smiles, polished manners, and large shiny eyes make her a perfect trap for the young. Pope mocks at her the way she goes out to Hampton court and participates in different pursuits there. There her pretty locks are raped by the Baron. Pope mocks at her fight with the help of snuff and bodkin. Pope compares her eyes to the sun beams. He places the sun as a rival of Belinda’s eyes.
“Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike.
And, like the sun, the shines on all alike”
Pope admires her for her beauty but on the other hand he also mocks her. There is no doubt that Belinda is a beautiful and charming lady but the way she flirts is mocking and satirizing. Belinda is both an object of mockery and admiration. As a representative of her social class, she is mocked at. She is almost presented as a goddess of beauty. Pope depicts the picture of her toilet describing different items at her mirror table.
“Here files of pains extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, blllet-doux,”
Pope mocks at her that how she was fond of pets. Keeping pets was one of the common pursuits of the society. Pope satirizes the ladies who mourn the death of their pets but not their husbands.
“Not louder shrieks to pitying Heaven are cast,
When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last”
"When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,
And all those tresses shall be laid in dust;
This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name"
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