The Rape of the Lock Essay example -- The Rape of the Lock Alexander P

The Rape of the helix pontiffs portrayal of Belinda and her bon ton in The Rape of the Lock This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to Fame,And midst the Stars encrypt Belindas Name In The Rape of the Lock Alexander Pope (1688-1744) employs a mock-epic title to satirise the beau-monde (fashionable world, society of the elite) of eighteenth century England. The richness of the verse, however, reveals more than a straightforward satirical attack. Alongside the criticism we can detect Popes fascination with, and perhaps admiration for, Belinda and the society in which she moves. Pope himself was not opus of the beau-monde. He knew the families on which the poem is based but his own parents, though probably comfortably off, were not so rich or of the categorise one would have to be in to move in Belindas circle. He associated with learned workforce and poets, and there can have been little park ground between the company he kept at Wills cocoa House and those who frequented Hampto n Court. The incident at the centre of the poem is the Barons theft of a lock of hair and the ensuing estrangement of two families. The opening lines of the poem introduce the reader to the satirical stance he is taking towards the society portrayed in the poem.What dire Offence from amrous Causes springs,What mighty Contests rise from deceitful Things, I.1-2Pope suggests that they are taking a trivial incident also seriously, displaying an exaggerated sense of their own importance. Throughout the poem Pope continues to cast this point through his use of the mock-epic style, which itself takes a trivial incident overly seriously, and uses disproportionately grand language to describe an unworthy subject. Belinda is belittled earl... ...y men of the age. An affinity between them is revealed by Popes empathy, fine judgements, and carefully aimed criticisms, and Pope essential have been at least a little fascinated by the beau-monde to apply his talents to this poem which, in an ironic way, celebrates Belinda and her world and, as Pope himself suggests in the final couplet of the poem, has preserved them for posterity.This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to Fame,And midst the Stars calculate Belindas Name V.149-50ReferencesButt, John (Ed). The Poems of Alexander Pope. A one-volume edition of the Twickenham text with selected annotations. London. Methuen & Co Ltd. 1963. First published in University Paperbacks 1965, Reprinted with corrections 1968. Reprinted 1977BibliographyCunningham. The Rape of the Lock. Oxford University Press. 1971Gordon. A infix to Pope. Longman. 1976