Alexander Pope’s:The Rape of the Lock
It is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in 1712 in two cantos but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name in 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version (794 lines).
The poem satirizes a trivial incident by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an incident recounted by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic Catholic families at a period in England when Catholicism was legally proscribed. Petre, lusting after Arabella, had cut off a lock of her hair without permission, and the consequent argument had created a breach between the two families. Pope wrote the poem at the request of friends in an attempt to "comically merge the two." He utilized the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced an entire system of "sylphs," or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodic version of the gods and goddesses of conventional epic.
Pope’s poem mocks the traditions of classical epics: the rape of Helen of Troy becomes here the theft of a lock of hair; the gods become minute sylphs; Aeneas’ voyage up the Tiber becomes Belinda’s voyage up the Thames, and the description of Achilles’ shield becomes one of Belinda’s petticoats. He also uses the epic style of invocations, lamentations, exclamations and similes. Although the poem is extremely funny at times, Pope always keeps a sense that beauty is fragile, and that the loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply. As his introductory letter makes clear, women in that period were essentially supposed to be decorative rather than rational, and the loss of beauty was a serious matter.
The humour of the poem comes from the tempest in a teapot of vanity being couched within the elaborate, formal verbal structure of an epic poem. When the Baron, for example, goes to snip the lock of hair, Pope says,
The Peer now spreads the glittering Forfex wide,
T' inclose the Lock; now joins it, to divide.
Ev'n then, before the fatal Engine clos'd,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos'd;
Fate urged the Sheers, and cut the Sylph in twain,
(But Airy Substance soon unites again)
The meeting Points the sacred Hair dissever
From the fair Head, for ever and for ever!
— Canto III
Using epic battle imagery to describe a small pair of ladies' scissors satirizes the ridiculous nature of the whole situation.
The Selection from Canto 11 p
The sun rises with all its splendor in the sky and throws its crimson radiance over the ocean. But Belinda, who competed in brightness with the sun, came out of her house with even greater light getting o a boat, sailed upon the surface of the silver-bright water of the river Thames. Beautiful ladies and finely dressed young gentlemen glittered around her. But the eyes of every one were fixed on her only. She wore a glittering cross on her bosom. Even Jews and others who do not believe in the divine quality of Christ would have worshiped that cross because of the beautiful breast on which it shown. Her bright glances were a proof of her alert mind which was as quick as her eyes and unstable as her glances.
She gave her smiles to everybody but showed no special inclination towards anyone. Even when she rejected the advances of a man, she did so in an inoffensive manner. Those who looked at her were dazzled by her beauty. If beautiful young girls have any faults to hide, her grace, her sweetness and modesty would have hidden the faults of Belinda. If any feminine follies had fallen to Belinda, you would have ignored them all simply by seeing her beauty and sweetness.
The beautiful Belinda possessed two locks of hair which hung gracefully in equal curl and which wrecked the peace of men's minds who saw them. It seemed that these locks with their bright ringlets had entered into an agreement with each other to embellish her smooth and ivory-white neck. Men who looked at her would have been captured by, and kept as prisoners in the maze of Belinda's hair, and even men with very strong hearts would have fallen victims to the charm of her delicate hair. We catch birds with traps in which we use horse-hair; similarly, we catch fish with fishing lines in which we use horse-hair of which the fish are not in the least suspicious. Likewise, men who belong to the sovereign class of earthly beings are caught in the trap of women's fair curls. A beautiful woman can attract man with a single hair.
The adventurous Baron admired the bright locks of Belinda. He looked at those locks; he longed for them, and was filled with ambition to possess that treasure. Having determined to carry out his purpose, he tried to think of some device that he could use to rob Belinda of her locks, and he was ready to use fraud in order to do that. When the efforts of the lover have been rewarded with success, few people ask whether he won his object by means of fraud or force.
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