English Literature - The Rape of the Lock Poem - Alexander Pope- Notes - SUMMARY

The Rape of the Lock

-- Alexander Pope

“The Rape of the Lock” is a mock-heroic epic poem written by Alexander Pope. The poem was based on a real-life incident during Pope’s life time. [ The hair of a beautiful young woman Arabella Fermor was cut by a youth Lord Petre. This caused rivalry between the two families. On the request of his friend John Caryll, Pope wrote this humorous poem to reconcile the two families.] The poem was written in mock-heroic epic style. That is, he chose the style of the original European epics such as Homer’s Illiad, Odessey, Virgil’s Aeneid and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, to describe a trivial and silly incident of a young man cutting the lock of a beautiful young woman. The poem was written in five cantos. In this poem ‘Belinda’, represents Arabella Fermor in real life and ‘The Baron’ represents the real life person Lord Petre.

Canto-I indicates the theme of the poem. In the dream episode, a handsome youth Arial introduces himself to Belinda as her guardian sylph. He is the chief of the sylphs who guard Belinda’s beauty and chastity. He warns Belinda that “some dread event” is going to befall her that day and she should be careful of men. Then Belinda awakes from her sleep. Upon the delivery of a love-letter, she forgets all about the dream. She then proceeds to her dressing table and goes through an elaborate ritual of dressing. In this process, her own image in the mirror is described as a “heavenly image”, a “goddess”. Her dressing table is described as an “altar”. Her decoration and makeup were described as worship. The unseen sylphs assist in her preparation for the day’s activities.

Canto-II describes Belinda’s voyage in a boat on the Thames and Arial’s prophetic speech. Belinda looks so beautiful and graceful. She was surrounded by young ladies and young men. The eyes of everyone were fixed on her. She smiled at every one but did not show special favours to anyone. Two graceful locks of hair with their bright ringlets were hanging on her ivory neck. The adventurous young man, the Baron admired these locks. He had an ambition to possess these locks, for which he offered prayers to Love that day. The chief sylph Arial cautions the fellow spirits about the awaited danger. He warns them of dire consequences if they neglect their duties.

“The Rape of the Lock” as a Mock-heroic epic:

Alexander Pope treated the poem “The Rape of the Lock” as a mock-heroic epic quite satisfactorily.  It was inspired by a real life incident in his life. The poem was written in five cantos. In this poem ‘Belinda’, represents Arabella Fermor in real life and ‘The Baron’ represents the real life person Lord Petre. [He achieves the mockery by changing the perspective from the heroic to the comic. The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is not to mock the epic form itself, but to mock the society of his time. He used the mock-epic form to expose the pettiness of his society by casting it against the dignity of traditional epic subjects and the bravery and courage of epic heroes.] In this poem, he ridicules his society in which values have lost all proportion, and the trivial is handled with much importance and seriousness.

Pope’s use of the mock-epic genre is complex and comprehensive. The Rape of the Lock is a poem in which every element of the contemporary scene refers to some image from epic tradition or classical world view. [The scenes are woven together cleverly to make the poem surprising and delightful.  Pope’s transformations are numerous, striking, and loaded with moral implications.]  The great battles of epic become bouts of gambling and flirtatious quarrels. The great Greek and Roman gods are converted into a relatively insignificant spirits or sylphs. Cosmetics, clothing, and jewellery substitute for armor and weapons. The rituals of religious sacrifice are transplanted to the dressing room and the altar of love. Alexander Pope has made the best use of the literary form heroic couplet to give his comic poem, a grand look.

Thus, Alexander Pope uses the framework of an epic poem for social criticism in “The Rape of the Lock”. Though the poem is given the structure of an epic, it is a mock epic. Its main function is to ridicule the people who commit mistakes.  It is a criticism on the upper middle class society. So, the poem performs its moralizing function.