Epic Conventions in Rape Of The Lock English Literature Essay (2023)

The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic by Alexander Pope, one of the most influential writers of the 18th century. Alexander Pope was one of the greatest satirists of the august age, also aiming to educate and entertain readers at the same time. The Rape of the Lock was first published in 1712 with just two songs. However, in 1717 the final form of this poem was published and it contained five songs and also a heroic couplet. The poem is based on a true story about two rival aristocratic families, the Petres and the Fermors. "Young Lord Petre had cut a lock of the hair of Arabella Fermor, an elegant society girl, and both she and her family were offended by it. Pope had been informed of the incident by his Catholic friend John Caryll, who asked him if he could write a poem to joke about the separation between the two families and laugh together again" (escribd).

The epic, also known as a heroic poem, tells the story of a hero whose deeds are of great importance and also have national significance. It is usually a long narrative poem, written in style to suit its important subject. Some of the examples of heroic poetry are Homer's Iliad, John Milton's Paradise Lost, Richard Blackmore's King Arthur, Robert Southey's Joan of Arc and Keats's Hyperion. Pseudo-epic poems, on the other hand, are the parody of serious epic poems. It uses the structure of an epic poem, in which the language is grand but miniature, and the meaning of the subject is trivial. Feigned-heroic poetry combines the characteristics of different speeches like epic, comedy, parody and satire. Alexander Pope uses mock heroic style in The Rape of the Lock not to ridicule the heroic genre, but to mock and mock the elegant society of his day.

At the beginning of an epic poem, the author often invokes the muse for divine encouragement in telling the story of a great hero. Usually the writer names one of the "nine daughters of Zeus".[1]' (homepage) to sanctify your poetry. The hero of an epic poem is always an important figure of national or even cosmic importance. “He usually has superhuman or godlike qualities. He is of imposing physical stature and is in every respect taller than the common man” (Homepage). In The Rape of the Lock, however, Alexander Pope invokes his Catholic friend John Caryll as his muse, giving him the blessing of telling the story not of a great hero but of a vain rich woman named Belinda. Alexander Pope uses Belinda and the Baron as the main characters in his poem to mock men and women of aristocratic families. Belinda is not a powerful heroine, but a beautiful young woman from a fashionable society who has no other responsibility than to look presentable in front of society every day. For example, Belinda only wakes up around midnight, has a lap dog and servants who dress her for any occasion.

"The sun cast a timid ray through the white curtains,

and op'd those eyes that shall overshadow the day;

Now the little dogs shake themselves loud

And the sleepless lovers, barely at twelve o'clock, wake up:

The bell rang three times, the shoe fell to the floor,

And the pressed watch gave back a silver hue.

Belinda continues to be your soft pillow” (Papa).

So it's clear that Pope makes fun of fashionable society for not being responsible and doing things their own way. They wasted money because they were rich and even needed servants to take care of them like children.

So, in an epic poem, a hero prepares himself well for a great battle, arming himself with mail, shield, sword, axes, daggers, bow and arrows. Such weapons and armor not only protect the hero, but also instill fear in his enemy. For example, in the Iliad, Thetis' arming of Achilles for the battlefields of Troy is described with great grandeur. Belinda, on the other hand, arms herself with beautiful brocades, makeup, Arabian perfumes and glittering Indian jewelry, and carries combs and safety pins made from elephant tusks and tortoiseshell to face high society every day. She goes through the lengthy process of beautification with the help of her maid Betty to look presentable and attractive to guys and make women envy her beauty.

"The tortoise here and the elephant unite,

Transformed into combs, the speckled and white ones.

Here rows of needles spread their luminous rows,

Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux.

Now the terrible beauty raises all her arms;

The fair rises in its charms at every moment,

Fix your smile, wake up all the grace,

and calls all the wonders of his countenance;

sees a purer blush gradually arising,

And sharper lightning flashes in his eyes.” (Potato)

In these lines from The Rape of the Lock, Pope ridicules the vanity of fashionable society, which values ​​physical beauty over intellectual beauty. They spend several hours in front of their mirrors preparing as if preparing for a great siege; but really they just wanted to meet their friends and have a good time. Belinda in The Rape of the Lock made it through the long and tedious dressing session just to meet up with her friends and play a game of ombre cards and woo potential suitors. In the poem, Pope even says that when one looks at Belinda's beautiful face, all defects disappear, and goes on to emphasize that beauty is much more valuable to the aristocrats of his time than knowledge. they hide; if feminine errors overtake them, they fall” (Pope).

In an epic poem, the hero always prays at his altar for the blessings of gods and goddesses such as "Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Hera, Aries, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Artemis and Hephaestus" (Greek mythology). in whatever they wanted. For example, Odysseus prays to the goddess Athena.[2]so that he could finally return to his wife and child after years of struggle. In The Rape of the Keyhole, on the other hand, we find Belinda adoring and admiring her own heavenly reflection in front of the mirror every day. Her maiden then becomes a priestess who performs beautifying rites for her day after day. Instead of gods and goddesses, Belinda's altar is filled with "pin files extending their bright rows, puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, boletus-doux" (Pope). However, Baron keeps garters, gloves, love letters and trophies from his former lovers on his altar. Now she also plans to add Belinda's Castle to her altar collection. In these lines of the poem, Pope seems to be saying that religion and belief are meaningless to upper-class men and women. They value their beauty and their material things much more than education, religion and morality. For Belinda, the Bible is just an unimportant item between makeup and love letters. Later, in the second canto of The Abduction from the Keyhole, we can see that Belinda wears a cross around her neck as an ornament and not as an act of piety. "On his white breast he wore a magnificent cross, which the Jews kissed and the unbelievers adored" (Pope).

The divine characters in epic poetry are a family of gods who live on Mount Olympus and often intervene in people's lives, observing and influencing their lives and decisions. They help guide people who are physically and mentally challenged, especially in big battles. The gods feel compelled to intervene when they feel that man is deviating from his destiny. These powerful characters are called epic machines. For example, in Homer's Odyssey, Zeus helped Odysseus escape the island of Ogygia, where Odysseus was held captive for seven years. By contrast, in Pope's The Rape of the Lock, Belinda was aided by denizens of the air such as fairies, gnomes, nymphs, sylphs, and salamanders. Belinda receives special attention from the sylphs. These magical creatures from the poem did not help her in battle, but they helped Belinda to look beautiful and respectable all day. Each sylph takes it upon herself to protect her hair, dress, makeup, jewelry, her puppy, Shock, and most importantly, her petticoat for Ariel.[3]they "unfortunately saw a dreadful event to come" (Pope). Ariel warned Belinda in advance, but she forgot everything the moment she saw her "billet-doux" (father). So now it's up to them to protect their looks and honor.

"He spake; the spirits of the candles descend;

Some, orb after orb, spread around the nymph,

some among the labyrinthine curls of her hair,

Some hang from their ear amulets;

With beating hearts, they await the dreadful event.

Anxious and trembling before the birth of destiny” (Pope).

In epic poems like The Odyssey and The Aeneid, both Odysseus and Aeneas traveled the seas on important missions, encountering many dangers along the way. Pope In The Rape of the Lock parodies these epics of Belinda taking a boat down the Thames to Hampton Court to play the ombre game with her friends of the same social status.

"Where the Thames proudly gazes upon its towering towers,

There is a Majestick frame structure,

Named after neighboring Hampton” (Papa).

It also follows Pope and parodies the heroic battles depicted in his poem The Rape of the Lock. In the epic poem Beowulf, Beowulf had to face three battles with terrible beasts to save innocent lives. In The Rape of the Lock, Belinda's ombre piece with her friends was portrayed as a war by Pope. Cards were portrayed as warriors and words such as troops, battle, war, invasion and armies were used by Pope to describe and intensify the tension during a game of ombre between Belinda and her aristocratic friends, who took the game seriously. Even magical creatures are included in the game for Belinda to win the game.

“So far, both armies have given way to Belinda;

Now fate bows to the baron.

Your warrior Amazon invades your company,

The Imperial Consort of Piccrow.

The club's black tyrant is its first victim” (Pope).

Later in the poem, when the baron cut off one of Belinda's locks, a great dispute ensued, also portrayed as a fight by Alexander Pope. Instead of weapons, screams, frowns, punches and dangerous glares were used during the violent argument between Belinda and the baron.

"Then the living flashes of his eyes flashed,

And screams of terror tear the frightened sky.

No louder cry is sent to heaven for mercy” (Pope).

The ombre game and fight after Belinda's lock is cut was exaggerated in The Rape of the Lock because Pope wanted to suggest that upper-class society takes them seriously when in reality they are trivial matters. As trifles are taken too seriously, the Petres and the Fermors broke up, and this poem was meant to show them how stupid they were.

In summary, Alexander Pope definitely used epic conventions for satirical purposes in his poem The Rape of the Lock, specifically to mock aristocrats, their lifestyles and perceptions. Because Pope Alexander is a man of Augustus, he wrote this poem using epic conventions to exaggerate the absurdity of upper-class society so that readers would not only laugh at the poem's satire, but also learn and change for the better. 🇧🇷

works cited

Hamilton, Edith. "Olympic Games". Greek mythology. with. April 1, 2010.

Leadbetter, Ron. "Zeus". Enzyklopädie Mythica™. 2. April 2010.

Effinger, Sandra. "The Epic". homepage.mac. with. April 3, 2010.

"Breaching the Lock". scribd. with. April 3, 2010.

Pope, Alexander. The Rapture of the Castle and Other Poems. London: Signet Classical Poetry Series, 1906.

Michael, Cummings. "Breach of breach: a study guide". cummingsstudyguides.net. April 4, 2010.