"The Rape of the Lock"

 1.) According to you, who is the protagonist of the poem Clarissa or Belinda? Why? Give your answer with logical reasons.

Belinda is the epitome of beauty in Alexander Pope’s mock epic poem The Rape of the Lock. She is the central character of the poem. The entire story revolves around her, and the title of the poem is also derived from the episode that takes place with her. The character of Belinda is portrayed in different shades and aspects, which makes it a complex character.

Belinda is born to an aristocratic family, and enjoys an elite life in the society. She can neither be considered as a pure Goddess nor a spoilt child. She owns a mixed personality that makes her character a bit difficult to evaluate. The way Pope phrases about Belinda’s beauty, it seems like he himself has been completely smitten by her. He describes her beauty utilizing terms like: The nymph, the Goddess of beauty, the rival of sun’s beams etc.

“The nymph, to the destruction of mankind Nourish’d two locks,

 which gracefully hung behind. “

Belinda’s two locks of hair contributed the most to her beauty and charms. The clothes and makeup that she wore added a golden touch to her appeal. Her clothes are also being compared with the great epic hero Achilles. Just like Achilles killed his enemies with the use of weapons, Belinda metaphorically did the same with her bewitching costumes and alluring jewelry. She is a heart charmer, who has already captured a place in the hearts of the young men, through the use of her wit and glamour. Her killer smile strikes like a poisoned tip of the arrow in the hearts of boys and men.

“Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike And like the sun, the shines on all alike.”

Her eyes are being compared to the bright rays of the Sol or the Sun. Pope cleverly paints the Sun as the rival of the Belle, both competing to win the attention of the people. He mocks the way Belinda flirts with others with the application of perfect satire. He even mentions about her keeping a pet. He indirectly pokes fun at the elite ladies of that age who mourn at 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.”

Belinda visits the Hampton Court where she participates in the different pursuits, including the game of Ombre. In the court, one of her two locks of hair is being chopped off by The Baron as a retaliation of his defeat in the Game of Ombre. This incident is humorously referred as ‘rape’ which contributes to the title of the poem. When a woman is raped, her chastity and honor are forcefully snatched away by the attacker. Similarly, when Belinda is raped off her locks, she is utterly devastated, as she feels she has been robbed of her prestige and honour.

2.). What is beauty? Write your views about it.

Beauty vs. Poetry Theme Icon

Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” offers a satirical glimpse into 18th-century court life, emphasizing society’s focus on beauty and appearance. Centered around the experience of a beautiful young woman, Belinda, who loses a lock of her hair to the scissors of an infatuated Baron, “The Rape of the Lock” steadily becomes sillier and sillier as it goes along and the characters descend into a kind of pretend battle over the lock. Coupled with the Clarissa’s wise speech, which argues that women waste too much time focusing on their looks rather than thinking about how to be better people, it might appear at first glance that Pope’s central thesis is the idea that this kind of obsession with beauty is fundamentally absurd. But the poem’s conclusion, in which the lock ascends to heaven as a new constellation, seems to suggest that perhaps true beauty might really be of some value after all, but only if it becomes the subject of poetry and thus achieves a kind of literary immortality.

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.

This paper would discuss and evaluate the traces and proofs regarding Pope’s demonstration of disapproval about British Mannerism and exaggerated decency in his world renowned mock epic “The Rape of the Lock”.to show his disapproval of so-called aristocratic and civilized mannerism prevailing in his contemporary British society is implied satire. He reveals in many lines the hollowness and emptiness of exaggerated politeness and frivolous decency found in the contemporary society in an enveloped satire technique.

Pope opens the poem with an epic question who’s satirical tone signals his intent to ridicule his society. As in traditional epics, Pope’s poem opens with the invocation of a muse. He then asks a question that states the topic that the epic will address. In The Rape of the Lock, the epic convention is inverted because the epic question is of a trivial subject matter.

Belinda, the Baron and the society they represent are obsessed with material things, such as the lock and self-worship. Pope suggests that attention to spiritual matters, the strengthening of character, and the development or value of inner beauty are matters to which society does not properly attend. This attention to the material and tendency to give in to worldly temptations indicates a frivolous aristocracy, who lack virtue and morality. The Rape of the Lock is an elegantly witty and balanced parody which shows Pope’s literary virtuosity which invokes an ironic contrast between the epics structure and its content.

4.) Write your views about the significance of hair. Is it symbolic?

Belinda’s lock of hair comes to symbolize the absurdity of the importance afforded to female beauty in society. Pope offers a hyperbolically metaphorical description of the two locks in Canto II, humorously framing the locks as alluring enough to virtually incapacitate any man who looks at them. The locks are “labyrinths” in which Love “detains” “his slaves” by binding their hears with “slender chains,” thus poking fun at the idea that Belinda’s beauty is truly powerful enough to make such a deep impact. This absurdity only grows as the poem progresses and after the Baron has snipped of Belinda’s lock. Under the influence of Umbriel, Thalestris laments the loss of the lock as the symbolic loss of Belinda’s reputation in society, exclaiming, “Methinks already I your tears survey, / Already hear the horrid things they say.” In Pope’s day, the respectability of a woman in society depended upon her having a spotless reputation and being perfectly virtuous, and, in particular, sexually pure. Thalestris then is essentially saying that the loss of Belinda’s lock is a rupture which damages all of the rest of her beauty, and the Baron’s having taken it in so intimate a fashion compromises the idea that she is chaste, and that people will think she in some way allowed him to violate her body. Obviously, this makes very little sense, allowing Pope to satirize the idea that beauty and virtue are so closely related. The lock’s final ascension into the heavens is the most absurd part of the whole thing, and Pope’s choice to cap off the whole poem with the transparently silly idea that the lock is too precious to remain on earth, that no mortal deserves to be so “blest” as to possess it, emphasizes the ridiculous amount of emphasis placed on female beauty in society.