Additionally, we have moved away from “little men” and into the realm of princes.
Pope writes, “The various offerings of the world appear;/ From each she nicely culls with curious toil,/ And decks the goddess with glittering spoil./ This casket India’s glowing gems unlocks,/ And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
Finally, the subtle references to sexuality are brought to the surface with Belinda’s “rape”. (lines 25-44) Support your answer with one or two examples from the poem.
They speak to each other as if they are at war with each other (lines 50-59). Alexander Pope’s purpose for writing The Rape of the Lock was to. The poet also presents the characters as overly grand rather than ordinary; their deeds are described as heroic rather than petty.
He also criticizes modern writing for its preoccupation with what he calls ‘a craving for extraordinary incident’, condemning ‘frantic novels’ similar to that of Pope. In fact, the feeling of being overcome by bad writers and literature goes as far to suggest that words or essays have a physical weight, with ‘show’rs of Sermons, Characters, Essays,/ In circling fleeces whiten all the ways:/So clouds replenish’d from some bog below,/Mount in dark volumes, and descend in snow’. (Pope 33). Instead of stating that Belinda treats religion as just another reason to be seen in public, he sweeps its iconography up with the accoutrement of makeup and places the key to moral redemption, “bibles,” in a position where it will most likely be overlooked or ignored.
Hunter acknowledges this strain within couplets and argues that this formal tension serves to encourage “the preservation and acceptance of difference rather than a working out or modification or compromise” (266). The percussive accent of the words “wigs” and “swords” equates them ridiculously.
Pope describes “two locks which graceful hung behind/ In equal curls, and well conspired to deck/ With shining ringlets her smooth ivory neck” (II, 20-22). He gives the reader a glimpse into the magical inner-workings of Belinda’s morning routine. However, Pope portrays Belinda as unable to find any sort of middle ground; she is either characterized as a tease or a prude. The mythological creatures watching over women throughout “The Rape of the Lock” are dually significant within Pope’s attempts to debase women. Vol. This expansion of trade was manifested in both higher earnings for many of the elite and the prevalence of luxury items, such as imported fabrics, coffee, and spices. She says, “Methinks already I your tears survey,/ Already hear the horrid things they say,/ Already see you a degraded toast,/ And all your honor in a whisper lost!” (IV, 107-110). Pope uses this word intentionally to note the shift in power, for he originally uses that word exclusively to describe a man’s seduction of a woman in his fantasy first scene. In alluding to Elizabeth I Johnson begs the reader to consider the seriousness of his poem in forcing the reader to make their own comparisons between London of the present and the past. 54-60.
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Likewise Clarissa’s arming of the Baron with her sewing scissors evokes the … 4. , pp.
“The Reversal of Gender in ‘The Rape of the Lock.’” South Atlantic Bulletin. In Pope’s construction, a commercialized society rewrites virtue and leaves Belinda without any anchoring sense of morality” (Nicholson 40). In The Rape, Belinda’s lock literally disappears: ‘The Lock, obtain’d with guilt, and kept with pain/In ev’ry place is sought, but sought in vain’[Canto V, 109-110] and the quarrel comes to nothing, whilst in The Dunciad, writers and booksellers compete for prizes like ‘a pig of lead’[Book II,281], and in their ‘dull’ literary pursuits, all become the same, or as Pope puts it: ‘ “Reader! Without their virtue, women were not considered to be “marriage material”.
Wordsworth states this his Preface that he ‘[chose] incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them, in a selection of language really used by men’ underlining his purpose of creating a poetry that reflects verity, and the beauty in the complexity of nature. Women were granted more purchasing power, and many females spent their newfound wealth on elaborate costumes and imported makeup.
the hairs he has snipped from Belinda’s head. The Romanticist’s ability to create poetry that can be fully comprehended by anyone who reads it, with a stress on the verisimilitude found in life and nature, means that Romanticism is ultimately most accessible than Augustan literature, and its allusiveness. Alexander Pope is known for his scathing but intelligent critiques of high English society. According to Nussbaum, “The lapdog assumes the role of a surrogate husband, and the satire mocks such unnatural behavior. Pope, Alexander. Clarissa then waves her fan to gather the attention of those present.
To further imitate the elevated style of the true epic, Pope also describes the card game in terms of a bloody battle and portrays Belinda’s actions as heroic. He also offers a measly attempt at consolation, saying that Belinda should not mourn the loss of her hair because it was important enough to inspire a poet.
This poem employs Juvenal satire to express Johnson’s disappointment and disgust over the present state of his beloved city of London. He says the Lady is “softer than a man”, but goes on to state that she has the same characteristics of a man and still even more characteristics specific to a woman. However, Belinda ultimately fails in this role, and Pope blames the failure on the fact that her femininity makes her unable to function in a traditionally masculine world. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1972.6. Coupled with Pope’s use of the epic form, it becomes evident that Pope utilized “The Rape of the Lock” as a means to express his utter disgust for all the qualities possessed by women. Rapid improvement within science and medicine began to replace the religious understanding of the world, encouraging a rational and intellectual mind-set. Thalestris, as Belinda’s brave and aggressive sidekick, represents the tightly bound sisterhood, which Clarissa has failed to enter. Critic Hugo Reichard argues these two characters to be equal, each with powerful, dominant characteristics unique to their sex: “Both Belinda and the Baron are at the age of exuberance where the armor of courtship fits rather loosely…Feigning ‘death,’ sophisticating love, and shunning marriage, they wage a mock war in a mock-heroic poem. It is more likely that Clarissa is just as much of a caricature as the society surrounding her, she merely has a different approach in her ludicrousness.
She is not bothered that her honor may be compromised.
It is these everlasting pillars of competing ideas that ensure the poem’s legacy.
The battle, full of fierce females and fainting men, culminates in the ultimate portrayal of gender reversal. Mell, Donald C., ed, Pope, Swift and Women Writers. The use of the double “now” suggests that the author has the power to create the ox anew, perhaps not in physical reality, but at least in the minds of the perceived audience. Print. “At last, I’ve clipped a lock of her beautiful hair!” the Baron said, ________ over his good fortune.
As Pope did, Johnson also alludes to the past and the present, though since the poem is Juvenal satire, the allusions are less playful and more abrasive and critiquing (Drabble). Therefore, by placing seemingly unimportant elements in a position of anticipated emphasis or by placing generally accepted items of importance in a position without emphasis, the poet produces irony and places himself at odds with the expectations of his reader. Through this same method, Pope plays on anxieties of his age of its legacy in history, by substituting a mighty warrior and his weapon with Belinda and her bodkin: ’Now meet thy fate, incens’d Belinda cry’d,/And drew a deadly bodkin from her side./(The same, his ancient personage to deck,/Her great great grandsire wore about his neck,/[…]Form’d a vast buckle for his widow’s gown […] Then in a bodkin grac’d her mother’s hairs/Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears’. humor are Belinda’s antic conquests during the game of omber (lines 28-29), Belinda’s reaction to the baron’s winning hand (lines 89-92), the baron’s cry of triumph after he cuts the lock of Belinda’s hair (lines 161-178), or the ascent of the lock to the heavens (lines 69-88). Pope writes, “The busy Sylphs surround their darling care,/ These set the head, and those divide the hair,/ Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown” (I, 145-148). Pope alludes to Erasmus to bring similarities between the two of them, with the hopes of receiving the same respect Erasmus received. Instead, techniques such as zeugma and chiasmus allow his various messages to coexist. He lets his “folly grow romantic” (Pope ln 16) through capturing an image of his ideal, and yet here in the very first lines of the poem he shies away even from any sort of fictitious sexual assertion and instead puts himself in physical seclusion.