Page 228 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 24: Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock

scolds become fire spirits or Salamanders. Indecisive women become water spirits. Prudes or women Notes
who delight in rejecting men become Gnomes (earth spirits). Coquettes become Sylphs (air spirits).
The dream is sent to Belinda by Ariel, “her guardian Sylph” (20). The Sylphs are Belinda’s guardians
because they understand her vanity and pride, having been coquettes when they were humans.
They are devoted to any woman who “rejects mankind” (68). Their role is to guide young women
through the “mystic mazes” of social interaction (92).
At the end of the dream, Ariel warns Belinda of an impending “dread event,” urging her to “Beware
of all, but most beware of Man” (109, 114). Belinda is then awoken by her lapdog, Shock. Upon
rising, she sees that a billet-doux, or a love-letter, has arrived for her, causing her to forget the
details of the dream.
Now awake, Belinda begins her elaborate toilette. Pope endows every object from combs and pins
to billet-doux and Bibles with significance in this ritual of dressing: “Each silver vase in mystic
order laid” (122). Belinda herself is described as a “goddess,” looking at her “heavenly image” in
the mirror (132, 125). The elegant language and importance of such objects thus elevate the process
of dressing to a sacred rite.

The Sylphs assist in Belinda’s dressing routine, setting her hair and straightening her
gown. Fully arrayed, Belinda emerges from her chamber.

Analysis

The opening of The Rape of the Lock establishes the poem’s mock-heroic tone. In the tradition of epic
poetry, Pope opens the poem by invoking a muse, but rather than invoke one of the mythic Greek
muses, Pope leaves the muse anonymous and instead dedicates the poem to John Caryll, the man
who commissioned the poem. The first verse-paragraph also introduces Pope’s epic subject matter: a
war arising from “amorous causes” (1). Unlike Menelaus’ fury at Paris’ theft of Helen or Achilles’
quarrel with Agamemnon over Briseis in The Iliad, however, the poem’s “mighty contests rise from
trivial things” (2). Indeed, these “mighty contests” are merely flirtations and card games rather than
the great battles of the Greek epic tradition.
The second verse-paragraph encapsulates Pope’s subversion of the epic genre. In lines 11-12 Pope
juxtaposes grand emotions with unheroic character-types, specifically “little men” and women: “In
tasks so bold can little men engage, /And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage.” The irony of
pairing epic characteristics with lowly human characters contributes to Pope’s mock-heroic style.
Furthermore, the “mighty rage” of women evokes the rage of Achilles at the outset of The Iliad,
foreshadowing the comic gender-reversal that characterizes the rest of the poem. Rather than
distinguish the subjects of the poem as in a traditional epic, Pope uses the mock-heroic genre to
elevate and ridicule his subjects simultaneously, creating a satire that chides society for its misplaced
values and emphasis on trivial matters.
Belinda’s dream provides the mythic structure of the poem. In this segment, Pope introduces the
supernatural forces that affect the action of the poem, much the way that the gods and goddesses of
The Iliad would influence the progress of the Trojan War. Just as Athena protects Diomedes and
Aphrodite supports Paris during the Trojan War, Ariel is the guardian of Belinda. Unlike the Greek
gods, however, Ariel possesses little power to protect his ward and preserve her chastity. In this
initial canto, Belinda forgets Ariel’s warnings of impending dangers upon receiving a billet-doux.
Though charged with protecting Belinda’s virtue, it seems that Ariel cannot fully guard her from
the perils of love, unable to distract her even from a relatively harmless love letter. In the dream
Ariel indicates that all women have patron sprites, depending on their personality type. Ariel explains
that when women die, their spirits return “from earthly vehicles” to “their first elements” (50, 58).

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