Page 238 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 24: Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock

Analysis Notes

Pope’s first epistle seems to endorse a sort of fatalism, in which all things are fated. Everything happens
for the best, and man should not presume to question God’s greater design, which he necessarily
cannot understand because he is a part of it. He further does not possess the intellectual capability to
comprehend God’s order outside of his own experience. These arguments certainly support a fatalistic
world view. According to Pope’s thesis, everything that exists plays a role in the divine plan. God
thus has a specific intention for every element of His creation, which suggests that all things are fated.
Pope, however, was always greatly distressed by charges of fatalism. As a proponent of the doctrine
of free will, Pope’s personal opinions seem at odds with his philosophical conclusions in the first
epistle. Reconciling Pope’s own views with his fatalistic description of the universe represents an
impossible task.
The first epistle of An Essay on Man is its most ambitious. Pope states that his task is to describe
man’s place in the “universal system” and to “vindicate the ways of God to man” (16). In the poem’s
prefatory address, Pope more specifically describes his intention to consider “man in the abstract,
his Nature and his State, since, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine
the perfection of imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition
and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.” Pope’s stated
purpose of the poem further problematizes any critical reading of the first epistle. According to
Pope’s own conclusions, man’s limited intellect can comprehend only a small portion of God’s
order and likewise can have knowledge of only half-truths. It therefore seems the height of hubris
to presume to justify God’s ways to man. His own philosophical conclusions make this impossible.
As a mere component part of God’s design and a member of the hierarchical middle state, Pope
exists within God’s design and therefore cannot perceive the greater logic of God’s order. To do so
would bring only misery: “The bliss of man / Is, not to act of think beyond mankind” (189-90).
Though Pope’s philosophical ambitions result in a rather incoherent epistle, the poem demonstrates
a masterful use of the heroic couplet. Some of the most quoted lines from Pope’s works actually
appear in this poem. For example, the quotation “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: / Man
never is, but always to be blest” appears in the problematic first epistle (95-6). Pope’s skill with
verse thus far outweighs his philosophical aspirations, and it is fortunate that he chose to write in
verse rather than prose. Indeed, eighteenth-century critics saw An Essay on Man as a primarily
poetic work despite its philosophical themes.

24.2.2 An Essay on Man: Epistle II
Summary
The subtitle of the second epistle is “Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to Himself as an
Individual” and treats on the relationship between the individual and God’s greater design.
Here is a section-by-section explanation of the second epistle:
Section I (1-52): Section I argues that man should not pry into God’s affairs but rather study himself,
especially his nature, powers, limits, and frailties.
Section II (53-92): Section II shows that the two principles of man are self-love and reason. Self-love
is the stronger of the two, but their ultimate goal is the same.
Section III (93-202): Section III describes the modes of self-love (i.e., the passions) and their function.
Pope then describes the ruling passion and its potency. The ruling passion works to provide man
with direction and defines man’s nature and virtue.
Section IV (203-16): Section IV indicates that virtue and vice are combined in man’s nature and that
the two, while distinct, often mix.

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