Unit 3

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ALEXANDER POPE:

‘THE RAPE OF THE UNIT 3 ANALYSIS OF CANTO 3


LOCK’

Structure

3.0 Aims and Objectives


3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theme of ‘The Rape of the Lock’
3.3 Characteristics of a Classical Epic
3.4 The Mock Epic
3.5 Analysis of Canto 3
3.5.1 Text
3.5.2 Detailed Analysis
3.6 Glossary
3.7 Summing up
3.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

3.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES


Our aim through this unit is to present a detailed analysis of Canto 3 from the
poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’. At the end of the study of this Unit, you will
understand:
• the characteristics of a classical epic
• what is a mock epic
• the detailed analysis of Canto 3
• how Canto 3 incorporates a majority of the epic features.
• what makes ‘The Rape of the Lock’ both an epic poem and a satire.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, you were given a brief summary of the complete poem ‘The
Rape of the Lock’ that consists of five Cantos. It is important to know the entire
poem so that it becomes easy to understand Canto 3 which is prescribed for
detailed study.
The poem narrates a trivial incident involving two aristocratic families and
this incident is exaggerated into a full blown battle, almost paralleling the
classical battle between the Greeks and the Trojans depicted by Homer nearly
two thousand five hundred years ago in his monumental epic The Iliad. The
Iliad remains an epic poem and does not feature satirical elements like ‘The
Rape of the Lock’ which is both a mock epic poem and a poetic satire. It is
considered as one amongst the great satires of English literature. Alexander
Pope and John Dryden were the chief poet satirists of this period while the
celebrated prose satirist was Jonathan Swift.
206
Analysis of Canto 3
3.2 THEME OF ‘THE RAPE OF THE LOCK’
Pope’s poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’ is based on a real life incident in which a
British Peer, Lord Petre, fascinated by the beauty of an aristocratic lady, Arabella
Fermor, clips a lock of her hair to preserve it as a memento. This results in a
fight between the two families. John Caryll—a friend both of Pope and of the
two families—requested Pope to write a poem satirizing the triviality and
foolishness of the dispute and engineer a reconciliation between the two warring
families.
Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’ is a masterly satire where he interweaves a real
but trivial incident into an epic. Pope modeled his poem on the theme and style
of the Greek Classics, The Iliad and The Odyssey and juxtaposed the silly conflict
between the two families with the battle between two mighty armies depicted in
the great epics. Thus the poem is labelled a mock heroic poem. While the story is
essentially about the triviality of the fight between two families over the cutting
a ringlet off Arabella’s gorgeous hair, it also mirrors the vanity and the frivolous
life of the aristocrats in the 18th century. Pope uses the grandiose devices of the
ancient Greek epics to mock the inanities and vanities of 18th century courtiers
and ladies. The basic themes of the poem are:
• the triviality of courtly life,
• the heroine Belinda’s (who represents all the elite women) narcissistic
obsession with her beauty,
• the vanishing of her lock of hair pointing to the short shelf life of youthful
beauty,
• the ascendancy of the lock of hair to heavens to shine like a star in the
sky forever, thereby reflecting the immortality of beauty that is best
captured in art and poetry in contrast to the evanescence of physical
beauty,
• the gender disparity in a patriarchal society that shows the male conquest
of women (the snipping of Belinda’s lock by the Baron) and
• lastly the wisdom in Clarissa’s speech (which is essentially Pope’s speech)
about the fleeting nature of beauty with an inherent message to focus on
moral uprightness rather than focus on physical beauty that is of a
transient nature.

3.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF A CLASSICAL EPIC


The three major ancient epics that are known as the classical epics are Homer’s
The Iliad and The Odyssey (8th Century B.C) and Virgil’s The Aeneid.(between
29th—19th Century B.C). Later in the 17th century we have the classic epic Paradise
Lost by John Milton which incorporates all the essential features of an epic
employed by Homer and Virgil. The essential features of an epic are given below.
It is not that every epic written thereafter follows all of them, but a majority of
the main features are evidenced in most epics:
1. Every epic has one or two heroes like Achilles and Hector in The Iliad,
Odysseus in the Odyssey and Aeneas in The Aeneid. When we refer to
207
ALEXANDER POPE: someone as a hero, it is to be understood that he is an exceptional
‘THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK’
character, someone larger than life (like some of our Bollywood/
Hollywood heroes), a skilled warrior, gifted with intelligence, strength
and courage of an extraordinary kind. We have our epics The Ramayana
and The Mahabharata where the heroes are Rama and Krishna
respectively. They are not gods, but gods who come down to earth and
live and act like human beings. Ram is known as the Maryada
Purushottam, the perfect Man. Krishna is known as Purushottama that
is Supreme Purusha or Supreme Being, foremost among all men. The
epics are not only about men and women, but also about the gods and
goddesses who intervene in the affairs of men and direct the turn of
events.
2. The classical epic is a narrative of a great historical event. In the ancient
times, like our own Ramayana and Mahabharata , these epics were oral
epics, sung to a listening audience by a bard or a singer, presumably of
events that he had either himself witnessed or heard from others. It was
only later that they were written. The oral epics are also known as the
primary epics. When they later got written, they came to be known as
the secondary epics or literary epics.
3. The plot of the epic involves a journey. In The Iliad it is a journey of the
hero Achilles from Greece to Troy and back. In The Odyssey, it is the
journey of the hero, Odysseus from Troy at the end of the Trojan war,
back to Ithaca in Greece. In The Aeneid, it is a journey to Carthage.
Similarly in The Ramayana, it is Ram’s travel from Ayodhya to Lanka
and back. In The Mahabharata, it is the Pandavas’ journey across India
and finally their ascent to the Himalayas. The intervention of the Gods
during the journey and the resolution of conflicts with their help will
finally show the balance between human will and divine will. Thus the
epics are historical events as they actually happened. They are
instructional as well.
4. The epic story begins in medias res ie. “in the midst of things”, which is
the practice of beginning an epic or other narrative by plunging into a
crucial situation that is part of a related chain of events; the situation is
an extension of previous events and will be developed in later action. In
Homer’s narrative poem The Iliad, within the first few lines, the poet
narrates the ongoing events of the Trojan War, setting the stage for the
action to unfold between the warring Greeks and Trojans. Similarly the
Odyssey begins in medias res, or in the middle of things. The Odyssey is
a sequel to The Iliad. The Iliad ends with the triumph of the Greeks in
the Trojan war. The Odyssey does not begin at that point of the culmination
of the Trojan War, but begins midway through Odysseus’s wanderings.
This device however is not noticeable in the Indian epics. In The
Mahabharata, the background to the main action of the epic—the war
between the Kauravas and the Pandavas is in the medias res though it is
a little confusing.
5. The style or the form of an epic is commensurate or proportionate with
the theme. If epics deal with exalted themes, the style is equally elevated,
elegant and formal. No use of colloquial and everyday language is
208 allowed.
6. Since the epics started as oral epics, in order to make the listener not Analysis of Canto 3
miss out any word or description, epics use repetition. Many epithets or
descriptive words or phrases are repeated. For example when the poet
describes rosy fingered dawn, the phrase ‘rosy fingered’ is often repeated.
7. All the epics begin with an epic invocation to the Muses to inspire the
poet to sing the song, followed by an announcement of the theme and
sometimes a brief description of the main action of the work.
8. Another feature of the epic is its size. Normally the classical epics of
Greece were either in 12 books or in multiples of 12. Homer’s epics are
divided into twenty four books. The Mahabharata is in 18 books, one
and a half times of twelve. The chief characteristic of an epic is its bulky
size.
9. Another essential feature of an epic is the inevitability of exaggeration
while presenting the hero and his valorous deeds, his physical attributes
and mental traits.
10. Supernaturalism is an inherent feature of an epic to create awe and wonder.
Supernatural elements include the presence of gods, demons, angels,
fairies, and use of supernatural forces like natural catastrophes.
11. Epics have an edifying quality. Morality is a key characteristic of an epic
and this lends to didacticism as an essential aspect of an epic.
12. Epics are universal in themes and therefore have an appeal to the entire
humanity.
13. Use of Epic simile is another feature of an epic. Epic simile or Homeric
similes compare two objects that have nothing in common. Epic similes
which often employ images from nature are used to give the reader a
sense of great size, number, or intensity.
14. Classical epics include epic games, a trip to the Underworld, a vision of
the future, and an epic catalogue of heroes, ships, armour, and armies.
Check Your Progress 1
(i) List some of the characteristic features of a classical epic.
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(Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.)

3.4 THE MOCK EPIC


Mock epic or alternately called Mock Heroic is a literary work imitating the style
of heroic poetry in order to satirize a trivial or un-heroic subject. In short, mock
epic attempts to create the feel of an epic without the heroic content .The three
essential features of a mock epic are:
• The tone employed is mocking or sarcastic
209
ALEXANDER POPE: • Use of exalted style and form that one associates with an epic and
‘THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK’ • Treatment of a trivial subject
The epic tradition “was honed to a fine art in the late 17th- and early 18th-century
Neo-Classical period. A double-edged satirical weapon, the mock-epic was
sometimes used by the “moderns” of this period to ridicule contemporary
“ancients” (classicists). More often it was used by “ancients” to point at the un-
heroic character of the modern age by subjecting thinly disguised contemporary
events to a heroic treatment.... The outstanding English mock-epic is Alexander
Pope’s brilliant tour de force ‘The Rape of the Lock’ (1712–14), which concerns
a society beau’s theft of a lock of hair from a society belle; Pope treated the
incident as if it were comparable to events that sparked the Trojan War.”
According to Oxford reference, “Almost invariably a poem in heroic couplets,
the mock epic typically employs elevated poetic diction (which Pope said should
generate ‘pompous expressions’), focuses on a single ‘heroic’ incident or action,
and incorporates selected elements from the machinery of some classical epic.
Although the mock epic satirical poem, which flourished in the later 17th and
18th centuries, portrayed real characters and events (often thinly disguised) in
contemporary and local settings, its literary ancestry may be traced back to classical
antiquity.”
A close reading of the entire poem will show how far Pope has employed epic
features from the ancient epics in his poem that has a trivial subject as its theme.
We have spoken about the announcement of the subject or the theme of the poem
and an invocation of the Muses as two basic features at the beginning of an epic.
The protective armour given by the gods and goddesses is another epic device
we can see in this poem. The poem has a rich range of literary allusions and an
ironic commentary on the contemporary social world with a sense of suppressed
energy threatening to break through the veneer of civilization.
Check Your Progress 2
(i) What are the features of a mock epic?
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(ii) Why is ‘The Rape of the Lock’ known as a mock heroic poem?
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(iii) What epic devices are used by Pope in Canto 3


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210 ........................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................ Analysis of Canto 3

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(Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.)

3.5 ANALYSIS OF CANTO 3


3.5.1 Text
‘The Rape of the Lock’: Canto 3
Close by those meads, for ever crown’d with flow’rs, 1
Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow’rs,
There stands a structure of majestic frame,
Which from the neighb’ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain’s statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home;
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.

Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,


To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; 10
In various talk th’ instructive hours they pass’d,
Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At ev’ry word a reputation dies.
Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that.

Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day,


The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; 20
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;
The merchant from th’ Exchange returns in peace,
And the long labours of the toilet cease.
Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites,
Burns to encounter two adventrous knights,
At ombre singly to decide their doom;
And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.
Straight the three bands prepare in arms to join,
Each band the number of the sacred nine. 30
Soon as she spreads her hand, th’ aerial guard
Descend, and sit on each important card:
First Ariel perch’d upon a Matadore, 211
ALEXANDER POPE: Then each, according to the rank they bore;
‘THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK’ For Sylphs, yet mindful of their ancient race,
Are, as when women, wondrous fond of place.

Behold, four Kings in majesty rever’d,


With hoary whiskers and a forky beard;
And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a flow’r,
Th’ expressive emblem of their softer pow’r; 40
Four Knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberds in their hand;
And parti-colour’d troops, a shining train,
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain.

The skilful nymph reviews her force with care:


“Let Spades be trumps!” she said, and trumps they were.

Now move to war her sable Matadores,


In show like leaders of the swarthy Moors.
Spadillio first, unconquerable lord!
Led off two captive trumps, and swept the board. 50
As many more Manillio forc’d to yield,
And march’d a victor from the verdant field.
Him Basto follow’d, but his fate more hard
Gain’d but one trump and one plebeian card.
With his broad sabre next, a chief in years,
The hoary Majesty of Spades appears;
Puts forth one manly leg, to sight reveal’d;
The rest, his many-colour’d robe conceal’d.
The rebel Knave, who dares his prince engage,
Proves the just victim of his royal rage. 60
Ev’n mighty Pam, that kings and queens o’erthrew
And mow’d down armies in the fights of loo,
Sad chance of war! now destitute of aid,
Falls undistinguish’d by the victor Spade!
Thus far both armies to Belinda yield;
Now to the baron fate inclines the field.
His warlike Amazon her host invades,
Th’ imperial consort of the crown of Spades.
The Club’s black tyrant first her victim died,
Spite of his haughty mien, and barb’rous pride: 70
What boots the regal circle on his head,
His giant limbs, in state unwieldy spread;
That long behind he trails his pompous robe,
212 And of all monarchs, only grasps the globe?
The baron now his diamonds pours apace; Analysis of Canto 3

Th’ embroider’d King who shows but half his face,


And his refulgent Queen, with pow’rs combin’d
Of broken troops an easy conquest find.
Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strow the level green. 80
Thus when dispers’d a routed army runs,
Of Asia’s troops, and Afric’s sable sons,
With like confusion diff’rent nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,
The pierc’d battalions disunited fall.
In heaps on heaps; one fate o’erwhelms them all.

The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts,


And wins (oh shameful chance!) the Queen of Hearts.
At this, the blood the virgin’s cheek forsook,
A livid paleness spreads o’er all her look; 90
She sees, and trembles at th’ approaching ill,
Just in the jaws of ruin, and codille.
And now (as oft in some distemper’d state)
On one nice trick depends the gen’ral fate.
An Ace of Hearts steps forth: The King unseen
Lurk’d in her hand, and mourn’d his captive Queen:
He springs to vengeance with an eager pace,
And falls like thunder on the prostrate Ace.
The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky;
The walls, the woods, and long canals reply. 100

Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,


Too soon dejected, and too soon elate!
Sudden, these honours shall be snatch’d away,
And curs’d for ever this victorious day.

For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crown’d,


The berries crackle, and the mill turns round.
On shining altars of Japan they raise
The silver lamp; the fiery spirits blaze.
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
While China’s earth receives the smoking tide. 110
At once they gratify their scent and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Straight hover round the fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipp’d, the fuming liquor fann’d,
Some o’er her lap their careful plumes display’d,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade. 213
ALEXANDER POPE: Coffee, (which makes the politician wise,
‘THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK’ And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapours to the baron’s brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain. 120
Ah cease, rash youth! desist ere ’tis too late,
Fear the just gods, and think of Scylla’s fate!
Chang’d to a bird, and sent to flit in air,
She dearly pays for Nisus’ injur’d hair!

But when to mischief mortals bend their will,


How soon they find fit instruments of ill!
Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace
A two-edg’d weapon from her shining case;
So ladies in romance assist their knight
Present the spear, and arm him for the fight. 130
He takes the gift with rev’rence, and extends
The little engine on his fingers’ ends;
This just behind Belinda’s neck he spread,
As o’er the fragrant steams she bends her head.
Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair,
A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair,
And thrice they twitch’d the diamond in her ear,
Thrice she look’d back, and thrice the foe drew near.
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin’s thought; 140
As on the nosegay in her breast reclin’d,
He watch’d th’ ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he view’d, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amaz’d, confus’d, he found his pow’r expir’d,
Resign’d to fate, and with a sigh retir’d.

The peer now spreads the glitt’ring forfex wide,


T’ inclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.
Ev’n then, before the fatal engine clos’d,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interpos’d; 150
Fate urg’d the shears, and cut the Sylph in twain,
(But airy substance soon unites again).
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head, for ever, and for ever!
Then flash’d the living lightning from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend th’ affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,
214
When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe their last, Analysis of Canto 3

Or when rich China vessels, fall’n from high,


In glitt’ring dust and painted fragments lie! 160

“Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,”


The victor cried, “the glorious prize is mine!
While fish in streams, or birds delight in air,
Or in a coach and six the British fair,
As long at Atalantis shall be read,
Or the small pillow grace a lady’s bed,
While visits shall be paid on solemn days,
When num’rous wax-lights in bright order blaze,
While nymphs take treats, or assignations give,
So long my honour, name, and praise shall live! 170
What time would spare, from steel receives its date,
And monuments, like men, submit to fate!
Steel could the labour of the gods destroy,
And strike to dust th’ imperial tow’rs of Troy;
Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
And hew triumphal arches to the ground.
What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel
The conqu’ring force of unresisted steel?”

3.5.2 Detailed Analysis


Lines 1-4 describe the place where Belinda and the ladies have arrived. This is
Hampton’s court ( Line 4), a place for social gathering where there is much talk
about the affairs of the Nation and historical forecast of the fall of foreign tyrants.
But the reference to the fall of Nymphs (line 6) is a veiled attack on the aristocratic
gentlemen of the society who gossip about women with as much ease as they
discuss serious national issues. The mixing of the serious political talk with the
trivial talk about women reflects Pope’s satirical ingenuity to mock at the vacuous,
inane talk among the high society men and women.
Lines 7-8 make an explicit reference to the British monarch Queen Anne, where
she “sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea.”, once more an attempt to ridicule
the monarch and the people assembled in the court mixing serious conversation
with the leisurely activity of taking tea.
The gossip of the courtiers is punctured with a sarcastic comment that every
word they uttered was towards bringing down the reputation of someone or the
other. The parting shot is “at every word a reputation dies.”(16))
The ladies and gentlemen disperse to enjoy the pleasures of a day at court—
namely, gossiping with one another about everything from the glory of the Queen
to the décor of the Court. The boat ride on the River Thames to Hampton Court
is Belinda’s journey.
Pope spares nobody in that elite group. He targets the judges who sign death
sentences in a hurried manner so that they can quickly adjourn for lunch. Thus
215
ALEXANDER POPE: the opening lines of Canto 3 presents the haughtiness and arrogance of the British
‘THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK’ elite who mix levity with serious business and who conduct court work with no
empathy or concern for those on whom they pass severe judgement.
Belinda sits down to a game of ombre with two gentlemen “to decide their doom”
and arranges her cards. The word “doom” in connection with the card game
enhances the triviality of the pastime of modern aristocratic ladies and courtiers
as it is juxtaposed with serious events on a battle field where every brave warrior
awaits his doom.
In the next few lines Pope borrows the epic characteristic of gods and goddesses
descending to protect their protégé when he makes a reference to the Sylphs. The
Sylphs descend from heavens and perch upon the cards, their hierarchical rank
corresponding to the card value. This is a veiled pointer to female vanity and
social hierarchy.
The card game now begins. The card table is the battlefield. Lines 46-64 are a
brilliant description of the battle of cards, paralleling epic battles between humans
and gods. Here the Sylphs are perched on the cards of Belinda and because of
their support she wins in the early stages. Soon the Baron dominates the game.
The see-saw battle (65-100) between Belinda and the Baron is vividly described as
they play their cards to gain advantage over each other. Like the epic battle, the
card game witnesses battle between equal contending rivals. Pope’s use of epic
grandeur to depict the silly card game once again highlights the triviality of life at
the court. The next fourteen lines give a visual documentary of the game of cards.
Line 99 affirms Belinda’s triumph; “The nymph exulting fills with shouts the sky”
Just when Belinda celebrates her success, we hear the poets (the narrator’s) voice
that poor mortals cannot foresee their future, as all the honours that Belinda had
gained will be snatched away at her hour of glory. The rape of her lock by the
Baron is presented in epic terms amounting to the loss of her honour .
Meantime coffee is served in exquisite chinaware. The steam arising out of hot
coffee reminds the baron of his plan to steal Belinda’s ringlet. In an aside, the
narrative voice foresees the consequence of such a disastrous act comparing it
with ‘Scyllas fate(105-124).
The mythological reference to Scylla is when she plucks a single lock of her
father, Nisus’ hair (which granted him and the city invincibility) to present it to
Minos whom she loved. Disgusted with her lack of filial devotion, she is punished
by her father and transformed into a sea bird.
The Baron goes ahead with his premeditated action of cutting Belinda’s lock.
Surprisingly he gets a pair of scissors from Clarissa who later in Canto 5 finds this
incident trivial and sermonizes about the need to focus on leading a life of moral
uprightness than on the transient nature of physical beauty. But initially she is the
one who hands the Baron the scissors to chop off Belinda’s lock (127-130) drawing
a parallel between the epic female characters arming their knights for the war.
When the Baron tries to cut the lock all the protective guardian Sylphs spread
themselves on Belinda’s neck. Thrice he tries and thrice he fails (135-138.)
Pope introduces a twist. The Chief of the Sylphs discovers much to his surprise
216 and shock that “an earthly lover (is) lurking in her heart”(144) in spite of all
her(Belinda’s) efforts to conceal it. In a state of shock and surprise, he abandons Analysis of Canto 3
his vigil and gives the Baron the opportunity to snip her lock.(139-154). Pope
satirizes the ladies and gentlemen belonging to the aristocratic class stating that
they do not possess genuine moral chastity. Baron’s attempts to cut a lock of her
hair and Belinda’s pretension of anger and distress that her honour has been
violated are indicative of the sexual undertones in the poem. Ariel who had earlier
tempted her with the vision of a handsome young man now feels shocked at her
unspoken sexual desires. And shies away from protecting her.(139-146)
Belinda cries in protest even as the Baron exults in victory. Her cries are compared
to the lamentations at someone’s death. The Baron on the other hand is overjoyed
at his victory . Canto 3 ends on this note of the triumph of Baron and the violation
of female chastity.
Two major symbols are seen in Canto 3- The Lock and the Card game. Just as
Helen’s abduction in the Greek classic, The Iliad triggered the war between the
Greeks and the Trojans, Belinda’s lock is the cause of the gender war between
the two sexes. The Lock also symbolizes female chastity. ‘The Rape of the Lock’
is thus made into the rape of Belinda’s honour and reputation. The Lock also
stands for Belinda’s obsessive vanity over her beauty. The two ringlets have
such an alluring power that the Baron wants at least one of them. The 18 th century
had its strong views on female chastity. Women should guard themselves against
disreputation to their honour. It is not clear if Pope endorses this view or not. But
what is clear from a reading of the whole poem is that he relishes mocking at the
pretensions of the aristocratic society that flaunts high morality mainly for the
female gender. He is equally scathing about the ladies who seem to place great
emphasis on beauty, seeking to attract the opposite gender.
The Game of Cards is equated with the epic battles in the Greek Classic, The Iliad
.The contrast between the battle of heroes and warriors, with the Card game Ombre,
shows Pope’s savage use of mockery at the expense of the latter. The contrast is to
highlight the inane and vacuous pastime of the upper class at the court. Pope uses
dextrously the rituals associated with a battle once again to show by contrast the
seriousness of epic narratives and the triviality of the 18th century court narrative.
Check Your Progress 3
(i) What are the two main symbols in Canto 3? Explain their significance.
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(ii) Give examples of Pope’s satirical comments about the 18th century aristocratic
society in Canto 3.
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(Check your answers with those given at the end of the Unit.) 217
ALEXANDER POPE:
‘THE RAPE OF THE 3.6 GLOSSARY
LOCK’
Memento: Keepsake marking the memory of an incident or an event
or a particular time and experience
Engineer: To arrange for something to happen, especially in a useful
and skillful way
Inanities: Lack of sense, meaning, substance and ideas
Narcissistic Excessive preoccupation with or admiration of oneself
obsession:
Muses: Greek Goddesses who are a source of artistic inspiration
Euphemism: A mild, indirect, or vague term for one that is considered
harsh, blunt, or offensive
Evanescence: Disappearance/vanishing
Patriarchal: A society where the head of the families are men
Transient: Passing with time
Commensurate: Corresponding, proportionate
Nymphs: Water elementals who live in streams, rivers, cloud...
Levity : Lack of seriousness
Ombre: A card game with three players
Ariel: Angel in Christian and Jewish mysticism
Sylphs: In classical mythology sylphs are imaginary beings-both
male and female that inhabit the air.
Matadrore: In Card games, one of the highest trumps
Spadilles: In card games cards (in ombre and quadrille) known as the
ace of spades
Manillio : The second best trump
Basto: The ace of Clubs
Plaebeian: One of the common people
Knave: Jack in a pack of cards, A playing card showing the figure
of a servant or Soldier
Pam: The Knave of clubs
See-saw: Oscillating from one extreme to another
Codille: In the game of ombre a term indicating that the game is
won
Scylla: The mythological reference to Scylla how she was changed
into a bird forever after she plucked one of her father’s
218 hairs, a magical hair on which his power depended.
Analysis of Canto 3
3.7 SUMMING UP
In this unit we have discussed the following:
• what is a classical epic
• what are the characteristics of the classical epic
• what is a mock epic. How do you distinguish a mock epic from a classical
epic
• the analysis of Canto 3 of ‘The Rape of the Lock’ and
• the interweaving of satire into the mock epic poem

3.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS


Check Your Progress 1
(i) Some characteristic features of a classical epic include larger than life heroes,
narration of a great historical event; plot involves a journey; repetition of
phrases; invocation to the Muse; mammoth size and inclusion of supernatural
elements etc.
Check Your Progress 2
(i) Features of a mock epic include a mocking or sarcastic tone and use of an
exalted style while dealing with a trivial subject.
(ii) ‘The Rape of the Lock’ is a mock heroic poem because it uses the epic form
which is a genre meant for serious subjects. Here the style is applied to a
trivial issue.
(iii) Pope uses epic devices like invocation of the Muses, armour given by gods,
rich literary allusions and irony among other things.
Check Your Progress 3
(i) The two main symbols are the lock of hair and the game of cards. The lock of
hair symbolizes female chastity and the game of cards is compared to the
epic battles in the Greek tragedy The Iliad.
(ii) Pope uses satire to comment on the 18th century aristocratic society. He
ridicules the Queen who mixes serious conversations with the leisurely activity
of drinking tea; he comments that the courtiers gossip and tear down others’
reputations all the time. His use of grand epic style to present a trivial card
game is also part of his satirical strategy.

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