The English Restoration witnessed the superficial aping of French values and culture, and a

surfeit of pseudo-intellectualism which provided a ripe opportunity for the satire as a literary
form to assume preeminence over others. While Dryden’s satires were mostly political,
Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a mock-epic that satirises the aristocratic 'beau-monde'
of eighteenth-century England. Pope borrows the form from Dryden transmutes it to suit his aim
of producing corrective social satire, thereby extending its scope beyond the political sphere to
include all of society in its circumference. The Mock-heroic poem, a double-edged satirical
weapon, applies the elevated rhetoric of the epic and heroic forms to a trivial subject. The matter
of it is inconsequential as the societal practices are so, while the manner is deliberately made
grandiloquent. The ridiculous discrepancy between the presented and the proposed, between
antiquity and contemporaneity, becomes the message of the text. Pope’s method here is of
structural and technical imitation of his Homeric and Miltonic models, as opposed to modern
thematic mock-heroic parallels drawn by Joyce in Ulysses.
What is peculiar about The Rape of the Lock is the temperance in Pope’s vitriolic remarks. He is
more like Shakespeare or Juvenal as compared to Jonson or Horace. It is possible that the
personal context forced him to subdue his customary pungency. He states: “The stealing of Miss
Belle Fermor’s hair was taken too seriously, and caused an estrangement between the two
families, though they had lived long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance and
well-wisher to both [John Caryll] desired me to write a poem to make a jest of it and laugh them
together again. It was in this view that I wrote my Rape of the Lock.” He refers to the case of
Lord Petre (the Baron) and Miss Arabella Fermor, where their families, formerly on good terms
with each other, developed an animosity due to Lord Petre’s theft of a lock of the lady’s hair
during a party. The richness of the poem, however, reveals more than a straightforward satirical
attack. Alongside the criticism we can detect Pope's fascination with, and perhaps admiration for,
Belinda. The social politics of beauty, schematic definitions of femininity, the idea of damaged
self by the society are dealt with in Canto I. Pope depicts the trivial ritualistic habit of vanitas
emblem in Belinda’s toilette preparation scene (l.121-148) with the equipment of the mock epic
style, which is comparable to the arming of Achilles (Iliad, Book 18) or Juno (Aeneid, Book 14)
The opening lines of the section establishes the wide gap that exists between the content and
form.: “And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd,/ Each Silver Vase in mystic Order laid.”
Pope associates the articles on Belinda’s dressing table to objects of sacred importance,
foregrounding the ensuing action as an extension of ritual. Recognizing herself as an icon or a
personification of idealized beauty, Belinda indulges in unbridled self-adoration: “a heav’nly
Image in the glass appears.” However, one realises how this “sacred” augmented image is
produced by the employment of “Cosmetic Pow’rs”. Pope’s word choice is interesting, for
“cosmetic” finds its roots in the Greek “cosmos” which indicates order. Ironically, it is through
these cosmetic embellishments that Belinda will commit what is cosmic, create most “admir’d
disorder”, even though it is a synthetic management of reality. In the eighteenth century, pride
was considered the first of the sins and by performing “Rites of Pride” at the “altar” of self-
worship, Belinda and the whole society which she represents, is guilty of a serious moral fault.
There are in these lines, the hint of Narcissus-like autoeroticism, as Belinda is associated with
the roles of the Goddess and “priestess” simultaneously. A further parallel may be drawn to
Milton’s presentation of Eve in Book IV of Paradise Lost: “As I bent down tot look, just
opposite/A shape within the watery gleam appeared/Bending to look on me/…With answering
looks of sympathy and love.” However, while Eve’s viewing of herself is one that is rooted in
innocence, Belinda’s self-adulation stems from the corruption in her being. Yet, furthering the
argument, we see that it is Eve’s naivete that caused the Fall of Man. Perhaps then, from a
feminist point of view, Belinda’s aggrandizement is a defense-mechanism, an armor that she
dons while fighting the Battle of the Sexes. In any case, the presentation of Belinda, though
satirical, is more human, contrary to Milton’s polarized presentation of character.
Pope now focuses on the theme of contingency of women through a diminution of the
conventional epic catalogue: “The various Off’rings of the World appear;/ From each she nicely
culls with curious Toil,/ And decks the Goddess with the glitt’ring Spoil.” Belinda inspires such
awe and veneration that the infinite “Unnumber’d treasures” gather in her room at once. At this
point, Pope hints at the dominance of the female, as she commands her armies. The word “spoil”
reinforces the martial context, associating this section with the Aeneid (Book IX) where it
signifies captive armour. Furthermore, there is a colonial subtext hinted at the imperial loot of
Indian gems and Arabian perfumes which were class indicators in England. The idea of Marx’s
‘commodity fetish’ is manifested here. Intertextual references relate this section to Macbeth (V,
i) and Dryden’s translation of Juvenal’s sixth satire. Following this, an amalgamation of living
beings is presented in the dressing table scene: “The Tortoise here and Elephant unite,/
Transform’d to combs, the speckled and the White.” To this, Arthur Sale comments: “the picture
intended is of the large, unwieldy elephant and a small tortoise joining forces to worship, by self-
immolation, the divine Belinda,” It may also be suggested that Pope extends the colonial strain,
causing a diminution of animals part of the Hindu myth of creation, and perverting them to crude
sexual imagery. The catalogue of "Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, and Billet-doux" suggest the
descent and collapse of culture and religious integrity. On the same table, there are puffs
(symbols or aristocratic standard, and hypocrisy), powders (feminine beauty, and artificiality),
patches (political batches, and dogma), Bibles (religious life, and apparent faith), and billet-doux
(love letter, affectedly in jilting romance). As “awful Beauty” arms herself with the aid of her
human and supernatural servants, the “wonders of her face are repaired, implying how her beauty
is only superficial, while her spirit is rotten at the core. While Zeus’s lightning is intrinsic to his
power, Belinda must use drops of belladonna to create the “keener lightnings” of her eyes that
are aimed at destroying men’s amorous pursuits.