Showing posts with label Alexander Pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexander Pope. Show all posts
The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope- Summary and Analysis
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Alexander Pope
,
Notes & Analysis
,
Poetry
The Rape of the Lock opens
with a brief letter from Pope to the poem's real-life subject, Arabella
("Belle") Fermor. In the letter, he explains why he wrote the poem in
the first place, the circumstances that led him to publish it, and why he
dedicates it to Arabella.
With
Canto I, the official story begins. Here we meet Belinda, the poem's beautiful,
rich, young society heroine, cuddled up with her dog in her sumptuous bedroom,
just barely awake in the late morning/early afternoon. She's been having a sexy
dream in which a handsome, well-dressed young man whispers sweet nothings into
her ear. We're off to a rather pleasant start.
We
learn that the dream has come from the sylph, Ariel, the airy spirit who
watches over her. In the dream, Ariel explains the entire spirit-world of the
poem, and introduces the sylphs and gnomes who will play important roles in the
action later on. Belinda wakes up fully and rings for her maid, who helps her
get dressed and put on her makeup for the day. Invisible to the humans,
Belinda's army of attendant sylphs help with her face, hair, and outfit. As
Canto II opens, a resplendent Belinda is in a barge, sailing down the River
Thames on her way to a fancy party at Hampton Court, one of the country
residences of the royal family. We learn here that her hairstyle features two
curling locks that hang down the back of her neck. Ariel the sylph makes a
speech to all of the other sylphs, telling them he's had a premonition that
something terrible is about to happen, and that they should all be on their guard
during the party.
The
"something terrible" happens in Canto III, which finds Belinda at the
party with all of her friends, sipping coffee (a novelty refreshment in the
early 1700s, believe it or not) and playing a card game called Ombre, which is
very similar to Hearts. The card game itself is described as a metaphorical
battle between Belinda and her opponent, the Baron, who unbeknownst to Belinda
is also scheming to steal one of her two locks of hair. After Belinda wins the
game, the Baron borrows a pair of scissors from her frenemy, Clarissa. He
sneaks up behind her and, despite all of the efforts of Ariel and the Sylphs,
snips off the lock.
Canto
IV opens with Belinda having a complete hysterical fit about the theft. Pope
gives her rage a supernatural source, telling us that Umbriel, a resentful
gnome, goes down to the underworld to pick up a bag full of tears, sobs, and
anger, which he then empties over Belinda's head.
After
this, there's no way that Belinda will laugh off the Baron's prank, even though
Canto V begins with Clarissa trying to tell her to be a good sport about it.
Belinda ignores this advice, and starts a fight between herself and her
friends, and the Baron and his friends.
It's more of a battle of insults and mean looks than a physical throwdown, but
a ton of social damage gets done all the same.
Just
when it looks like Belinda's side is winning, we discover that the lock of hair
itself has gone missing. Has all of the drama been for nothing? Nope. The poem
concludes with the poet himself claiming the overall victory, as he has written
this beautiful poem commemorating the loss of the lock—and his own poetry
chops—for all eternity. Poetry and Alexander Pope, rather than vanity and petty
quarrelling, win in the end.
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