The Rape of The Lock As a Picture of Contemporary Fashionable Life.
The Rape of The Lock As a Picture of Eighteenth - Century Aristocratic Life.
The Rape of the Lock is one of three poems (the other two being The Dunciad and The Essay on Man) in which Pope emphatically presents himself as a spokesman for his age. The frivolous side of femininity in the artificial tone of the age is never more exquisitely presented than in this poem, a small picture of life in search of beauty in this poem. misc-en
The scene of the toilet chamber and the card table, in short, a scene of realism in the literary guise of perfume spots and powder, we see here the beauty and emptiness, the meanness, jealousy, betrayal and intrigues of the social life of the aristocracy of the time.
The late growth of laziness and fondness for household pets of the elderly women of the time indicates to us that it begins when we are told that Belinda woke up at twelve o'clock and she fell asleep again. The vanity of women, such as their love of golden chariots, and their love of ombré, is also told to us at the beginning of the poem. Their desire to marry peers and dukes or men with other high titles is also hinted at in the opening canto.
Then gay thoughts crowd the empty mind while the peer, and the duke, and all their sweeping train, and the garter, stars, and coronet appear and in soft gold, Tour Grace greets their covers
(Lines 83-86)
These lines show how conscious these women are of rank and titles.
The poetry emphasizes the delicacy, art, craft, and various vanities of the women of the time. These women had learned early in their lives how to roll their eyes and how to blush with shame. They wanted the attention of the brave and were eager to attend the entertainments and balls arranged by them. Their hearts moved from brave to brave.
With varving vanities, from every part. They change the moving toy shop of their hearts
(Lines 99-100)
In other words, they were quick-witted and inconsistent. A brave man could outwit another brave man and a coachman could outwit another coachman. Levity was the mark of these women. Their manners and behavior were artificial and affected. They had enough practice to hang their heads on one side to faint in the air. And to bow proudly. They would put quilts on their full quilts and pretend illness so that the young braves would come to inquire about the health of the wearer and see the expensive gowns they were wearing.
In gowns on rich quilts, sinking into a pity for illness and show, the fair ones get such diseases. When every new night dress gives a new disease
Lines (503-506)
They were deeply interested in the love letters they received, so when Belinda finally got out of bed after a shock, her eyes first opened to a love letter that was wrapped in traditional language, with letters that described the charm and sorrow of wounds, one of the follies of these women was to keep domestic pets such as dogs and Belinda. Among the bad omens that Belinda remembered after losing a lock of her hair to these pets was her detachment from her two domestic pets.
Waspaft sat silent and the shock was most merciless.
The toilet was the greatest concern of these elderly women. One of the most famous passages in Rape of the Lock is that in which Belinda is described at her dressing table. We are told that before starting her toilet operation, Belinda offered the cosmetic powers of the purveyor. On her dressing table were "various offerings of the glittering gems of the worldly Indies. Scents of Arabian perfumes and files of white comb pins, and puffs, powdered peach Bibles, bullets dows" Her nature improved with the help of her maid, daughter Belinda charm.
The fair sparkles in her charm every moment, her smiles also awaken miracles and tell all the wonders of her face
(Lines 140-142)
At another stage in the poem, the author refers to the long labor of the toilet" (line 314). Later in the poem we learn how these women took constant care to prepare combs and essences (line 564). They took special pains to curl their hair, they tied their locks inside paper, and they pressed all these ends just because their heads had a high eyelid. Through careful and painstaking adornment, that erotic, lustful murderousness could be committed which was the end of all their lives.
Women had a tendency to lose their temper over trivial matters. For example, Belinda became angry when a lock of her hair fell out. Her anger was very effectively expressed by the poet. described when he tells us that her terrible screams rent the frightened sky and that "living lightning flashed from her eyes. Thalesistris is described in poetry as Lafie." is shown to be very aggressive, and it is she who started the war Clarissa's speech preached good humor and good sense which had little effect on these women.
The mutual jealousy of the women can be seen in the manner in which Clarissa surreptitiously hands the Baron a pair of scissors to help him in his wicked design.
It was then that Clarissa drew herself up, with charming grace she drew the weapon from its shining case
(Lines 417-418)
It was in all probability. Clarissa's jealousy of Belinda's beauty and fame had induced her to offer this unsolicited assistance to the Baron.
These women had no real moral resentment, they were superficial, and in their eyes serious or important matters were as unimportant as trivial or trivial matters. "Honor was to them a mere word with little meaning, and reputation was more important than honor. The loss of honor did not matter. If there was no loss of good reputation, the moral chaos of their lives was revealed in an effective way in their lives. In the way that a crack in a flimsy china jar is like a woman losing her chastity, a woman's tarnishing of her honor is no more serious than a stain on her new brocade, a woman's loss of a ball is as serious a matter as her forgetting her loved ones, and a woman's loss is as serious as ours losing her neck. A dog in a lap or the wreck of a rich Chinese ship was as serious a matter for a woman as the death of her husband.
During her speech, Thelsteres says that a good reputation is like anything else. More important than that is-easy pleasures vorcho all. In the same speech the men mentioned monkeys, lap dogs and parrots in the same breath. Thus was there a complete confusion of moral values in the minds of these women, Belinda herself having no real sense of feminine virtue or honour, for all her pretence and claim to purity she was secretly in love with the Baron. It was this discovery that made Ariel leave her.
Suddenly she shook off all her art and saw in her heart the earthly lover
(Lines 433-434)
In view of this her lamentation over the breaking of her lock of hair becomes, in other words, a piece of hypocrisy. Belinda believed in maintaining a mere appearance of virtue or honour. This becomes even clearer when we realise that her grief was not because of the breaking of her lock of hair, but because of the breaking of the lock of hair.
It was very important for his external charon If the Baron had stolen another maiden, he would not have suffered much.
Oh, what a tyrant, so content to seize the less visible hair or those hairs
(Lines 641-642)
The lives of the dignified men of that time, the gallants, the dandies, were as devoid of any serious purpose or morality as Florio and Damon are representative of the gallants who competed with each other for the possession of the hearts of women. There was a fierce competition between them for the femininity of women. Wigs struggled with wigs, and sword knots fought with swords. In other words, the gallant tried to drive another gallant out of the mind of a woman, their love behavior is described in a charming way, as the Baron tried to inspire heaven in the heart of Belinda. The Baron built an altar for love. The altar was composed of twelve vast French romances, three garters, half a pair of gloves, and all the trophies of his former loves. He lit the fire with the tender love letters he had received, and sighed three charming sighs to extinguish the fire. If love of fashion and toilet were the only signs of love, these were the signs of love. Fops felt the Baron's triumph in this regard, having succeeded in gaining possession of a lock of Belinda's hair, the Baron declared that his name would live forever because he had won the glorious prize. Fops's life was as empty and shallow as the boys' lives. This is expressed in the character of the empty-headed Sir Plum, with a thoughtless face, a man who was proud of his amber snuff-box and the good manners of his cloud stick, and who could hardly speak a dozen words without half a dozen. Died in the battle of the sexes (in Canto V) expresses the same thing Died in a metaphor and in a mourning deprot sard A cruel nymph A living death 1 Bear and sink by his chair were the last words of Sır Fopling They are made of winking Taking snuff and wearing wigs were the foremost of fasten.
The vulgarity and superficiality of the time are evident from the gossip that took place at court, the gentlemen and ladies at court would discuss who had given the ball or who had made the last visit, one would talk of the glory of the British Queen and Mother, describe a charming Indian screen, a third would interpret the movements and postures. A reputation dies at every word.
Talking, taking snuff or singing 'with laughter and all that.'
Card parties were common. Ombré was a favourite game. We are given an extensive account of the game Ombré, devised by Belinda and two knights. Belinda was eager to show off her rowers in the game and was eager to win. In Ombré, a winner was coffee to make a woman feel important. Coffee drinking was another important turning point in the era. The whole process of grinding coffee beans and making coffee is described in the poem. Coffee delighted the ladies and gentlemen with its aroma and taste, and repeated cups of it made the politician wiser. It was coffee that inspired in the Baron’s mind a cunning trick to gain possession of Belinda’s locks of hair.
The poem paints a bleak picture of judges, juries and merchants. The judges were in a hurry to sign the sentence and the jury was in a hurry to return the verdict of the guilty as they were all in a hurry to get home for dinner. The merchants spent feverish hours on the exchange and only when they returned home did they find peace.
Other aspects of life of that time that are mentioned in a frank manner in the poem are the wisdom of heroes and the promises of courtiers, the cages of the little ones, the chains to put a madman in a gamble, dried butterflies and the tomes of casuistry (large books on the principles of morality that often lead to nothing but debate). The poem also to Hyde Park Circus, the mall. and Rosamondars Lake. And there is also a reference to the famous astrologer of the time. Partridge who always made predictions about the fall of the Pope in Louis of France and Rouen.