Alexander Pope : The Rape of the Lock
A Mirror of the Eighteenth Century Aristocratic Social Life
The Rape of the Lock : A Mirror to the Eighteenth Century Aristocratic Social Life
Introduction
Every work of art, in some way or other, expresses its age, either as a direct reflection or by implication. “The Rape of the Lock” is without doubt a mirror of at least a certain section of English society in the eighteenth century, in which Alexander Pope shows himself emphatically as the spokesman of his age. It captures perfectly the ethos of the aristocratic society of the day, if one shifts aside the obvious ironic exaggerations.
The poem pictures the artifical tone of the age and the frivolous aspect of feminity. “It is the aspect of triflings; a page torn from the petty, pleasure-seeking life of fashionable beauty; risen scene of the toilet chamber and the card-table; in short, the variable apotheosis in literary guise of scent, patches and powder.” We see here the elegance and the emptiness, the meanness and the vanity, the jealousies, treacheries, and intrigues of the social life of the aristocracy of the time (eighteenth century).
Faithful Representation of the Fashionable Society : Aristocratic Young Ladies of the Time
Introduction
At the very outset we become acquainted with the idleness, late-rising, and fondness for domestic pets of the aristocratic ladies of the time. Belinda, a typical fashionable lady of the time, wakes up at the hour of twelve and then falls asleep again. We also become acquainted in the very beginning of the poem with the superficiality of the ladies who loved gilded chariots, and affected a love of the game of ombre. Their ambition to marry peers and dukes or men holding other high titles is indicated too in the opening canto.
Women with Levity
The poem brings out the coquetry, the art and artifice, and the ‘varying vanities’ of the ladies of the time. These ladies learnt early in their life how to roll their eyes and to blush in an intriguing manner. Their hearts were like toy-shops which moved from one gallant to another–
“With varying vanities, from every part,
They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart.”
‘Levity’ was the hallmark of those women. Their manners and behavior were artificial and affected. They knew the art to lisp, to hang their heads aside, to faint into arms, and to languish with pride.
Women with Love-letters
The women of the time felt glad to receive love letters. Thus, when Belinda at last gets up from her bed, her eyes first open on a love letter couched in the conventional language of such letters. Another of the vanities of these ladies was to keep domestic pets such as dogs and parrots. Thus Belinda has her Shock and Poll.
Aristocratic Ladies Toilet
Aristocratic ladies treated toilet as their chief concern. One important passage in ‘The Rape of the Lock’ describes Belinda at her dressing table. Before commencing her toilet operation, she offers a prayer to the ‘cosmetic powers’. At her dressing table are ‘the various offerings of the world’–India’s glowing gems, Arabia’s perfumes, speckled and white combs, files of pins, ‘puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux’.
Temperamental Aristocratic Ladies
The ladies lose their tempers over trifles. The ladies of the poem are depicted as very aggressive, and it is they who start the battle. Women have been jealous of one another from time immemorial. Clarissa stealthily hands over a pair of scissors to the Baron because it is in all probability Clarissa’s jealousy of Belinda’s beauty and fame that prompts her to offer this assistance to the Baron.
‘Honour’ and ‘Reputation’ to the Aristocratic Ladies
The ladies have no moral scruples. ‘Honour’ is a word with little meaning for them; and ‘reputation’ is more important to them than ‘honour’. The loss of ‘honour’ does not matter if ‘reputation’ is not lost. Several passages in the poem reveal the moral disarray of their lives. In one passage, for instance, a lady’s missing a dance party is as serious a matter as her forgetting her prayers. A lady’s losing her necklace is as serious as losing her heart. The death of a lap dog or the breaking of a rich China vessel is as serious a matter to the lady as the death of her husband. These are all examples of the superficial nature of the ladies of the time. Belinda herself has no real sense of feminine virtue or honour. She laments and feels unhappy over the loss of a lock of her hair because the loss of particular lock of hair was vital to her charm. She would not have been much hurt if the Baron had stolen any other hair.
Aristocratic Young Men of the Time
The aristocratic young men of the time were, like the ladies, lacking in any serious purpose or morality. Florio and Damon are representatives of those gallants and fops who vie with one another to capture the hearts of the ladies. There is a keen competition among them to win feminine favours and in this manner the Baron tries to win Belinda’s heart. The life of the fops is as empty and shallow as the life of the ladies. This is emphasized by the role played by the empty handed Sir Plume with a bit of ‘unthinking face’ who can hardly speak a dozen words without uttering half-a-dozen oaths. Taking snuff and wearing wigs were the foremost fashions among the men of that time.
Passing Reference to a Wider Section of Society
We are given a satirical picture of judges, jury members, and merchants. The judges are in a hurry to sign the judgment and the jury members are in a hurry to pronounce a verdict of guilty because they want to get back home for dinner. The merchants spend feverish hours at the exchange. Other aspects of the life of the time which are mentioned in an amusing manner are the wits of heroes and of beaux, courtiers’ promises, dried butterflies etc. And there is a reference to the well-known astrologer of the time, Patridge, who always made prophecies about downfall of Louis of France, and of the Pope at Rome.
Belinda’s Beauty
The glitter and the elegance of the period are also effectively depicted in the poem. Belinda’s beauty and charm receive much attention. Robbed in white, she sees her heavenly reflection in the mirror. We are fascinated by Belinda’s beauty as described in the famous passage dealing with her toilet. Her beauty and charm are mentioned again and again in the poem. She is described as the rival of the beams of the sun. She wears a sparkling cross on her white breast. She smiles at everyone. The poet invests her almost with the character of a divinity. If she has any faults, they are hidden by her graceful ease and her sweetness. We see her as a coquette, a sweet charmer, a society belle, a rival of the sun, and a murderer of millions. The poet uses hyperbolic language in describing her faultless beauty and even divinity; nymph maid, the fair virgin, goddess, etc. The idealizing words used by Pope for Belinda reflect the homage which society paid to the image of the beautiful woman. Pope’s attitude, and therefore our attitude, towards Belinda, is mocking and yet tender, critical and yet admiring.
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