So far, during the third quarter of our AP Lit course, we have covered satire. More specifically, we have been identifying different types and reading many examples, including articles from "The Onion," Candide, and most recently Rape of the Locke. In this blog post I thoought I would share some thoughts on Rape f the Lock. First, however, I think it would be appropriate to look at the format of the poem.
Rape of the Lock is a satire that utilizes mock-epic style poetry. Mock-epics are high burlesque, taking trivial subjects in a serious manner. Rape of the Lock displays several of the common characteristics of epics. The poem takes a long time to describe all of her hair-care products, or her warfare. It also gives a history of the hairpin, which has been passed down from generation to genertion in Belinda's family. The rest of the characteristics the story has are a dream warning, supernatural forces, guardianship of protagonist, hero, setting, action, and style.
Although this poem is centered around Belinda's hair, the poem actually takes shots at the aristocratic society. This is evident just from the description of Belinda's life. She gets up at around noon everyday, spends a long time on her appearance, then proceeds to the court to play cards; this is the life a useless person who contributes nothing to society. It is interesting that he also attacks the queen, a figure of the highest authority. It makes me wonder what sort of changes Pope was trying to bring about. Was he trying to get the nobles to become more active? Perhaps he was trying to eliminate the entire aristocratic society? It is a bit of a stretch, but could Pope be an early advocate of Socailism? All of these questions came up in my mind while I was reading; I seemed unable to come up with an answer I was satisfied with. Perhaps a bright peer could enlighten me.
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3 comments:
I have to agree with Nishant on a couple of things, specifically at the bottom of his post. I had the same impression that he was pretty much against the aristocratic society and pointing out their meaningless lives while everyone lower then them were the ones doing the work. I also agree that he might be trying to motivate some of the nobles to do something, although I think socialism could be a little bit far. I like how they make this whole thing seem like a battle zone when the most contact they have (besides the cutting of what apparently was equivalent to her soul) is her throwing tobacco up his nose.
Yes, Rape of the Lock is mocking how extremely boring and lame the aristocratic society is. They have nothing better to do with their lives than create huge family feuds over a little snip of hair. The author is completely mocking them, but he had full permission!
I really liked this story and I think it is one of the best satires we have read. The described "battle scene" was one of my favorite parts.
I agree with all of what you have said Nishant. But I also agree with Anthony about socialism might be a little too far. I think the point of the Rape of the Lock was just about getting the nobles do so something with their lives and nothing more than that. Again, this is just mocking how lame and uneventful their lives are. In order to get some drama, emotion, and a new spin to their lives, they needed to fight over something most people would not make a huge fuss over.
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