Assignment # 2
Name: Rida Zainab
Roll No. 200619
Course Title : Classical Poetry
Course Code : ENG-304
Submitted to : Sir Riaz Qadeer
Govt. Graduate College Samnaabad Fsd
Genre : Mock Epic
Topic: “The Rape of the Lock”
as a Mock Epic Poem
The Rape of the Lock was written by Alexander Pope
and first published in 1712, then reworked and published
again in 1714. The poem is a mock-epic that satirizes the
upper-class in London at the time. The story focuses on the
central character, Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a
social gathering.
Definition of Mock Epic :
Before discussing “The rape of the lock” as a mock epic
let us first discuss the definition of a mock epic poem:
“A mock-heroic epic is a poem which uses a
formal and grand style to describe a trivial or
common subject for which this style is not
suitable. This leads to a comic effect since the
style of the mock poem is mismatched with the
subject.”
“The Rape of the lock” is one of the best examples of
mock-heroic epics. In mock heroic poetry, the central
character is not brave and adventurous unlike in heroic epic.
The lofty and hyperbolic language is used in mock heroic
epic to describe a trivial or a common matter in a satiric or
ridiculous way.
Comparison between Epic and Mock epic
poems:
Heroic or Epic poems are poems like the Odyssey, the
Aeneid, and Paradise Lost dealing with man in his exalted
aspects. Their action is weighty, their personages are
dignified and their style is elevated.
In all the epics, gods and daemons, take active part in
human affairs and guide their destiny. In contrast,
The mock-epic is a poetic form which uses
the epic structure but on a miniature scale
and has a subject that is mean and trivial.
The purpose of the mock-epic or mock-heroic poem is
satirical. In fact, a mock-heroic poem is not a satire on poetry
itself, but the target of the attack may be a person or an
institution or the whole society. The subject of such a poem is
trivial or unimportant, but the treatment of the subject is
heroic or epic and such exaggeration of the trivial naturally
arouses laughter. The pleasure of the poem, as
Ian Jack points out, ensues from:
“Comparing small men to giants and
making pygmies of them in the process”
The title of the poem “The rape of the lock
proves it as a mock epic poem”:
That Pope was conscious of his intentions to make The
Rape of the Lock a mock-epic is evident from the title.
Homer’s Iliad which describes the events arising out of
Helen’s elopement with a Trojan prince and the war between
the Greeks and the Trojans can be appropriately described as
a poem dealing with the “Rape of Helen”.
The title of Pope’s poem, The Rape of the Lock is thus a
parody of the Iliad in this sense; for in this poem, the mighty
contest ensues from the assault on the lock of Belinda’s hair.
The Rape of the Lock parodies the serious epics not only in its
title but also in the overall structure.
Invocation to Muse:
At the beginning of the poem, there is invocation to the
Muse as in an epic.
Pope imitates as in:
“I sing – this verse to Caryll Muse! is due
This ev’n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise
If she inspire, and he approve my lays”
The invocation, the description of the heroine’s toilet, the
journey to Hampton Court, the game of ombre magnified into
a pitched battle all lead up to the moment when the peer
produces the fatal scissors. But the action of the mortals was
not enough.
The Use of Spiritual Machinery in Mock-Heroic
Epic:
The Pope knew that in true epics the affairs of men were
aided by the Heavenly Powers. He, therefore, added the
supernatural beings – sylphs, gnomes and nymphs– as agents
in the story. The gods of the epic are heroic beings, but Pope’s
deities are tiny. Unlike the deities of the epics, who act as
guardian agents of the epic heroes, Belinda’s guardian sylph,
Ariel is an ineffectual airy being who deserts her at the
critical moment. The supernatural machinery mocks at the
epic deities.
Pope describes the diminutive gods as:
“the light militia of the lower sky”
In the poem, It was Heaven and the powers, which,
granting half the Baron’s prayers, wrested from his fingers the
lock they had allowed him to cut.As, Pope says:
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes,
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:”
Mockery at mighty battles in the poem:
We find a battle drawn to combat like the Greek
warriors but it is only a game of cards on a dressing table.
There are several instances of Burlesque-treatment. There is
Belinda’s voyage to Hampton Court which suggests the
voyage of Aeneas up to the Tiber in Virgil. There is a coffee
party which is a parody of the meal frequency described in
Homer. Belinda screams like the Homeric poems and dashed
like the characters of the great epics. i.e.
“ Sudden, with starting tears each eye o’erflows,
And the high dome re-echoesto his nose”.
The combat at the end recalls the fighting which is found
anywhere in the ancient epics. The Cave of Spleen is a parody
of an allegorical picture from poets like Spenser.
Just before the cutting of the lock, when Ariel searches
out the close recess of the virgin’s thoughts. There he finds an
earthly lover lurking in her heart, and Pope tells us that Ariel
retires with a sigh, resigned to fate. This situation echoes the
moment in Paradise Lost when after the fall of Adam and Eve,
the Angles of God retire sad to heaven.
Mockery at the Belinda’s toilet:
Pope mocks in a very delicate way that upper-class
females pay more attention to the superficial beauty instead
of outer beauty. Pope satires tha, many beauty and facial
powders and other things are on Belinda’s toilet table.
“Here Files of Pins extend their shining Rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux.”
Belinda’s dressing and cosmetics has been described in a
way that would suit the arming of a warrior like Achilles. She
appears as:
“ On her breast a sparking cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore”.
Mockery at the moral flaws of women of
English society of the18h century :
The very opening couplet juxtaposes “Mighty contest”
with trivial things”. In the following couplet, chastity is
equated with ‘frail China jar’. The effect of this juxtaposition
is highly amusing and startling.
Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw,
Conclusion:
In a Nutshell, we can say that, though the subject matter
of the Rape of the Lock is trivial and ridiculous, the style,
diction and versification are rarely so. The diction is exalted
and the heroic-couplets are carefully polished and chiseled.
Mock-epic is an example of the collation of the great with the
little.
In the Rape of the Lock, Pope frequently juxtaposes the
heroic with the trivial to produce the mock-epic effect. The
Rape of the Lock is a highly subtle and complex mock-epic. It
is a nearly perfect example of its genre. The genre of the
mock-epic not only because it parodies the epic conventions
throughout, but also because it provides a highly amusing
drama of its own rights.
The greatness of the poem is due to Pope’s genius as well
as to the care and pains he took in a different form. The
balance between the concealed irony and the assumed
gravity is as nicely trimmed as the balance of power in
Europe. The little is made great and the great little. You hardly
know whether to laugh or weep. It is the triumph of
insignificance of foppery and folly. It is the perfection of the
mock-heroic.
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