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• The gift of a lady to her knight, specifically Clarissa's offering of the • scissors, is received
"with reverence." When the Fair pay visits on • "solemn" days "numerous wax-lights in bright
order blaze." Women • are "Angels called, and Angel-like adored," and at the theater the • side-
box bows to them "from its inmost rows." When the belles engage • in battle, they exhibit more
than mortal powers—the power, indeed, • of life and death. Enraged Thalestris "scatters death
around from • both her eyes." Chloe kills Sir Plume with a frown and then revives • him with a
smile.
• The gift of a lady to her knight, specifically Clarissa's offering of the scissors, is received "with
reverence. -We know that she is in court, she is so much proud of his lock, and there is another
character named Clarissa, she is added to the 1718 version of the poem and she is basically a
spoken person through which the poet basically comments on the overall incident. Clarissa is in
the court and to some extent disappointed with the balanda, though Belinda is a grown-up person
but in reality, she did not grow she is still childish. And you can only grow when you suffer a
blow. claressa was there and she had a pair of scissors, and she handed the pear of Caesar to the
Lord Byron.
" When the Fair pay visits on • "solemn" days "numerous wax-lights in bright order blaze."
Women • are "Angels called, and Angel-like adored," and at the theater the side-box bows to
them "from its inmost rows." When the belles engage in battle***, they exhibit more than mortal
powers—the power, indeed, • of life and death. -when death. - fighting the fight with sword and
gun, but when women engaged with fight they come with supernatural power, come with more
than a mortal power. Enraged Thalestris (another classical character) "scatters death around from
both her eyes."-she was looking at the people, the classical figure Thalestris, she was looking at
the people in the court fighting, fighting means they are basically flirting and making a
conversation with each other, and she was looking at them furiously with spore. “Chloe kills Sir
Plume with a frown and then revives him with a smile. **** That is how with a smile and with
frown girls can kill and at same time revive people.
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• But Belinda outshines all her sex in divine attributes and importance. She is told that she is the
"distinguished care/Of thousand • bright Inhabitants of Air." The head Sylph, Arid himself,
comes to • warn her of the impending disaster. Her own "heavenly image in the • glass" is the
goddess she worships during the sacred ceremony of her.
• But Belinda outshines all her sex in divine attributes and importance. She is told that she is the
"distinguished care/Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air." The head Sylph, Arid himself, comes
to warn her of the impending disaster. --This is in the court and you know that she is
distinguished, and she is more beautiful than any other, she is different from everybody else. She
is unique and she has all the divine characteristics. And from the beginning we are told that she
is attended by mm Sylph. It is said that she is distinguished by the thousand bright Inheritance of
air. She is already old even though she has many attendants who are going to take care of, but the
danger is there. because claressa already handed over this Caesar to Lord Byron, he is going to
cut her lock. The head Sylph, his name is Aerial, comes to her, and he wants to hear about the
impending disaster. In the mirror she has Thalestris, and she worships her. She sits in front of the
mirror and then an aerial comes and tells her that it is really something dangerous and it is going
to happen very soon in the poem. Her own "heavenly image in the • glass" is the goddess she
worships during the sacred ceremony of her
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• Not only is her Lock sacred, but as the symbol of her chastity it is • called an "inestimable
prize." When it is lost, she "burns with more • than mortal ire." Canto IV opens with a long list of
grievances, many • of them greater than the snipping of a curl; yet Belinda's rage at the • loss of
her Lock is said to exceed that of the victims of all these other • grievances. This heightens the
significance of her loss and exhibits her • emotion about it as above the average mortal run for a
mere ringlet. • Finally, the surest "proof" the poem gives that the Lock is too exalted • a trophy
for a mere mortal is its ascension into heaven and its • perpetual glorification there.
• Not only is her Lock sacred, but as the symbol of her chastity it is called an "inestimable prize."
When it is lost, she "burns with more than mortal ire." -Not necessary the lock of hair is simply a
lock of care it is basically a symbol of her chastity. This lock of hair particularly on which was
cut off by Lord Born it is representative of her chastity. This lock of hair represents Belinda as a
virgin girl. This is something that is considered as in stable Pride, something that is represented
as virginity, by cutting of the lock that means that I am symbolically snatching your virginity. is
when it is lost, she burns with more than and mortal symbolically snatching time her lock is cut
by Byron, and she suffers from pain who is this more than mortal.
Canto IV, opens with a long list of grievances, many of them greater than the snipping of a curl;
yet Belinda's rage at the • loss of her Lock is said to exceed that of the victims of all these other •
grievances. This heightens the significance of her loss and exhibits her emotion about it as above
the average mortal run for a mere ringlet. • Finally, the surest "proof" the poem gives that the
Lock is too exalted • a trophy for a mere mortal is its ascension into heaven and its • perpetual
glorification there. -When the lock is cut it is already cut and Belinda is suffering from anguish
that is larger than human beings, she is so in pain that her pain outshine all the pains in the world
suffered by people. In canto 4, we can find numerous references of different kinds of pain and by
comparing Belinda’ pain with other people's pain the poet tells us that her pain is stronger. it is
more strong and acute. and finally, the lock is exported to heaven. Then Jews and other people
are going to write poems on this and glorify cut locks.
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• Future lovers will send up vows to it and the fates of nations be foretold by its celestial
motions. Furthermore, Belinda and the objects associated with her can work miracles. Sailing
forth on the Thames: On her white breast a sparkling Cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss,
and infidels adore. For after all the murders of your eye, When, after millions slain, yourself shall
die: When those fair suns shall set, as set they must. . ..
• Future lovers will send up vows to it and the fates of nations be foretold by its celestial
motions-So we know that the lock is in the sky and in future other poets will praise that lock of
hair. It will be any other celestial emotions. Furthermore, Belinda and the objects associated with
her can work miracles. Sailing forth on the Thames: -now she is so frustrated that now she is
coming from the court to her house using a boat of course she is taking the river Thames in
London. She has lost her lock but she has something else. On her white breast a sparkling Cross
she wore, hair the author is describing the external appearance of a girl. She was wearing a cross
in on her breast Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. For after all the murders of your eye,
When, after millions slain, yourself shall die: When those fair suns shall set, as set they must. . ..
That means you lost your lock that means you lost your beauty, that means Timber legally for
metonymically you have lost, your virginity your social status, you lost your Pride. and the most
important point here poet describe that you are going to your home using boat and you have a
cross on your bosom, people and other people who are not believe they can have faith by kissing
your cross.
From many years with your coquettish you have killed many people, now it is your time to die.
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• These lines are particularly interesting since they also undercut the • myth of Belinda's divinity
—specifically her sunship by references to • her actual mortality. The time of the poem is
conceived as a single • day, its progress marked by frequent references to the progress of the •
sun in the sky. The implication is that Belinda's I course, like the sun's, • will ultimately end in
darkness.
• These lines are particularly interesting since they also undercut the myth of Belinda's divinity—
specifically her sunship by references to her actual mortality. -- The time of the poem is
conceived as a Sun goddess but the sun is destined Tu to set, and Darkness is something that is
coming up after death. darkness here of course means death. and he is faced with the same
consequences that the people faced after death. It doesn't matter if she is beautiful or not. The
time of the poem is considered as a single day, so it happens in only one day. There are frequent
references to the sky and the sun. in the morning it begins with the sun rising and ends with the
sunset. in the perspective of wearing the court is in the peak she is young beautiful but at on
movement the lock is cut off, • day, its progress marked by frequent references to the progress of
the sun in the sky. The implication is that Belinda's I course, like the sun's, will ultimately end in
darkness.
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• Say what strange Motive, Goddess! cou'd compel • A well-bred Lord t'assault a gentle Belle •
Oh say what stranger Cause, yet unexplor'd, • Cou'd make a gentle Belle reject a Lord • In Tasks
so bold, can Little Men engage, • And in soft Bosoms dwells such mighty Rage • (RL, I: 7-12)
If we focus on those five lines, we understand that the ultimate point that Alexander Pope is
made, he is asking some questions and then gradually answering the questions as well. You are
eligible if you are 26 or 25 years old and it is a suitable time for you to find a suitor, it is a
suitable time for you to be in a relationship to start a family. For women, what is the point of
decorating yourself? ultimately you are going to die then what is the point of doing this, your
beauty is meant to be enjoyed. Somebody is trying to approach you and you are so hot, so
pocket coquettish and you are so proud of yourself that to find it unacceptable. The author makes
the point that cutting off her lock by baron and ordinary people cannot do that, it needs a person
from an upper-class family who has the power and at the same time the means to give a lesson to
a girl who is suffering from a severe scene which is called pride.
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• In his opening invocation, Pope has already identified `am'rous Causes as the stimulant to the
Baron's 'dire Offence' (RL, I: 1); but the • poem goes on to suggest more complicated
manoeuvrings between • 'mighty Contests' and 'trivial Things' (RL, I: 2). • Belinda is a little
'Belle', or fashionable beauty, celebrated in • conventional language (`those Eyes that must
eclipse the Day', RL, I: 14), • but dozing her way through the morning, absolutely witholi
responsibility • or occupation. Her attempts at action are curious: we may take 'Thrice rung • the
Bell the Slipper knock'd the Ground, /And the press'd Watch return'd • a silver Sound' (RL, I• 17-
18) to indicate that she rings for her maid, knocks • on the floor for attention, then checks the
time, but her agency is nowhere specified and the objects appear to perform the actions
themselves.
In this opening invocation who has already been identified in numerous causes. one of the causes
in the poem is amorous laugh, it is about laughing as the stimulant to the balance dire offence.
previous line you have already known what caused him to cut the lock of the hair of Belinda. and
now Pope is telling us that the reason behind cutting the lock is not Envy but it was laugh. but
the poem goes on to suggest more complicated win over rings between Mighty contested and
trivial things Belinda is a little belle. Belinda is a fascinating beauty in conventional language,
the eyes that must eclipse the day. Again, she is compared to the sun. if you close your eyes there
is darkness everywhere. and in the morning now she is going to wake up, kind of sleepwalking.
She wakes Up in the morning without any responsibility. you slept late at night and woke up late
and did nothing. She does not have any occupation as well. Then what is she going to do? we
may take 'Thrice rung • the Bell the Slipper knock'd the Ground, /And the press'd Watch return'd
• a silver Sound’. She even not calling the servant, she is just stepping on the floor. She just
woke up and rang quiz Rang on the floor that means she is not even prepared to talk she is so
depressed, disappointed without any clue. She is telling her to come and help her. • on the floor
for attention, then checks the time, but her agency is nowhere specified and the objects appear to
perform the actions themselves.
-this is where the Alexander Pope borrows many ideas from classical epic. In classical Greece,
inanimate objects do not have life, but in Greek mythology everything is connected with the
supreme God, that means things can speak. ok now she is sitting in front of her mirror, and
everything is done by the things themselves. This is something that is borrowed by Pope from
classical epic.
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• Belinda is, in any case, put back to sleep again by her 'Guardian Sylph', --she was awake and
she was asking for hair without using any word. Aerial was there • Ariel, who puts into her head
(in a parody of epic and biblical dreams) an attractive male figure to warn her of some
impending disaster (I: 27-114). ********This divine machinery has Supernatural powers that
manipulate thought. aerial being a divine creature he puts her into sleep and puts the image of a
beautiful man into her head. so, she is screaming in her sleep. and the man is Attractive figure.
And aerial did for awarding Belinda that something terrible is going to be happened very soon •
The long speech grafts onto Belinda's childhood imaginings `Of airy • Elves by Moonlight
Shadows seen', RL, I: 31) a new mythology, which • also serves to provide the reader with the
necessary background: what • Belinda takes to be her own autonomous activity in life is actually
a contrivance of her miniature attendants, the 'light Militia of the lower Sky' • (RL, I: 42).-when
he was sleeping and dreaming of that guy who was instructed in her mind, the dream is very
important.
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• Female vanities, Ariel explains, continue after death, and the four main types of female
characters return to elemental identities: Prudes • become Gnomes, Termagants turn into
Salamanders, 'Soft yielding • Minds' become Nymphs, and Coquettes ('Whoever fair and chaste/
• Rejects Mankind', RL, I: 67-8) *****Alexander Pope makes it very clear that those who
rejected mankind, Belinda is coquettish and she rejects everything, as a result after death she
becomes Sylphs. Ariel has identified Belinda as a woman of this last kind -- hair talking about
Belinda using one of her attendance who is Aerial. and aerial tells that Belinda is more or less
like coquettish, she is going to be transformed into a sylph when she dies, aerial knows it and he
is ready to protect her chastity against temptation though 'Honour is the Word with Men below'
(RL, I: • 78) --man does not really concerned about Honour, all that really prevents the coquette
from 'warm Desires' (RL, I: 75) is • the guardian Sylph.'
as it is a mock Epic every Supernatural element of power that was there to protect her was not
able to protect her when she was in danger. It is a really good things that building die is guilty of
her kind
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• Exterior protection is forthcoming in the description • Click to a of the 'Toilet' or • dressing-
table. A flamboyant parody both of epic scenes in which heroes • are armed for battle, and
descriptions of ritual sacrifice, the passage (I: • 121-48) suggests how for Belinda, the entire
world is turned into an available commodity, and how she turns herself (with the invisible aid of
• the Sylphs) into an object of desire. ---this is when capitalism was basically emerging, and
people had enough money, they were exploring the world as a trade man, as a plantation owner.
they had enough money and luxury in their life.in line 121 to 148 where Alexander Pope is
talking about the emerging capitalist culture in England. Belinda is sitting in front of her dressing
table and she has all the commodities from various parts of the world. mass like the commodities
she herself transformed into a commodity. by transforming into a commodity, she has become an
object of desire. In consumerist culture, even a human being is a commodity. human beings are
objectified there. If you do not have any dignity what you do is like ok bye dresses and decorate
yourself and then go out engaged with people and people are bound to objectify your body parts.
This is where he is really a moral poet.
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•in Canto II, we have Bellinda, she launches the 'made-up' Belinda on the world in a similarly
ambivalent guise. The desirable but untouchable female works to an •unwritten code of
coquettish behaviour (II: 9-18). --She is now prepared; you cannot really understand her
character. But her transformation into object continues: 'On her white Breast a sparkling Cross
she wore, / Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore' (RL, II: 7-8), suggesting that her
commitment to religion is ornamental and attracts primarily sexual attention, itself displaced
onto the ritual object rather than the human flesh.
--now where the point is that her sum things which have significant meaning in religion, if you
use the items with the intention of extending your external appearances, it is meaningless. For
example, you are wearing a cross and exposing your previous people are not going to look at the
cross there looking at their exposing cleavage. Here pop is saying that you are putting a cause
resembling yourself as a religious person but in reality, is not going to happen.
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• This Nymph, to the Destruction of Mankind, • Nourish'd two Locks, which graceful hung
behind • In equal Curls, and well conspir'd to deck • With shining Ringlets the smooth Iv'ry
Neck. • Love in these Labyrinths his Slaves detains, • And mighty Hearts are held in slender
Chains. • (RL, II: 19-26)
So, the Nymph, she took care of Bellinda
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• After the lock is lost, Belinda's companion Thalestris asks a rhetorical • question which
indicates something of Belinda's labour in creating this • metallic metonymy of herself:
****What is metonymy? how the Lock represent Belinda’s chastity? ***
• Was it for this you took such constant Care--Why do you take care of your all ok all the time?
• The Bodkin, Comb, and Essence to prepare; • For this your Locks in Paper-Durance bound, •
For this with tort'ring Iron’s wreath'd around • For this with Fillet’s strain'd your tender Head, •
And bravely bore the double Loads of Lead • (RL, IV: 97-102)
she is saying that you have done so many things for your hair but it is lost. then how it is going to
be happened?
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• 'Rape' comes from the Latin verb to 'seize' and does not • etymologically imply sexual
possession; but in terms of sexual politics, the • Baron clearly conceives that if Belinda has
turned her sexuality into an • object, she can be possessed in the metonymic form of part for
whole: `Th' • Adventurous Baron the bright Locks admir’d, /He saw, her wish'd, and to • the
Prize aspir'd' (RL, II: 29-30).
• 'Rape' comes from the Latin verb to 'seize' and does not etymologically imply sexual
possession; but in terms of sexual politics, the Baron clearly conceives that if Belinda has turned
her sexuality into an object- For the long time Belinda was taking care of Her hair, being
obsessed with her Lok he was reducing her chastity to her lock; that is called the metonymic
rape, she can be possessed in the metonymic form of part for whole: `The Adventurous Baron
the bright Locks admir'd,/He saw, he wish'd, and to • the Prize aspir'd' (RL,II: 29-30).
he understood it and it is of course Pope’s point of view, 8u understood what lock represents and
you took it.
How does Bellinda react?
• Belinda's initial reaction is heroic, but mocked: her 'Screams of
Horror '
• (RL, Ill: 156) are undercut by the indication that such reactions
are
• forthcoming in serious and trivial instances alike, 'When
Husbands or
• when Lap-dogs breathe their last' (RL, Ill: 155 60). -The poet says that when your husband
dies, you spring and south, you are sad, after losing her lock, her condition was the same.
Canto IV
• turns this perspective around again by suggesting that Belinda's
reactions
• are also driven by forces beyond her conscious control.
Umbriel, a Gnome
• or ex-Prude--4 types of supernatural creature who transformed from women when they die into
different fairy forms), and 'a dusky melancholy Spright', representing
the dark
• side of the poem, (RL, I V: 13) visits the 'Cave of *leen' to
garner more
• force for Belinda's hysteria.
Umbriel is an airy creature, and now he is going to make a journey to the cave of leen with the
bed full of sadness. He comes back and gives all of the sadness to Bellinda to soothe her
suffering.
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• The canto is a sort of parody of underworld
•journeys in which heroes encounter the dead (Aeneid,
book VI). --The parody of a classical epic. In this journey the hero's encounter death. In the epic
the hero almost goes through a journey to the underworld. That means the world of death. There
he Encounters different death people and at the same time he sees who is rewarded and who is
punished. For the Pope this journey to the underworld, the cape of the spleen is visiting the shady
psychology of bodily-inspired melancholy. This journey to the cave of the spleen is basically a
journey to the psyche of Belinda, what is happening to her head. It is not necessarily an epic
journey. The 'Spleen' is an abdominal organ, thought in Pope's time to give rise to a range of
conditions: migraine, depression, hysteria. Pope envisions a physical scene of bizarre
Psychological aberrations, again fusing the animate with the inanimate:
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• Unnumber'd Throngs on ev'ry side are seen
• Of Bodies chang'd to various Forms by Spleen.
• Here living Teapots stand****(it is taken from Elliot), one Arm held out,
• One bent; the Handle this, and that the Spout: -- inanimate object perform the task.
• A Pipkin there like Homer's Tripod walks;
• Here sighs a Jar, and there a Goose-pye talks;
• Men prove with Child, as pow'rful Fancy works,
• And Maids turn'd Bottels, *** call aloud for Corks. -- explicit sexual imagery. inanimate object
of the kitchen is alive.
(RL, IV: 47-54)
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Though 'Men prove with Child', the 'pow'rful Fancy' which
transforms people int
o objects of surreal sexual suggestion are still in some
ways a female domain: Umbriel addresses himself to the 'wayward
Queen' who rules 'the Sex' (women) 'to Fifty from Fifteen'-- Umbriel is basically talk to a deity,
fifteen when girls basically start to meantime, fifty they go to mammals
(in other
words, from puberty to menopause). This turns Belinda's response to the
loss of the lock into something which is driven by irrational bodily
impulse, with undisclosed sexual significance. --the lock was lost and now she is very active and
only action is noteworthy. What is that?
Umbriel gets 'Spleen' to
gather up 'the Force of Female Lungs’, /Sighs, Sobs, and Passions, and the
War of Tongues' in 'a wondrous Bag' (mimicking Odysseus's bag of
winds in The Odyssey, but also suggesting the womb); he also receives a
'Vial' filled with 'fainting Fears, /Soft Sorrows, melting Griefs, and
flowing Tears' (RL, IV: 81-6).
He brings all the sad emotional things in a bag from the cave of spleen.
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Emotion becomes something like a
chemical experiment, and Umbriel returns to tear the 'swelling Bag',
allowing 'all the Furies' to issue 'at the Vent' (RL, IV: 89—94), --All this thing now building the
now would be able to bend out her frustration and breaks 'the Vial whence the Sorrows flow'
(RL, IV: 142). The result is a 'ram' tirade from Thalestris Belinda's Amazonian companion,
against the triumphant male sex (IV: 93—122), and a weeping lament from Belinda
(I V: 141—76). Emotions of this extent, the poem appears to suggest, cannot be authentic but
must be artificially stimulated or produced by some element which would be better controlled.
Now Belinda is lamenting to the loss of her hair. and the poet is saying that everything is
artificial. and after doing all these things in canto 4, we have the voice of clarissa.it is basically
the comment of Alexander Pope that he described through this poem.
Clarissa Canto V
It is in this spirit which Clarissa speaks at the opening
of Canto V, a
speech added by Pope in 1717, in order, as a (much
later) note puts it, 'to
open more clearly the MORAL of the Poem, in a
parody of the speech of
Sarpedon to Glaucus in Homer' V: 7-34; TE 11: -- This is also a parody. What is that?
195).
Clarissa urges
Belinda to value lasting 'good Sense' above the
superficial and transient
claims of Beauty and the social power it wields. This
has been taken as the
authorial view, imputed to a 'sensible' female character.
Pimples sometimes are so busy in their external appearance and in their public image that they
really think of developing themselves as human beings. This is the comment that Alexander
Pope is giving to his readers through the voice of claressa. is a character in this poem who is
underdeveloped. We are not given any specific information about her. She is just two characters
and passes the information. She says that other than value in your external appearances, you are
in a false relationship. It is meaningless to have your admirals in the court, they never see what is
inside you. don't say you without your makeup for anything never saw you with your flaws, they
are always so artificial to you. That is size saying that you have to work on your good sense. you
need to improve your quality as a human being.
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Feminist critics especially have seen the poem as not merely poking fun at Belinda's overreaction
but as a wider attempt to socialize and domesticate a powerful young woman into mature self-
possession, and acceptance of the state of marriage.
Another way to criticize the Pope is that the poet is representing the 18th century patriarchal
society. That means he wants a girl to be someone's wife, he wants a to be domestic 8 at the same
time, performing the role of a wife and daughter like cooking cleaning and raising children. why
a woman goes outside and lead a life of a man in the court.
