Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Today we are going to discuss Alexander Pope’s worth “The rape of the Lock”. “The Rape of the Log is a Mock Heroic Poem. The work has five Cantos and three Versions. Remember that he revised Rape of the Lock three times and the final version had a speech by Clarissa. The edition published in 1712, consists of two Cantos. The one published in 1714 consists of three, making it a total of five. So, the last edition, published in 1717, consisted of the five Cantos and Clarissa's speech. This poem was written by Pope on the request of his friend John Caryll, who told Pope a real incident. The main character in this poem is Belinda whose story is based on the life of Arabella Fermor, belonging to a Roman Catholic family. In this work Pope compares Belinda, that is the main character, to the Sun. Her hair logs were cut by the Baron based on the life of Lord Petrae as she rejected him. Pope treated this dispute as comparable to the fight between the Greeks and Trojans. Word lock in the title refers to the hair locks and rape refers to its earlier meaning, that is to snatch, grab or carry off. So, in this poem, it signals theft and carrying away a lock of hair.
Section 1: Belinda’s Dream
It was one fine morning with Belinda. She was asleep till late. At this moment, she's visited by her guardian Angel or Sylph named Ariel. Ariel warned Belinda in her dream to be cautious of men the entire day as something bad might happen to her. However, Belinda took Ariel's warning on a very light note, and Belinda finally wakes up and starts getting ready for a party. In this description of Belinda at the dressing table, the word bride refers to Belinda's vanity and pride, as well as the first of man's sins. An interesting fact about Belinda that needs to be mentioned at this point is that she has gorgeous hair and she's very fond of them. Pope describes it as two locks of the hair, which looked very beautiful.
Section 2: Travelling to the Party
In the second canto, Belinda travels to Hampton Court Palace through the Thames River to be a part of the party. On the boat she saw there is a male co-passenger named Baron who instantly likes Belinda and her gorgeous hair locks. He makes up his mind to steal away her locks. Here, Ariel, the guardian Angel is worried that something bad would happen to Belinda but is not sure of what exactly. Hence, she summons the other angels, namely Brillante, Momentilla and Crispisa, and ask them to take good care of Belinda. Brillante is asked to take care of earrings, Momentilla has to look after Belinda's watch and Crispisa takes care of the hair locks and Ariel guards Belinda's lapdog Shock.
Section 3: Lock Chopped Off
Now friends moving on to the third canto, the board finally arrives at the Hampton Court Palace. Now Belinda, she indulges herself in a card game hombre with Baron and other gentlemen. After eventually winning the game, Belinda is having a nice warm cup of coffee. It is then a woman named Clarissa, who likes Baron, provides him with a pair of scissors to chop off Belinda's locks. Baron attempts three times to chop off Belinda's hair lock but fails every time. However eventually he succeeds in chopping off one of the locks. Belinda's guardian self is unable to prevent Baron fatal mischief because he discovers an earthly lover lurking in Belinda's heart. Now this irritates Belinda and she screams in vain while Baron screams as he celebrates this as a win.
Section 4: Speech by Sir Plume
With beginning of the 4th canto, the majority of people at the party get on Belinda's side and support her. They ask Baron to return the chopped lock. Thalestris, a friend of Belinda, comes to her and consoles her. She further asks her boyfriend, Sir Plume to scold Baron and take back the lock. Sir Plume gives a speech in support of Belinda, but the speech is so weak that he's ultimately ignored by Baron. Eventually, Thalestris also tries the same and fails. So basically everyone, Belinda knows and is close to like Thalestris, her friend and Sir Plume. She asked all of them to scold Baron for doing this activity, but Baron ignored everyone present there.
Section 5: Ending
Moving on to the last canto. It talks about Clarissa's speech. Who is Clarissa? The lady who loved Baron. She argues that beauty fades away one day and instead a woman must have something permanent she can hold on to. Then she gives example of humour, the ability to take jokes and criticism as one of those permanent qualities. You know physical features; they'll fade away with time. You should hold on to something that stays permanently like humour. So, Belinda has no interest in this speech by Clarissa and her attempt to calm down both sides. So, court battle starts between the two noble families. Both Belinda and Baron fight and their hair lock gets lost among the chaos. In the end, the poet concludes that the lock has risen to heavens and will shine like the stars.
Section 6: Facts and Quotes
I'll also tell you some facts and quotes about this poem that are interesting and you should know about. This poem is around 600 lines long and, in this work, Pope has introduced different norms, spirits and creatures.
Quotes: -
(i) “Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
(ii) “What dire offence from am’rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,…”
(iii) “Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”