Everything you need to know about "Rape of the lock" by Alexander Pope. (including lit. devices and themes)

 

Rape of the lock by Alexander Pope


·       pope’s masterpiece “the rape of the lock”, written in, a brilliant satire on the fashionable life of the upper class of his time.


·       The artificiality of the lifestyle of this class and the frivolous nature of the women are exquisitely portrayed in this “epic” which parodies the great classical epics.
 
·       “The rape of the lock” is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by pope. The poem satirizes a minor incident by comparing it in to the epic world of the Gods.
 
·       People utilized the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced on entire system of “sylphs”, or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodied version of the God and Goddesses if the conventional Epic. (Pope uses the traditional epic style)
 
·       Though, the poem is humorous at times, Pope keeps a sense that beauty is fragile, and emphasizes that the loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply.

 

Meter – Iambic pentameter

Rhyme – Heroic couplets

Tone – Ironic

Main technique – Parody 

  

Themes

·       Role – reversal of gender

·       Deterioration of heroic values

·       Falling off the proper upper-class value

·       Humiliation

·       Being subjected to violation due to falling off from chastity

·       Neo-classism

·       Duplicity of upper-class women 

 

Techniques

·       Satire

·       Irony

·       Hyperbole – “thousand spirits”/ “wings”

·       Elevated language

·       Use of heroic couplets

·       Imagery

·       Juxtaposition

 


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