The Rape of the Lock

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The Rape of the Lock, Can Belinda be Blamed for her Hysterics? In Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock, Belinda, the subject of the poem, is “inconceivably” assaulted at a party by one of her peers. Belinda is a beautiful and wealthy young woman whose daily activities include sleeping late, wearing pretty clothes, doing her hair and partying with other young merry people like her. Throughout the poem, Pope shows his feelings for the frivolous and trivial problems of the upper echelon of society, the “who’s who”, if you will, targeting both men and women. He seemingly focuses his attention to women in this poem, which was written in honor of true events told to him by his “Muse” and friend, John Caryll, about events involving two Catholic families that at the time were feuding because of the cutting of a young woman’s locks. His intent, which he states in the introductory letter, is to “comically merge” the two families. Women were expected to be aesthetically pleasing in the early 1700’s, and the non-consensual loss of something as important to a woman’s beauty as her hair was considered important. While Pope acknowledges that this is the world in which he inhabits, he also pokes fun at the society people who believe such. The otherwise uninformed reader might wonder as to why a gentleman would assault a young lady in such a manner, or why a young woman would get so upset about a lock of hair. When Belinda awakens the morning of the infamous party, she pays little heed to her guardian Ariel who attempts to warn her of the potential danger in a dream, instead after she is awakened by her dog, she immediately becomes distracted with a love letter. After spending an inordinate amount of time describing Belinda’s time readying herself at her toilet with the help of her maid and the invisible sylphs, and in which her image is likened to that of a heavenly goddess, “

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