The Rape of the Lock, an epic poem
written by Alexander Pope during the Restoration period in England, focuses on
the trivial yet monumental interactions that occur between people on a
day-to-day basis. The basis for the narrative—a man who steals a lock of hair
from a pretty girl—actually happened. Pope was encouraged by his friend, John
Caryll, to write a satire about the incident as a way to laugh the two
quarreling families back together. Since then, contemporary feminist critics have
approached the poem in terms of ideological and cultural assumptions about
women and their status in Pope’s society. He wrote a soft satire about culture
and relationships, but he also presents the reader with a female heroine who
loses her only asset: beauty. In a male-dominated society, beauty was the only
reliable source of power that women held over men, but Pope employs irony and sardonic
humor to demonstrate the superficial limitations of a woman’s beauty, and
therefore power, by it’s quick and easy defeat in The Rape of the Lock.
Canto I devotes an entire stanza to
Belinda’s ritualized dressing routine because this is the most important part
of her day, the part when she adorns herself with “protective armor”. Pope turns
this scene into a joke because he compares a girl getting dressed to an epic
hero dressing himself for battle, but Belinda’s narcissistic attitude is a
genuinely important part of her survival in a male-dominated society. Vanity is
an illustration of Belinda’s desire for power and status, a power that’s
contained in her beauty. She harnesses “Cosmetic
pow’rs” (I, 124), a “heav’nly image” (I, 125), and “the Wonders of her Face” (I,
142) when she dresses herself everyday, which all supply Belinda with an
impenetrable power over men. Well, at least, until it is penetrable. Further
elaboration on Belinda’s religious narcissism can be found here.
Belinda’s only asset, her only
power, is her beauty. She is constantly developing and nurturing it because it
gives her opportunity in a world where very few opportunities are presented to
women, but the tragic flaw with her beauty is it’s inherent limitations.
Clarissa—Belinda’s female rival—spends the beginning of canto V explaining the
limitations of beauty to Belinda and to the other women at the party, but most
importantly, to the reader:
But since, alas! frail Beauty must
decay,
Curl’d or uncurl’d, since Locks
will turn to grey;
Since painted, or not painted, all
shall fade,
And she who scorns a Man, must die
a Maid,
What then remains but well our
Pow’r to use,
And keep good Humour still whate’er
we lose? (V, 25-30)
This passage unveils one of the ironic
aspects of the narrative: Belinda is beautiful and this gives her (and other
beautiful women) power over men, but beauty unravels as time goes by, which
means Belinda is going to lose her influential power as she ages. Clarissa
presents humor, sense, and wit as three other qualities women should adopt
before their beauty fades because these qualities will “preserve what Beauty
gains” (V, 16). This passage is also interesting because Pope illustrates the
contrast between Clarissa and Belinda. Clarissa is the only other main
protagonist, but Pope sets these two women against each other as the “prude”
and the “coquette” rather than connecting them in autonomous womanhood. At
first glance, it may seem like the story is about a rivalry between Belinda and
the Baron, but this theory is disproved in canto V when Ariel reads Belinda’s
mind:
He watch’d th’ Ideas rising in her
Mind,
Sudden he view’d, in spite of all
her Art,
An Earthly Lover lurking at her
Heart.
Amaz’d, confus’d, he found his
Power expir’d,
Resign’d to fate, and with a Sigh
retir’d. (III, 142-6)
Here, Ariel discovers that Belinda wants a romance “in spite of all her
Art” (III, 143), which means the Baron and Belinda are on the same side, not
against each other. In the end, who supplies the Baron with the scissors to
perform the rape? Yes, it’s Clarissa. It appears that Clarissa is the female
protagonist who successfully harnesses power by employing wit and sense rather
than beauty, but in canto V, when she finishes delivering her moral speech, “no
Applause ensu’d: Belinda frown’d, Thalestris call’d her Prude” (V, 35-6).
It seems that the irony in The Rape of
the Lock cuts deeper than Belinda’s superficial power: if a woman doesn’t
have beauty, then she doesn’t have anything at all (even if she actually does have wit and sense).
A woman’s only source of control is
in her wily, womanly features, but who decides which features are wily and
elegant enough to deserve any attention? Yes, it’s the men. A woman is cast
aside if she’s not beautiful and she’s labeled a prude if she tries to speak
about a topic other than vanity and flirting. Pope accentuates the rivalry
between these two women when Belinda frowns after Clarissa’s speech. The real
power behind these women is autonomous unity, support, and community, but these
women don’t share any of these qualities. Instead, they’re against each other. Ironically,
their rivalry perpetuates the disintegration of womanhood, which traps Belinda
and Clarissa in secondary positions in society. The Rape of the Lock illustrates the different paths women take to
find power in a world where they have none, but these paths intersect and women
drag each other down, which prevents anyone from establishing a serious
position in society. Pope’s narrative attacks women because he elaborates their
flaws, but he’s also sending a message: work together not against each other.
During my research for this topic, I
stumbled upon a website that posts illustrations of rare books. Here is a link
to a post about The Rape of the Lock.
Aubrey Beardsley, an artist during the 19th century, made
illustrations that were published in a 1897 version of the mock epic poem.
Questions? Discussion topics?
Please post!