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Alexander
Pope's The Rape of the Lock
The
Story
At
noon, when the sun was accustomed to awaken both lapdogs and lovers,
Belinda was still asleep. She dreamed that Ariel appeared to whisper praised of beauty in her
ear. He said that he had been sent
to protect her because something dreadful—what, he did not know—was
about to befall her. He also warned
her to beware of jealousy, pride, and above all, men.
After Ariel had
vanished, Shock, Belinda’s lapdog, thought that his mistress had slept
long enough, and he awakened her by the lappings of his tongue.
Rousing herself, Belinda spied a letter on her bed.
After she had read it, she promptly forgot everything that Ariel
had told her, including the warning to beware of men. Aided by her maid, Betty, Belinda began to make her toilet.
Peering before her mirror, she was guilty of the pride against
which Ariel had cautioned her.
The sun, journeying
across the sky, witnessed its brilliant rival, Belinda, boating on the
Thames with her friends and suitors. All
eyes were upon her; like the true coquette, she smiled at her swains but
favored no one more than another. Lord
Petre, one of Belinda’s suitors, admired a lock of hair and vowed that
he would have it by fair means or foul. So
set was he on getting the lock that before the sun rose that morning he
had built an altar to Love and had thrown on it all the trophies received
from former sweethearts, meanwhile asking Love to give him soon the prize
he wanted and to let him keep it for a long time.
Love, however, was to grant him only half his prayer.
Everyone except Ariel
seemed happy during the cruise on the Thames.
The sprite summoned his aides and reminded them that their duty was
to watch over the fair Belinda—one sylph to guard her fan, another her
watch, a third her favorite lock. Ariel
himself was to guard Belinda’s lapdog, Shock.
Fifty sylphs were dispatched to watch over the maiden’s
petticoat, in order to protect her chastity.
Any negligent sylphs, warned Ariel, would be punished severely.
After the cruise on the Thames, Belinda, accompanied by Lord Petre and the
rest of the party, visited one of the palaces near London.
There Belinda decided to play ombre, a Spanish card game, with two
of her suitors, including Lord Petre. As
she played, invisible sylphs sat on her important cards to protect them.
Coffee was served after the game. Sylphs
guarded Belinda’s dress to keep it from being spotted.
The fumes from the coffee sharpened Lord Petre’s wits, inspiring
him to devise new stratagems for stealing Belinda’s lock.
One of his cronies, Clarissa, handed him a pair of scissors.
The sylphs, aware of Belinda’s danger, attempted to warn her
before Lord Petre could act, but as the maid bent her head over her coffee
cup, he clipped the lock. Even
Ariel was unable to warn Belinda. At
the rape of her lock, Belinda shrieked in horror.
Lord Petre cried out in triumph. He
praised the steal used in the scissors, comparing it to the metal of the
Greek swords that overcame the Trojans. Belinda’s
fury was boundless; Ariel wept bitterly and flew away.
Umbriel, a melancholy gnome, took advantage of
the human confusion and despair to fly down to the center of the earth to
find the gloomy cave of Spleen, the queen of bad tempers and the source of
every detestable quality in human beings, including ill-nature and
affectation. Umbriel asked the
queen to touch Belinda with chagrin, for he knew that if she were gloomy
and melancholy, bad temper would spread to half the world.
Spleen granted Umbriel’s request and collected in a bag horrible
noises such as those uttered by female lungs and tongues.
In a vial she put tears, sorrows, and griefs.
She gave both containers to Umbriel.
When the gnome returned
to Belinda’s world, he found the girl disheveled and dejected.
Pouring the contents of the magic bag over her, Umbriel caused
Belinda’s wrath to be magnified many times.
One of her friends, Thalestris, fanned the flames of the maiden’s
anger by telling her that her honor was at stake and that behind her back
her friends were talking about the rape of her lock.
Thalestris then went to Belinda’s brother, Sir Plume, and
demanded that he confront Lord Petre and secure the return of the precious
lock. Sir Plume considered the
whole episode absurd, but he went to demand Belinda’s lock.
Lord Petre refused to give up his prize.
Next, Umbriel broke the
vial containing human sorrows, and Belinda almost drowned in tears.
She regretted having entered society and having learned to play
ombre, and she longed for simple country life.
Suddenly she remembered, too late, that Ariel had warned her of
impending evil.
In spite of Thalestis’ pleas, Lord
Petre was adamant. Clarissa,
another of Belinda’s circle, wondered at the vanity of women and at the
foolishness of men who fawn before them. Clarissa
insisted that both men and women need good sense; in making her feelings
known, however, she exposed the tricks and deceits of women and caused
Belinda to frown. Calling
Clarissa a prude, Thalestris gathered her forces to battle Belinda’s
enemies, including Clarissa and Lord Petre.
Umbriel was delighted by this Homeric struggle.
Belinda pounced upon Lord Petre, who was subdued when a pinch of
snuff caused him to sneeze violently.
She demanded the lock, but it could not be found.
Some thought that it had gone to the moon, where love letters and
other tokens of tender passions go, but the muse of poetry saw it ascend
to heaven and become a star.
Genre: Mock epic (or mock heroic)
An epic = a long poem with a vast scope, usually with heroic characters and a
story important to a nation or raced
Because The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic, Pope
uses these conventions to tell a trivial story, making the story seem all the more ridiculous by
ludicrously overstating its importance.
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