ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)

Volume-1, Issue-1, August 2014

RESEARCH HUB – International Multidisciplinary Research
Journal
Research Paper
Available online at: www.rhimrj.com

“The Rape of the Lock” As A Social Satire

Dr. Sujit Tripathi
I/C Principal,
K. C. Sheth Arts College Birpur
Mahisagar, Gujarat (India)

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The Rape of the lock is a masterpiece of satirical poetry by Alexander Pope. The satirist uses such weapons as humor, wit, irony,
mockery, ridicule, innuendo. A satire is an exposure of human weakness, shortcomings, follies, and absurdities. The Rape of the
Lock is a satire on the aristocratic ladies of the eighteenth century. It exposes to ridicule their laziness, idleness, frivolities, vanities,
follies, shams, shallowness, superficiality, prudery, hypocrisy, false ideas of honour, excessive interest in toilet and self-
embellishment, high matrimonial aspirations etc. It also exposes to ridicule the foppery, the amorous proclivities, the bravado, the
snuff-taking, of the aristocratic gentlemen of the time. Apart from that, the poet mocks at certain other aspects of the life of the
eighteenth century.

In the very opening lines, the poet laughs at „little‟ men engaging in tasks so „bold‟, and at gentle ladies who are capable of
such „mighty rage‟:
“In tasks so bold can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?”

There is a witty contrast here between „tasks so bold‟ and „little men‟, and another between „soft bosoms‟ and „mighty rage‟. Then
the poet mocks at the late rising of the aristocratic ladies and gentlemen of the time. It was the hour of twelve when Belinda opened
her eyes to fall asleep again:

“Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake,

And sleepless lovers, just at twelve awake:”

The poet goes on to make fun of the varieties of women. These vanities, he says, do not end even with the death of the women:

”Think not, when woman‟s transient breath is fled,

That all her vanities at once are dead:
…. ….. …… ….. …… …. …. … ….
Her joy in glided chariots, when alive,
And love of ombre, after death survive,”

The aristocratic ladies of those days were over-fond of glided chariots and of ombre, and the poet makes fun of that over-fondness
here. Then we have a satirical division of ladies of different temperaments into different categories – fiery termagants, yielding,
ladies, grave prudes, and light coquettes.

We have, next, an ironical description of how maids, who would normally yield to the advances of treacherous lovers, are saved
from dishonor. Just when the inflamed passions of these maids would lead them to surrender to the pleadings of the “daring sparks”,
the sylphs come to their rescue. The sylphs in this context are a personification of the inhibitions which restrain ladies from going
astray. The high and extravagant matrimonial aspirations of the ladies are then mocked at. The ladies of the time imagined
matrimonial matches with “peers and dukes”, and they dreamt of “garters, stars and coronets.” Early in their youth, these ladies
learnt to roll their eyes to blush in a coquettish manner. The weakness of these ladies for entertainments and for masked balls is also
exposed by the poet. The satire in the following lines is obvious:

“With varying vanities, from every part,

They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart.”

The love-letters which these ladies received were a source of much pleasure to them. The poet makes fun of Belinda by saying that
when at last she woke up from, her prolonged sleep, her eyes first opened on a love-letter in which the lover had spoken of
“Wounds, charms, and ardours.” The poet is not merely laughing at Belinda, but also at the conventional vocabulary of those love-
letters.

The women‟s excessive preoccupation with self-embellishment and self-decoration becomes the target of satire in a famous passage
in which Belinda is described as commencing her toilet operations with a prayer to the “cosmetic powers”. A lady regarded her
toilet as a religious ceremony to be scrupulously gone through. The climax of satire in this passage comes in the line which

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2014, RHIMRJ, All Rights Reserved ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)
 RESEARCH HUB – International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
Volume-1, Issue-1, August 2014

describes “puffs, powder, patches, bibles, billets doux” lying in confusion on Belinda‟s dressing table. Belinda is depicted here as
warrior getting ready for the battle – the battle to kill men with her graces and charms.
The poet exposes the sham of Belinda‟s purity when Ariel discovers “an earthly lover larking at her heart.” In other words, Belinda
had been making a false pretension to purity and she had been employing all her art and technique to produce that impression.
To the ladies of the time, the domestic pets were as important as their husbands. That showed in them a superficiality of mind and a
lack of any depth of feeling which the poet has admirably satirized in the following lines:

“Not blunder shrieks to pitying Heav‟n are cast,

When husbands, when lap-dogs, breathe their last.”

In connection with the satire on men, one of the most amusing passages in the poem is the one in which the Baron is described as
building as altar of twelve vast French romances with three garters, half a pair of gloves, and all the trophies of his former loves,
and setting fire to it with his amorous sighs and with tender love-letters.

The poet mocks at the kind of conversation that went on among the ladies and the knights at the court. This conversation was empty
of any substance. The talk generally centred round the dance-parties, court-visits, and the scandalous behavior of some member of
the court. The following line is almost epigrammatic:

“At every word a reputation dies”.

The satire in “The Rape of the Lock” on aristocratic manners makes a comment on polite society at large, and on fashionable
women in particular. It exposes all values, especially trifling and artificial ones, by showing how small any world observing those
values would have to be. Pope composed his poem with a long tradition of satires on women in mind. Belinda at her dressing-table
is the heiress of a whole race of previous lady charmers. Indeed, Belinda herself is a sort of goddess and as such is truly divine:
“Belinda smiled and all the world was gay”. And although she is the butt of Pope‟s satire exposing the petulancy and insincerity of
the fashionable game of love, she is also the romantic heroine, twice removed from her predecessors in Restoration comedy and
poetic satire by virtue of her greater elegance and charm and because of Pope‟s own fond attitude towards her.

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2014, RHIMRJ, All Rights Reserved ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)