Illustrate Pope’s Use Of The ‘Heroi-comical’ and Purpose
Illustrate Pope’s Use Of The ‘Heroi-comical’ And Discuss His Purposes In Using It
Pope had translated the Iliad recently before writing the Rape of the Lock so it is no wonder that the poem contains many allusions to it and other epics. Pope used the heroic couplet fore mostly because of the awe in which he held the epics and secondly because it provides a superb field in which to satirise whilst maintaining levity. His mocking of the epic begin in the first two lines of the poem:
“What dire offence from am’rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,”
This is an imitation of the opening of an epic where the subject is stated, in this case a battle which is fought over a trivial thing which is caused by lust. Since Pope launched straight into the style of an epic we are immediately struck by harsh satire. An epic usually dealt with tales which were not ‘trivial things’ and we just have to recall that the Iliad’s subject was war between two great nations and the rape of Helen rather than the rape of a lock of hair and this is what makes the satire so biting.
The game of ‘Ombre’ played between Belinda and the Baron is The Rape of the Lock’s substitute for battle. It mocks the heroic by displaying the typical Homeric hero, the display of the hero’s ‘arete’, in Belinda’s case this is her skill in cards, which eventually leads to the death of the hero, the loss of her hair. This makes the loss of Belinda’s hair seem even more trivial when we compare it to death in battle and this is exactly what Pope was trying to achieve. He was trying to reconcile the Baron and Arabella and by trivialising the loss of her hair he may have made it easier for the two to forgive one another. What makes the satire even more blinding is the fact that Belinda’s skill is not complete and she in fact only thinks she has defeated the Baron.
Belinda is compared to Eve from Milton’s Paradise Lost but again The Rape of the Lock seems inconsequential when contrasted with the fall of mankind. Belinda possesses some of the faults that seem intrinsic to mankind such as narcissism, she is not only proud of her beauty but she actually goes as far as worshipping her image in the mirror just...