Discuss the role of inanimate objects in The Rape of the Lock - Essay Example

Actually the theme of this satirical epic came in Pope’s mind when an incident was narrated to him by one of his friends John Caryll. This poem is a satire and mockery on contemporary aristocratic society in England. To enhance the poetic beauty as well as the humour, Pope has used inanimate objects. Rape of the lock is the poem which narrates a circumstances associated with a theft of a lock of a young woman’s hair. This act was done by one of her admirers. The incident taken by the poet is very petty and he has given a heroic as well as ironic touch to this epic and for that he has used a typical elevated language such as the language of John Dryden, Milton etc.

One of the most interesting things in this epic is the use of inanimate objects while describing the theme. The inanimate objects used by Pope are Lock of hair, cosmetics such as puff and powder, jewellery, playing cards, pair of scissor, hair pin etc. The divine figures such as sylphs, spleen and the other Goddesses are also are referred by Pope. The paper is a thorough discussion of these inanimate objects used in “The Rape of the Lock.” Keywords: mock heroic satire, epic, inconsequential, squabble, aristocratic, inanimate objects.

The first and most important inanimate object used here by Pope is the lock of hair. The protagonist of the epic is Belinda who is a typical Victorian damsel with ethereal beauty and she had been protected by some divine body guards. The bodyguards in fact was not keen to protect her but to her belongings such as earrings, watch, locks and the most humorous thing was when the Sylphs were assigned to guard her petticoat. The sylphs in this epic are shown as taking interest in mundane things. The air in which they are flying is associated with vanity.

They are the symbol of the superficial vanity of the contemporary women of aristocratic society. Pope highlights the constant efforts of women to preserve and exhibit their outer beauty. The epic’s turning point is when Belinda’s lock of the hair was cut by one of her admirers. Cutting of lock is a very petty incident but it has been taken very seriously and thus it resulted into a battle. Hair is an inanimate object which plays very crucial role in the entire epic. It is the symbol of beauty of the contemporary damsels and how the physical beauty of the woman was given pompous importance.

Through the act of rape of the hair lock, Pope here wants to depict the picture of contemporary aristocratic class in England which was inclined towards making serious issues out of small things. If analyzed the poem from feminist point of view, the hair and the locks stand for the feminism and the women’s intellectual evolution. The gender equality is represented her and the men, due to their male ego are attacking on this equality by proving their superiority over women. The Rape of the Lock, apparently looking, is just cutting of one of the locks of hair of Belinda.

But this inanimate object represents something else. The lock was the symbol of Belinda’s honour and virtue. By cutting it, the Barron had attacked on her honour and her pride. Locks were associated with the physical beauty of the women in those days and Baron has spoiled her by cutting her lock. It is also associated with the virginity. Perhaps by spoiling it, Pope wants to point out that the Baron indirectly attacked on her virginity. Clarissa, another female character in “