From the excerpts studied in The Rape of the Lock‚ Alexander Pope skilfully uses the mock epic genre to satirize the trifling nature of his society through exaggeration‚ parody and juxtaposition in rhyming couplets. The epic form makes everything larger than life which Pope uses to reveal the absurdity of the society he lives in. A simple card game is turned into a complex “combat on [a] velvet plain‚” which exaggerates the little action that actually takes place in the Canto. In the card game
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The Rape of the Lock Canto 1 Summary The Rape of the Lock begins with a passage outlining the subject of the poem and invoking the aid of the muse. Then the sun (“Sol”) appears to initiate the leisurely morning routines of a wealthy household. Lapdogs shake themselves awake‚ bells begin to ring‚ and although it is already noon‚ Belinda still sleeps. She has been dreaming‚ and we learn that “her guardian Sylph‚” Ariel‚ has sent the dream. The dream is of a handsome youth who tells her that she
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Equality in the Rape of the Lock and Paradise Lost There are a lot of things these two poems can offer. Both the Rape of the lock and paradise lost are epics. They tell tales of characters that once lived and show the human nature. Some would say that the poems don’t offer a sense of equality amongst the characters. Let it be because of sex‚ intelligence‚ and society they just don’t seem to have the same value. Sex being a factor because of how the hierarchy was placed in both stories. The
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“THE RAPE OF THE LOCK”---MOCK-EPIC POEM: The epic is a narrative poem of supposed divine inspiration treating of a subject of great and momentous importance for mankind‚ the characters of the story are partly human and partly divine‚ and the language and style in which the incidents are related are full of elevation and dignity. If a long narrative poem should satisfy all the tests of epic poetry‚ but if the subject which is celebrated be of a trivial nature‚ like the cutting off a lock of a woman’s
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sarcasm as of euphemism: it has a paradoxical willingness to ‘extract from contemporary life its epic dimension‚ showing us… how grand and poetic we are in are cravats and highly polished boots’ (Baudelaire).” (Childs and Fowler 2006: 144). The Rape of the Lock is an example of an evolved form of a mock-heroic epic. As Broich says (1990: 113)‚ in comparison to works of Boilaeu‚ Garth‚ or Crowne it has developed its own distinctive style in the aspect of combining the two major elementary genres. Pope’s
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time and gives a voice to those who cannot openly express their views. Two works of literary merit which feature Satire are A Modest Proposal and The Rape of the Lock. The Rape of the Lock was written by Alexander Pope in 1712. The tale is based on an actual incident in which two families that fall into a dispute. Main character‚ Belinda‚ has a lock of her hair cut by the Baron. Beforehand she is warned‚ “Oh thoughtless mortals! Ever blind to fate too soon dejected‚ and too soon elate. Sudden‚ these
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Chartism‚ British working-class movement for parliamentaryreformnamed after thePeople’s Charter‚ a bill drafted by theLondonradicalWilliamLovettin May 1838. It contained six demands: universal manhoodsuffrage‚ equal electoral districts‚ vote by ballot‚ annually elected Parliaments‚ payment of members ofParliament‚ and abolition of the property qualifications for membership. Chartism was the first movement both working class in character and national in scope that grew out of the protest against the
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Alexander Pope had used the Rosicrucian philosophy as the supernatural machinery of his mock-heroic poem Rape of the Lock. As for the supernatural machinery‚ which neoclassical criticism considers indispensable for an epic‚ Pope reveals remarkable inventiveness. The sylphs of "The Rape of the Lock" are Pope’s mocking recreation of the gods who watch over the heroes of epics and guide their fortune. It is nicely fitting that Pope’s supernatural beings‚ who are supposed to imitate Homer’s deities
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In both A Modest Proposal and The Rape of The Lock irony is used to mock the social/political values of the time. In A Modest Proposal‚ Jonathan Swift proposes that the impoverished Irish should sell their children as food to the rich in order to help ease their economic misfortunes. As enticing as cannibalism sounds‚ Swift hardly wished for the slaughter of thousands of one-year-old babies. Swift’s somewhat brutal satire was created to display the blasé character of society in order to provoke a
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’THE RAPE OF THE LOCK ’. Mock-epic‚ also known as mock-heroic poetry is a juxtaposition of trivial subject matter and grandeur epic style. From the fundamental point of view‚ mock-epic is nothing but the most popular neo-classical burlesque used as a double-edged satirical weapon. Batrachomyomachia‚ an anonymous parody‚ attributed to Homer‚ is most probably the earliest example of mock-epic genre. Alexander Pope was the central figure of Augustan Age‚ for his best mock-heroic poetry The Rape of the
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