The Rape of the Lock is the truest and loveliest satirical picture of
the days of Alexander Pope. It is a
poem ridiculing the fashionable world of his time. In this mock-heroic work Pope
satirized feminine frivolity. Belinda,
the principal female character of the poem is the representative of the women
belonging to
the upper class society which has been the target of Pope’s
satire.
There are several aspects of the personality of Belinda as portrayed by Pope
in “The Rape of the Lock”. It will be wrong to regard her purely as a goddess,
or as a pretty spoiled child, or as a flirt. She is a combination of all three,
and yet much more than such a combination. We see her as a coquette, an injured
innocent, a sweet charmer, a society belle, a rival of the sun and a murderer
of millions. She has, indeed a Cleopatra-lick
variety.
When Belinda is introduced in the poem, she is said to have such brightness in
her eyes as to surpass the brightness of the sun. But at the same time, she is
represented as being a lazy woman who continues to sleep till twelve in the day. On waking up she
again falls asleep to be awakened ultimately by the licking tongue of her pet
dog, Shock. After opening her eyes,
she reads a love letter which is waiting for her and which makes her forget the
vision that she has seen.
Toilet was the chief concern of these aristocratic ladies. On of the most
celebrated passage in The Rape of the
Lock is the one in which Belinda is described at the dressing-table. We are told that, before commencing her toilet
operations, Belinda offered a praying to the
cosmetic powers. The poet makes fun of her church, toilet is her goddess
and the cosmetic are her offerings in her prayer. Her God is the pagan god of
beauty and charm. Assisted by her maid, Betty, Belinda improved her natural
charms-
“The fair each
moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her
smiles, awakens every grace
And call forth
all the wonder of her face”
Pope has praised Belinda for her beauty and charm. She is the nymph, the
maid, the fair, the virgin, the goddess who is the rival of the sun’s beams.
She is attended upon by a large number of aerial beings for the protection of
her chastity. Her lock is not only sacred but as a symbol of her chastity, it
is called an ‘inestimable prize’.
When her hair was cut off she flew into a rage fierce than mortal indignation.
Time and again, Ariel warns Belinda of the approaching danger to her, but she does
not care, she is headless. The sylphs try their utmost to make her aware
of the Baron
who is nearing her to cut off the lock of hair from her head. But she seems to
be indifferent. This willing indifference leads Ariel to believe that she is
amorously inclined toward a gallant.
To sum up Pope’s attitude to Belinda is very mixed and complicated, mocking and
yet tender, admiring and yet critical. The paradoxical nature of Pope’s
attitude is intimately related to the paradox of Belinda’s situation. In this poem Belinda is the representative of
the decadent aristocratic society.
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