Essay on Concerning the "Rape of the Lock"

The Rape of the Lock: The Hypocrisy of the Nobles

The mock-heroic epic poem by Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, was based on true events that took place in his time in the court. The way in which these events were handled shows how different a place the court had become compared to the past. Pope felt that the women at this time were trivial, irrational, and hypocritical and that they would put on a show of their emotions because it would give them a reason to wear a new dress, “each new nightdress gives a new disease” (Canto 4, line 36). Pope feels that there has been a “fall from grace” in the court in the attitudes of the men and women in comparison to their predecessors. By writing this poem, he is able to show these behaviours not only in the attitudes of the women, but also the men. The hypocrisy of women can be seen vividly in Pope’s work when he writes about the
Cave of Spleen. This place is “emblematic of the ill nature of female hypochondriacs”
(Greenblatt, 2513) and is a world where the triviality of these upper-class men and women is exposed. This strange world seems almost backwards and upside-down but in reality it is just a darker way of showing the “real” world in which Pope lives in. Although Pope seems to be writing this poem in hope that a “little laughter might serve to sooth ruffled tempers”
(Greenblatt, 2513), he is actually expressing his opinion that the nobles and the court are hypocrites because they care more about their reputations and looks than their virtues or respect.
In Pope’s poem the character of Belinda, who has had a lock of her hair stolen, is in a fit of “rage, resentment and despair” (Canto 4, line 9) that she seems to be exaggerating for show.
This is when the gnome Umbriel who is a “dusky, melancholy sprite” (Canto 4, line 13) takes advantage of the situation and goes down into the Cave of Spleen to beg the Goddess “touch
Belinda with chagrin” (Canto 4, line 77). The Goddess has two handmaidens that serve her, Ill- nature and Affection, they are contrasting from one another but they serve a similar purpose. Ill- nature “stood like an ancient maid, her wrinkled form in black and white arrayed” (Canto 4, line
27-28), her clothing suggests a hypocritical nature because the white represents purity and the black malice. This represents that women have a double-nature, one for show and one for their own purposes, much like the individuals in the court. Affection serves the same purpose because she is portrayed as an old woman but is young and beautiful, “a sickly mien, shows in her cheeks the roses of eighteen” (Canto 4, line 31-32). Affection is able to take joy in putting on a show of her emotions because “each new nightdress gives a new disease” (Canto 4, line38). This represents how the women care more about their reputations than their virtues because they are able to wear a new dress whenever they put on a show with their emotions since they are
“wrapped in a gown, for sickness and for show” (Canto 4, line 36). Pope feels that the everyday issues of the men and women in the court are frivolous and should be made a mockery of because they serve no purpose and are not important issues. In this aspect the “fall from grace”, or the respect that previous courts held are no longer present. Before Umbriel is able to ask the
Goddess for his request he has to journey into this underworld that is the Cave of Spleen.
“A constant vapour o’er the palace flies, strange phantoms rising as the mists arise; dreadful as hermit’s dreams in haunted shades, or bright as visions of expiring maids. Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires, pale spectres, gaping tombs, and purple fires; now lakes of liquid gold, Elysian scene, and crystal domes, and angels in machines. Unencumbered throngs on every side are seen, of bodies changed to various forms by Spleen.” (Canto 4, line 39-48)
The Cave of Spleen is seen as a backwards,

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