The Rape of the Lock

 Thinking Activity

       This blog is in response to the task "The Rape of Lock' assigned by Vaidehi ma'am. In this blog I am going to deal with the questions like, protagonist of the poem, my views about beauty, singnificance or symbolism of Hair and also going to discuss one of Research paper on The Rape of the Lock.

    

★Introduction:-        

              The Rape of the Lock is a Mock Heroic Epic written by Alexander Pope. The first version of the poem was published in 1712, which comprised 2 cantos. The final version was published in 1714 and it was expanded to five cantos. The poem is a mock-epic that satirizes the upper class in London at the time. The story focuses on the central character Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a social gathering by Baron. In this poem, Pope uses Belinda and Baron to mock two of his acquaintances, Arabella Fermor and Lord Peter.

★Protagonist of the Mock Heroic Epic The Rape of the Lock: Belinda or Clarissa:

      While thinging about the Protagonist of the poem, we must have to have sight of both of their role and Character traits in the poem. Because only by that we can make certain decisions and can justify why we are thinking of one of them as a protagonist. So here first of all I will look at both of their role and their way of thinking, and then I will give an explanation of why I have chosen one of them as the protagonist.

♦Belinda:-

        Blinda is the central character of the olay. Opening lines of the poem make it very clear to the readers that she is the central character and heroine of the poem. She is also a very complex character. Her character is presented under different roles and shades. Belinda is presented as,

• An object of Admiration and Mockery
• Representative of Social class of 18th century.
• A lady of Romantic nature
• She is totally blind with a sense of pride and arrogance. but on the other hand she is very emotional. We can judge her emotions when she fights with Baron. 
• She lacks spirituality. She is caucious about her personal reputation rather than spiritual purity and has no sense of moral integrity.

♦Clarissa:-

         Clarissa ia woman in attendance at the Hampton Court party. She lands the Baron scissors with which Baron cuts Belinda's Hair locks, and later delivers a moralising lecture. As per my understanding, She presents a kind of contrast within herself. In the beginning of Canto 5, she hands on the scissor to Baron the cut Belinda's hair locks. And when the task is done she gives a moral lecture to Belinda for her loss.

        But a close reading of Clarrisa's Speech in canto 5 shows her to be the poem's best balanced of the character. Clarissa reminds Belinda that:

"Ho vain are all these Glories, all our pains, 

Unlessgood Sense preserve what Beauty gains."

         To her, a man is a fool to desire a woman for beauty alone, and a woman is a fool to demonstrate nothing but beauty in order to attract him. She so richly points out that beauty alone is no virtue, for it is feeling.

      So, Both Belinda Clarissa have different views towards life. Protagonist generally means the leading character of any work. So in this sense BElinda is a protagonist as the whole story moves in and around her character and her way of looking towards the world. Belinda believes in outward beauty or materialism while Clarissa believes in inner beauty or Moral side of a character. When thinking of Who is the protagonist, If we consider beauty as a leading aspect of the Protagonist then Belinda is perfectly suitable for that. She has no worries about other things except her beauty. 

         But the concept of the protagonist is also not suitable to her. In canto 2, Pope gives description where Benida awakes from sleeping, The Dream of Belinda and her social activities, Nothing else. She is purely devoted to her beauty and doesn't care except that. In the poem, we can see that she is not able to even help herself as Ariel always protects her from problems. In canto 3, when Baron cuts her hair locks, she behaves like she has lost everything. In this sense she is too melodramatic and too much conscious about her outer beauty.

        In the comparison of Belinda, Clarissa is a very clear and focused girl, who knows the traits of life very well. Though she gets only a small part of conversation or the play, she delivers the way of looking and ultimate truth regarding inner and outer beauty. But it is a bit confusing to consider one as a protagonist. 

        As Belinda holds the central position in the play she is the heroine or the protagonist of the play, but if we think about maturity in a protagonist, Clarissa perfectly fits in it.

★Concept of Beauty

       It is always very difficult to justify the concept of Beauty as we all have a certain mindset or definition of the word Beauty. I am also interested to know the concept and especially definition of this word. While going through the definitions of this word I have found two concepts of Beauty, one from Google and one from Merriam Webster dictionary. There are also other concepts but they all present these two concepts but in different manner. So let's start with these definitions.

According to Google dictionary,

Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.

According Merriam Webster dictionary,

Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : loveliness."

            If we look at both the definitions, we come to know that beauty is both Subjective and objective. First definition explores the idea that outer beauty means objectivity, while the second one gives an idea of Inner beauty means subjectivity.

                   As per me, both kinds of Beauty are necessary. Both have their own advantages. But at the same time we have to understand that physical Beauty should not be the dominant one and neglect inner beauty. We have so many examples of it. For instance, Miss World contest is not only by very beautiful Ladies, I mean the concept which is accepted by society. - fair skin, Zero figure, walk style and other ways. Module Kwelagobe won the title of Miss Universe 1999 and Zozibini Runs won the same title in 2019, which proves the first kind of beauty concept wrong.

              If we look at the poem The Rape of the Lock we can see this contrast of beauty. Belinda presents the concept of outer beauty while Clarissa presents inner beauty or maturity.

        So per me, beauty isn't only about the outer way of looking. But beauty is within our life and soul that we generally know as inner beauty.

★Research paper on Rapenof the Lock and explanation of that:-

I have read a research paper named "Contemporary Womanhood in society in Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock' "(JOELL) by S. Selva Prius and V. Samantha Devi.

In this research paper writers emphasise on five major aspects of the poem.

• Woman
• Love
• Fashion
• Society
• Attitude

               In the beginning they talk about the mastery of Alexander Pope in Heroic couplets and it's development and in Pope's literary works. In the poem The rape of the lock Pope Express is the folies of women in the society. The poem is a copy of real womanhood of the age. The research Scholars state that,

"Women are all frivolous and whose genuine interest is in love making."

              Fashionable ladies used to wake up late. They are engaged in decorating themselves with jewels, dresses, ornaments and cosmetics. In short they want to look attractive, they want flattering. Pope also presents that the youths of the day were very fashionable about their dresses. They thought they are unfortunate if they don't have half a dozen belowed at a time. Two major things about aristocratic men are presented in the paper in a very good manner.

1. Essence of life - Love making
2. Chief object - The pursuit of woman

                In this way the Pope depicts society very frankly. The paper is further about the Publication controversies of the poem and then Supernatural machinery of the poem. In the poem Super Natural beings can change their shape and sex, can see the future. Arial is always busy looking for Belinda, who we can consider as Belinda's protector. Belinda is depicted here as a very lazy girl who wakes up late and after that she spends plenty of time beautifying herself. 

"From each she nicely culls with curious toil

And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil."

              The concern with the hero is also disputable. The Baron is also a characteristic young man of the period taking part in the Hampton Court. He prays to the deity for fulfillment of his desire of possessing Belinda's Lock. He want to possess it by force and by fraud. And he is able to cut one of her locks by cunningness. Logically if Belinda is the heroine, the Baron should be the hero, but his role is so short and it would be true or to say that the poem has no Hero.

     Though the paper is about Contemporary Womanhood is well presented here in the paper, the major points of the poem have been covered in research paper. So it was my interpretation of one of the research papers on the poem. If you find any other interpretations, do write in the comment below. 

★Significance of Hair/ is it symbolic?

          The title of the poem "The Rape of the lock" itself suggests that there is something related to the Hair. But when we have a first look at title, we may fimd a kind of absurdity as the word Rape is included. Rape is a serious matter and we have a question that how Rape and lock suppose to be connected in this particular work. After reading the poem , we come to know there there is nothing serious like Rape but one of the Hair locks of our protagonist Belinda has cut by Baron and it was not by her consent, it is called as the Rape. hair referred to in the title is also a powerful symbol both of vanity and of the power of female beauty over men. So in this sense, Hair is a very important aspect of the poem.

            Further, the poem is all about Hair locks. But there is also a hidden meaning of the concept of beuty. Lock of the Hair of Belinda adds charm in her beauty or we can say adds more Beauty. 

Here is the trailer of the movie,

For better understanding of the poem go through this V.

★Conclusion:-

To sum up the blog, I will say that the poem is  kind of satire to the upper or aristocratic class, not only of that era but in present time such aristocracy and trivialities also taking place. In this term, Alexander Pope is the true observer of the society.

Thanks for Read. I hope I will be helpful to you to understand the poem.