The derision of Alexander Pope’s mock-epic The Rape Of The Lock (1712) relies on Pope’s use of gentle satire to showcase the triviality that surrounds the Fermor and Petre families feud. This said triavility questions Pope’s use of voice through his explicit mockery of upper class England in the early 1700’s.
The title The Rape Of The Lock has lexical collocation. Through the title Pope already creates a distinctive voice and shows his negative stance towards the social hierarchy in England in the 1700’s. The word ‘Lock’ means an appliance mechanism by which a door, gate, lid etc. may be fastened with a bolt that needs a key to work it, which portends Lord Petres feeling of societal entrapment/feeling of being locked by upper crust England. The word ‘Lock’ and ‘Rape’ have sexual connotations, leading the reader to believe the poem has a theme related to sex. The titles conflicting ideas of both confinement and sex create a habitual juxtaposition, this foregrounds ideas about Pope’s disposition to truth, as it is unclear through Pope’s voice in the text whether he is being trivial or genuinely asking the reader to question whether there is a need for a change in the societal standards enforced by the upper class.
Hernadez states in his critical essay on the poem that the text is about things and the consumption of things as much as it is about the characters consuming them. This said consumption can be seen to create distinctive voice. When Belinda is sat at her dressing table Pope describes there to be,
Here piles of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billets-doux. Now awful Beauty puts on all its Arms;
The Fair each moment rises in her Charms (canto 1, 137-140)
Pope’s use of the phrase ‘awful Beauty’ and the farcical implicit comparison between Belinda putting on her make-up and preparing for war/battle empathises the satire tone in the poem. The trifling description of Belinda’s makeup (‘Puffs, Powders, Patches’) jumbled together with faith and love (the ‘Bibles, Billet-doux’) without any distinction, showcases through the speakers voice the material obsession with consumables and links to the wider representation of the Fermor and Petre families feud being futile. Pope’s voice as the speaker in the poem distinguishes that there is a problem with the upper classes consumption of material goods, as Belinda is consumed by material items which results in her not being able to reflect on the wider world.
H.Berten states that feminism fundamentally is based on ‘the examination of gender roles’; gender in literature examines how cultures or subcultures culturally construct different genders. Through the character of Belinda discussion is prompted about Pope’s opinion on what gender really is, which opens further questions about Pope’s attitude towards gender inequality in the 1700’s. Belinda acts as a tool for Pope, introducing a distinctive feminist voice that is able to express the positive use of feminity and how through beauty Belinda gains voice. Pope describes Belinda’s hair to be the feature that she uses as a means to gain power and to lure men:
‘Nourish’d two Locks, which graceful hung behind In equal curls, and well conspir’d to deck With shining ringlets the smooth iv’ry neck. (canto 2 19-22)
This suggests that her locks are her most feminine and most powerful weapon and through her locks she is able to have a personal voice. The word ‘shining’ is used to define a source of light, suggesting that Belinda’s ‘shining’ locks provide light. Pope is seen to empower the female form by giving Belinda power in the poem as she is able to form a distinctive voice and reject the female stereotypes of her class through having control through her beauty.
Andrew Bennett discusses how literature urges us to think about the idea that there may in fact be no such thing as voice. Through this the idea about form/meter replacing voice is introduced. Pope adapted the heroic couplet by changing the position of the caesura, which allows the reader to take a pause and reflect on what they have just read. With regards to the discussed text, Pope’s change of style within the heroic couplet also enables the reader to be able to better understand the speaker. Pope balances his main idea or thesis within each line with a declaration of its opposite or antithesis, which is showcased when he describes Hampton Court and introduces the Queen:
ere Thou, Great Anna! Whom three Realms obey,
Dost sometimes Counsel take—and sometimes Tea. (canto 3 .7–8)
The dash in the second line is a caesura, the first three iambs are about significant matters, (the ‘Counsel’ the Queen takes with her ministers as she governs the realm), which trivially is followed by the last two iambs being about a matter as pettifogging as making tea. The question the reader is left with is whether form/meter is a substitute for voice? In the case of The Rape Of The Lock, it could be considered that form does act as a substitute for voice, as the reader is still able to reflect on the wider representations of the text due to Pope’s use of caesuras allowing them to take a moment to pause.
The structure of the poem impacts the tone of the speaker. The structure itself is cast in the epic mood, but is not a serious epic because the matter of the poem is trivial—so it is a mock-heroic poem. Following the mock-epic theme, the first twelve lines juxtapose the grand and the trivial. The first line begins with the speaker stating there will be a ‘dire Offence’ (canto 1 1-12), which suggests a horrific crime, this is followed by ‘am’rous Causes’ the word ‘amorous’ is linked to love and romance. Pope has also shortened the word with an apostrophe to make it fit the meter of the line. These two juxtaposing ideas of conflict and love are used in the traditional epic form, however Pope’s use of it in his mock-heroic poem helps him to provide the speaker with a distinctive voice, this said voice throughout the poem is conflicted between the trivial matter of the narrative and also the want to question the reader about whether there is a need for a societal change.
The use of divine beings creates a idiosyncrasy voice in the poem, which works well with the trivial tone of the mock epic genre. There is the troublesome gnome who, like Milton’s Satan, is determined to make Belinda miserable and all her admirers. The gnome, talks to the wayward Queen begging her to inflict the powers of spleen on Belinda:
Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin, / That single act gives half the world the spleen. (canto 4 75-80)
The epic always uses a supernatural element. The word ‘spleen’ implies when someone has a bad temper/spite. Pope’s satirical account of all of the disorders the spleen causes exemplifies the propensity Pope’s society has to over react, this social commentary created through this language, about the behaviour of upper class England, is only achieved through Pope’s use of personal voice in the poem. In The Iliad there are gods and goddesses; in Pope’s mock-heroic there are the sylphs and gnomes. These aerial spirits are insignificant and therefore remain exactly in keeping with the triviality of the theme mock epic theme. They are used create a divine voice. They protect the heroine and when there is conflict between Belinda and the Baron, the aerial spirits take part, like the gods and goddesses in the Trojan war.
The Rape Of The Lock sets out to mock and reveal how futile vanities consume the upper class. Through distinctive voice Pope is able to make a social commentary on his society’s inability to reflect on the wider world. Pope’s use of the mock-epic form is not to actually mock the form of the traditional epic, as throughout there are references to Pope’s appreciation of the form, but to showcase the triviality surrounding his societies obsession with material goods and trifling matters. The reader is left to question whether the use of voice in the poem constitutes to the message the text delivers.