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As the name indicates, the Mock-Epic is a literary form that burlesques the classical epics by using characteristics of the epic -- the invocation of a deity, a formal statement of theme, the division of the work into books and cantos, grandiose speeches, battles and supernatural machinery- to reveal the ridiculousness of a certain subject. The main effect of employing techniques of an epic is, however, not so much to have fun with the epic, but to deflate a subject or characters that by contrast appear particularly trivial. One of the best examples of a Mock Epic is Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which uses its highly polished verses, mordantly satirical heroic couplets, and intelligence to satirize not only the overwhelming complexity and seriousness of subject matters found within epic poems, but the fuss that results when an young lord cuts a small lock of hair from the head of an young beauty. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope expends much energy preparing the audience for a battle (card game) that will shortly take place, that of English intrigue at Hampton Court.
Pope treats the subject with seriousness, depicting the story as a true epic. Pope's intention was possibly to dilute, with humor, the ill feeling aroused by the affair of the lock of hair. Pope is asking the participants to laugh at themselves, to see how an event of little importance has been filled with value. Though its tone may be light, its function is wholly serious; it keeps the public conscience alert, it exposes absurdity for what it is and makes those inclined to adopt foolish or tasteless fashions aware that they are ridiculous.
It is a satire because it shows vice its own feature and makes it preposterous to others. As stated by the OED, Popes work is a reflection of the obtuseness and stupidity of people, of the superficiality and meaningless of their lives, and of the barrenness and lack of substance in their values. He does not lash out with bitterness at intolerable and enraging actions. Thus, his work is classified more precisely as a bemused satire. An excerpt from his letter, addressed to Madam, makes it clear that Pope is indeed a bemused satirist-it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have good sense and good humor enough to laugh, not only at their sexs little unguarded follies, but at their own.
In other words, Pope aimed to show to society the absurdity of the subjects, rather than to scorn them as wrong. The two main subjects that Pope mocks are beauty and epic poems. Pope addresses beauty in a variety of ways. The Rape of the Lock conveys Popes thoughts regarding the effect of beauty upon women as individuals, various males, religion and society at large.
It is obvious that Pope deems the effects of beauty on the women entity (body, mind and soul) as silly. Pope would agree that beauty is the root of female vanity. Pope clearly considers female vanity to be meaningless, he uses satirical techniques throughout the piece to reveal this viewpoint. For instance, when he says her joy in gilded chariots, when alive, And love of ombre, after death survive, he mocks the fact that the women are so concerned with the card game; he mocks the intense preparation that the women undertake. He mocks female vanity by comparing the arming of the soldier to a toilet (dressing) scene.
The most obvious satirical device used to mock female vanity is viewed in the form of a speech, which is delivered by Ariel, the head of the Sylphs and Gnomes. Theses characters represent Meddling Gods and Goddesses that exist in many epics. The speech however isnt an inspirational speech to better the protection a true battle hero might receive, but rather a woman who prepares to look her best. The speech draws a clear comparison, as well as an absurd and truthful connection, between significant battle incidents and simple trivial womanly aspects, "Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law, / Or some frail china jar receive a flaw; / Or stain her honor, or her new brocade, / Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade. " In addition, he used a very basic method to reveal the absurdity of female vanity-he compared smaller less significant objects to larger more prominent things. According to Damrosch, L. , Jr. , author of The Imaginative World of Alexander Pope (1987), Belinda's toilette is an egotistical, vain parody of the Mass which is the central liturgical act in Pope's Roman Catholic religion. The white-robed maiden approaches the altar-like dressing table where the vials are laid out "in mystic order. " She raises her eyes and sees not the Cross but her own reflection.
Just as Eve in Milton's Paradise Lost is beguiled by her own image as she sees it reflected in the water of one of Eden's rivers, to her own image Belinda "bends, to that her eyes she rears. " Thus, Pope illustrates the strong effect of female vanity upon the focus of woman. In the Rape of the Lock Pope exposes the effects beauty has on other people. It seems that Pope's misogyny becomes especially potent in the following excerpt because he equates female beauty with deception and dissuasion from ideals, such as religion. He shows how Belinda's beauty leads, not only herself, but others to forsake their religious ideals; on her alluring bosom she wears a jeweled cross "Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. " Their "conversions" would not be through their perception of the altruistic symbolism of the Holy Cross, but through their adoration of her physical charms.
In fact, the beholding of her face makes one forget that she might even be a member of the flawed human race: "If to share some female errors fall, / Look to her face, and you'd forget em all. " Pope also exposes the effects beauty has upon society. For instance, when the Lock was cut from Belinda's hair, in her wailing, she said: "O, hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize/ Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these! Belinda has inelegantly told the truth; she would have preferred a genuine sexual violation than the nonsexual theft, which will expose her to social scandal.
This expresses the importance of beauty- it helps classify people. Pope clearly and cleverly portrayed the effects of beauty upon various characters, he attempted to persuade his readers that beauty holds to much sway and its importance is overemphasized. The second theme in Pope's mock epic is seen through a parody of the structure and language of the classical narratives that had served since the Middle Ages as the models for literature at its grandest. As Russo, John P. , author of Alexander Pope: Tradition and Identity (1972), points out Pope begins with an epic statement that echoes the first line of The Aeneid of Virgil: Arma virorumque cano, "Of arms and the man I sing O Heavenly Muse!"What dire offense from am " rous causes springs, / What mighty contests rise from trivial things, / I sing. " (He establishes immediately the fact that the battlefields in this epic will be in the war between the nymphs and swains: "Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel/ A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle! / Oh, say, what stranger cause, yet unexplored/ Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?" Pope transforms the real-life Arabella into Belinda, a paragon of female charm whose name is Latin for "lovely to behold. " The narrative begins with the heroine asleep, being counseled by a sylph about the dangers (satirically statement) that she will confront that day.
Pope created the supernatural machinery of sylphs, who are the spirits of ladies who even after death participate in the stratagems of courtship by protecting them from gossip and scandal. These sylphs represent Meddling Gods and Goddesses that exist in most epic poems; Pope diminishes the idea of these characters by choosing to make them appear as small, and almost insignificant creature. Pope gives Belinda's sylph the same name, Ariel, as the sprite in Shakespeare's The Tempest. He tells her that his divination's have revealed to him ominous but vague portents about the coming day: "This to disclose is all thy guardian can: / Beware of all, but most beware of man. " Belinda wakes up, roused by her lapdog Shock, and dresses for the day, with only the most indistinct recollection of the warning. Her maid Betty assists her in "the sacred rites of pride, " i.
e. , the vesting of the heroic warrior for the ensuing battle. Canto IV of Pope's unreal epic, his contestants to the their first battlefield, the card tables. At the ombre table, Belinda triumphs and courts disaster by rejoicing in her victory, thereby violating the classic stoic ideal. "The nymph, exulting, fills with shouts the sky; / The walls, the woods, the long canals reply. / Oh, thoughtless mortals ever blind to fate, / Too soon dejected, and too soon elate. / Sudden these honors shall be snatched away, / And cursed forever this victorious day. " The crafty man then performs the violation alluded to in the title. The entire fairy band tries to warn her, but to no avail.
The Baron decides that what he has gained through the "con " ring force of unassisted steel, " he will keep as his token of victory. Canto IV continues to make fun of epic poems-we sees Umbriel, a representative of the darker side of the supernatural world, go to the Underworld to gain some assistance for the violated. All in all Pope used epic question, invocation to the muse, epic simile, descent to the underworld, deus ex machina, macro / micro imagery, arming of the epic hero, and allusion, as methods of poking fun at epic poems. The Rape of the Lock links comedy but nonetheless biting social satire for which the 18 th century is famous. By ludicrously overstating the importance of the whole affair (largely by parodying the epic), he succeeds, paradoxically enough, in making the whole thing seem ridiculous and funny but also somehow tragic. As a result, Pope makes us aware of the fact that not only the participants in the drama but also the rest of humanity, including Pope himself and certainly his readers are somehow ridiculous and funny -- and tragic -- too.
Thus, Pope has successfully taken the audience from epic poetry in form, to mock epic in reality. Pope has built on the epic form, presenting the audience with a satire of the rituals of courtship and sex, highlighting Belinda's wounded pride with the meaningless lives of the English upper class. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Rape Of The Lock Gods And Goddesses
