Merriam-Webster defines satire as “a literary work that holds up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.” Alexander Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’ holds the genre of satire to its highest glory ever achievable. Armed with brilliant wit showcased in fine iambic pentameter, Pope ridicules the superficiality of the upper class. The mock epic was first published in the year 1712; the longer version came later in 1714. The narrative in heroic couplets employs highly exaggerated language to depict a trivial theft to epic proportions.

The poem is set in the 18^th century. The title’s exaggerated urgency points to the ludicrousness of the act of stealing a lock of Belinda’s hair by a Baron. The incident ensues a war between families reflecting how trivial matters are unreasonably stretched in English aristocracy. The high burlesque was first published anonymously in Lintot’s Miscellaneous Poems and Translations in two cantos owing to the contemporary nature of the satire. It is based on John Caryll’s, Pope’s friend, an account of the incident where Arabella Fermor is Belinda and Lord Petre is the Baron. The features of the classical epic like invocations, exclamations, similes, and such others increase the degree of triviality.

The decadent English aristocracy of the 18^th century portrayed in the seriousness of the Epic that had themes of love and war in Homer and the complexity of Christian faith in Milton, has been a vehicle to mock a society that has its priorities not set. It exposes its failure to reach the standard of the traditional epic. Pettiness pitted against the heroic theme is a worrisome display of a culture lacking seriousness and solemnity. The heroic world is pieced together with the social to bring out the stark contrast.

The poem begins with an invocation and a dedication in the manner of an epic. The seriousness of a ‘mighty’ contest has been trivialized to card games in contrast to the battles fought by Greek heroes. Love, here in the poem is not as great a subject as the Helen of Troy. Belinda’s beauty is comparable to that of Helen but lacks in dignity. The sprites, suggesting supernatural machinery, watch over Belinda. Imbibing the Greek gods and goddesses, the presence of spirits is hierarchal. Belinda’s class of women are impressed by ‘gilded Chariots’. Their superfluousness guides them into marrying for advantage in turn compromising their values. Pope highlights the fact that Belinda is what she is because of the society she is raised in. Even the men are not untouched by his critique. Driven by fop and an outward show of vanity, their machismo is fueled by inane flirtation. ‘The three attempts’ resorted to cutting the lock has been portrayed heroically where instead of a sword, Clarrisa arms the Baron with a pair of scissors.

The brave but frivolous, serious but ostentatious, and passionate but melodramatic are the constituents of a narrative reflecting the two worlds parallelly to heighten the effect of irony. The poem, a mirror to the frivolity of the time remains uncontested in its popularity. 

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