Literature Discussion-Pope’s Rape

Literature Discussion-Pope’s Rape

Pope’s Rape is a comedy story about a petty feud between two noble families’ Fetres and Fermor. The story is set in the eighteenth century. In that scene, two young females are at the center of the dispute. Belinda, an affiliate from the Petres family who represents beauty and youth, awakes and finds herself deciding the attire to wear. A maid from Fermor’s family tells her that young men have been following her closely, especially her moves, including Baron Porcupine, who will watch her leave the house this morning and cut some strands of her hair to keep as a reminder of his own admiration for her. An elderly female admirer of Belinda, Umbriel, who rides down the Rhine in pursuit of inspiration on what to do with the locks gathered by Baron Porcupine, is trailing behind her as she gets ready for the day with great care (Greenblatt, Stephen, and Carol 2687). He then realizes that Venus desperately requires counsel from prominent divinities on how to assist people suffering from love trials and plans to meet him face to face. At the same time, at Belinda’s apartment in London, she has issues safeguarding the locks.

Therefore, Pope mocks the arrogant aristocrats who value their social status and appearance more than the evils they do to other people. Rather than creating a mock muse in Urania instead of calling in Calliope, Pope borrows elements from the epic genre by appealing to classical divinities, bestowing an ancient source for his tale. Besides, he includes speeches by the orator, personifies objects, makes a mock hero in Belinda’s locked hair, and mocks dignified styles that are not as dignified as Milton’s Latin Paradise Lost.

Work Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen, and Carol T. Christ, eds. The Norton anthology of English literature. Vol. 1. WW Norton & Company, 2012.

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Literature Discussion-Pope’s Rape

In a 150-200 word post, respond to one of the following prompts:
Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic, which is a long, humorous narrative poem that treats a trivial subject in the grand elevated style of a true epic, such as Paradise Lost. What is Pope mocking in his text? What elements does he borrow from the epic genre?
Swift is famous for his use of satire. Satire works on at least three levels:
The surface level, the literal level, in which the reader takes the author at “face value.”
The second level is where the reader has an “aha” reaction. This occurs when the reader understands that the author does not mean what is written literally; in fact, the author means just the opposite (sarcasm often works on this level).
The third level is the metaphoric level. Here, the reader realizes what the author means by what was said on the surface level, but not literally.
In your discussion post, cite the point in “A Modest Proposal” that you have an “aha” reaction. Explain how the text you cite creates the “aha” reaction. Describe how this essay works on all three levels.
John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera is an excellent example of political and societal satire. Using evidence from the text, explain who or what Gay is mocking in the play. Do you believe that his satire is effective or not?