CULT OF BEAUTY

Rape of the Lock

Say, why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most, The Wise Man's Passion, and the Vain Man's Toast? (Pope ln. 9-10)

Cult: zealous obsession directed at a particular

figure or object; fetishized ideology;

irrational reverence

Pope asks, what is the cult of beauty doing to our world?

THE CULT OF BEAUTY

The cult of beauty is a social paradox because it simultaneously bestows and undermines the

power of people

THESIS

“Arming” Scene rife with ritual:

“The inferior priestess, at her altar’s side, / Trembling begins the sacred rites of

Pride.” (ln. 127-128)“Now awful Beauty puts on all its arms.”

(ln. 139)“Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-

doux.” (ln. 138)

BEAUTY BESTOWS POWER

“Fair nymphs and well-dressed youths around her shone, / But every eye was

fixed on her alone. / On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, / Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.” (Pope

Canto 2, ln. 5-8)

BEAUTY BESTOWS POWER

Cult:

MODERN EXAMPLE

“Methinks already I your tears survey, / Already hear the horrid things they

say, / Already see you a degraded toast, / And all your honor in a

whisper lost!” (Pope Canto 4, ln. 107-110)

(Degraded Toast)

Baron cutting lock undermines Belinda’s power:

Oh, had I rather unadmired remained / In some lone isle, or distant northern land; / Where

the gilt chariot never marks the way, / Where none learn ombre, none e’er taste bohea! /

There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, / Like roses that in deserts bloom and die.

(Pope Canto 4, ln. 153-158)

BEAUTY UNDERMINES POWER

“Oh, hadst thou, cruel! Been content to seize / Hairs less in sight, or any

hairs but these!” (Pope Canto 5, 175-176)

Because beauty was what had defined her, she easily fell from her pedestal - her altar

- into devastation.

BEAUTY UNDERMINES POWER

• Not chronological (empower, then undermine)

• In “Arming scene,” Belinda empowers herself and undermines herself

simultaneously• Getting beautiful, but wasting time

• Power doesn’t come from self, but from outside

BEAUTY BESTOWS AND UNDERMINES AT THE SAME TIME

We can’t fix it.Everyone knows the solution, but no one

does it

SO WHAT?

Have some toast!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!