A mock-heroic

narrative poem

written by

Alexande

r Pope

What’s a “Mock Heroic”?

Imitates the style of heroic literature in order to satirize an unheroic subject.

Simply speaking, the poem is

sarcastically laughing at the

epic world of the gods.

“Lock” in this poem refers to a

lock of hair

RAPE1.unlawful sexual intercourse or any other

sexual penetration without the consent of the

victim.

2. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse;

despoliation; violation: the rape of the forest.

3.Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by

force.

The Rape of the Sabine Women

The Sabines were a neighboring territory of Rome conquered. After the Romans conquered it, the women were abducted and taken as wives.

The correct definition to use for the Rape of the Lock is:

3. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.

The Rape of the Lock had its origins in an actual, if trivial, incident in polite society:

In 1711, England, the 21-year old Baron, Lord Petre, at a party had sneakily cut a lock of hair from the head of the beautiful Arabella Fermor, whom he had been courting.

Arabella took offense, and a feud began between her family and his.

Pope wrote the humorous poem in order to help the families reunite and settle the feud.

He felt that if they could see the ridiculousness of the incident, they would put aside their anger and laugh about it. It worked, the families reunited.

Here is a summary or synopsis of the poem

The poems begins with Arabella reading a letter from Pope. He writes why he has sent the poem to her and that also he has dedicated it to her

Arabella is the actual woman that had her lock of hair cut off, or “raped”

FLASHBACK

Meet the young, beautiful and very wealthy Belinda in her boudoir

She’s been having a sexy dream but also dreams of some DREAD EVENT that will happen to her

oooo la la! stop!! … don’t …oooh...

don’t stop!

Ariel, the sylph who watches over Belinda sent this dream to warn her

BEWARE OF MAN!

Sylphs and Gnomes play an important role in the actions later on

This is likely because the actual

place that the rape of the lock

occurred, was at a palace outside of

London named Hampton Court

On the ceiling of the palace where the party took place, were murals of angels and other fictional characters.

Pope no doubt incorporated those images into his poem.

What’s a Sylph you ask?

Part of the Elemental Kingdom:

Fire, Air, Water & Earth.

Sylphs are AIR fairies.

Gnome

A legendary dwarfish creature that guards the earth's treasures underground.

Back to

Belinda.

She is woken

by her precious

little dog who is

licking her face

Belinda arises

and elaborately

dresses,

primps and

pepares for the

day

She goes to a gathering outside of London with other wealthy, young socialites

Among them is the Baron, who has already made up his mind to steal a lock of Belinda’s hair.

Lord

Robert

Petre

Baron

of

Bunfield

The Baron

lusts for the

beautiful,

bodacious

Belinda

He wants a lock of Belinda’s hair.

I simply must

have it!

It was not uncommon at the time, for men to take a lock of hair from a woman.

Historically giving a lock of ones hair to someone has been considered a sign of love and devotion, especially before a separation

Sometimes they would resort to the prank of stealing the lock of hair, as a sort of amusement and way of showing affection.

Usually with no negative consequences….

On this day, the Baron rose early and built an altar dedicated to Belinda and his success with the absconsion of her lock of hair

The guests board a boat to the Palace Harbor Court

While the Baron is on

the boat scheming,

the fairies gather in

hordes to plan their

defense of the

beautiful Belinda

The boat arrives at Hampton Court Palace,

and the ladies and gentlemen disembark.

After a pleasant round of chatting and

gossip, Belinda sits down with two of the

men to a game of cards.

After the card game they have coffee- the curling vapors of steam remind the Baron of Belinda’s curls and his intention to steal a lock.

The scissors are produced by a conspiring friend, Clarissa. She gives them to the Lord Robert.

Taking up the scissors, he tries three times to clip the lock from behind without Belinda seeing.

Seeing what is happening, the fairies attempt to intervene.

One fairy is cut in half when it comes between the lock and the scissors.

The Baron is successful- he has raped the lock of Belinda!

The deed is done!

Belinda screams!

BELINDA IS

FURIOUS

WITH LORD

ROBERT!

A gnome named Umbriel descends to

the Underworld on Belinda’s behalf and

obtains a bag of sighs and a vial of

tears from the Queen of Spleen.

Intending to help dumps the bucket of sighs and tears on Belinda

This does not help

A great argument ensues. People defend Belinda’s honor. Others explain that the Baron was just having a little fun.

Through all of

this, the lock of

hair disappears.

It is then discovered that the lock of hair has risen to the heavens, only to become a shining star