The Rape of the Lock (Pope, 1714)
As I announced in class, I designed
some close-reading activities to accompany the paraphrase assignment
for The Rape of the Lock.
Those activities are listed immediately below. If you are interested in
further study or simply want to understand the poem a little better,
refer back to the passage you paraphrased and follow the
corresponding instructions below. Also featured here are my lecture notes for your reference, most of
which we covered in class along with other points that are not included
here. You might think of this page as supplemental to our discussion.
At the bottom is an image gallery of
illustrations relevant to The Rape
of the Lock.
Canto 3, lines 135-46
Compare these lines with Canto 1, lines 27-78.
1. What qualifies a woman for protection by a sylph?
2. Sylphs are to women as ________ is to men.
3. Why do female spirits become male sylphs?
4. What is implied about Belinda/Arabella Fermor when Ariel abandons her?
Canto 4, lines 40-54
Compare these lines with Canto 2, lines 101-22.
1. Why might "men prove with child" in a woman's delirious fantasy?
2. What does it mean for "maids" to turn into bottles and "cry aloud for corks?
3. How is Belinda like china and brocade? What happens when a petticoat fails?
4. How are women's bodies characterized in these passages, in this poem?
Canto 4, lines 104-116
Compare these lines with the wine party scene in The Country Wife (Act V, scene iv, pp. 2347-2350).
1. What role does honor play for women according to Thalestris?
2. How does this version of honor compare to women's honor in The Country Wife?
3. In what ways is The Rape of the Lock like a Restoration comedy? [Hint: Start with the characters. How are they alike? In what ways is Pope's poem theatrical? Is it satiric in the same way as The Country Wife?
Canto 4, lines 160-176
Compare these lines with Canto 5, lines 9-34.
1. What would Belinda rather have happened than that her lock was cut off?
2. Why is her statement in lines 175-6 ironic and/or paradoxical?
3. What do these lines imply about Belinda/Arabella Fermor?
4. What does Clarissa mean by "good humor"?
LECTURE NOTES
Pope was a misogynist, but then by our standards, nearly everyone in the eighteenth-century had misogynist (or suspicious, at best) views of women except for Mary Astell and a very few people like her (and even she was what we might call a proto-feminist). We have to consider this as a mitigating circumstance when evaluating their literary characterizations of women. That's not to say that every individual hated women, per se: if you can wrap your head around the idea that women across the board were considered inferior to men in every conceivable way, and consider the length of time this notion had held sway prior to the eighteenth century, you can begin to understand how radically different their ideology was from ours. For example, whether or not women had souls was the topic of a serious philosophical discussion during this time (cf. Astell's Some Reflections Upon Marriage). Women were not considered wholly human according to some lines of reasoning--they were just slightly elevated above non-human primates. Women were the objects of profound epistemological and ontological uncertainty during this period, and that uncertainty is frequently embedded in the literature of the period. Despite the many "modern" apsects of the eighteenth century, it was still a world vastly different from our own in significant ways. At the same time, really important and positive new ideas were being circulated, such as Astell's, that would catalyze much change, however painstakingly slowly, in the relationships between men and women and between members of different social classes.
One interesting aspect of the eighteenth century is that much traditional thinking was being challenged. The long-held "truths" and concepts underlying commonly held beliefs were subject to revision, so we have a lot of ideas that are at odds with each other all existing at the same time. Mary Astell and Alexander Pope, for example, posit two completely different theories about women and marriage; they do, however, actually agree on a few things. As you read Astell, try to figure out what these points of agreement are, and what points they would disagree on as well.
The prefatory letter: Pope puts Arabella Fermor in the position of either laughing at the poem or being ridiculed. A stereotypical woman was just that. In The Rape of the Lock, the more prudish women sink down and become gnomes. In the eighteenth century, there weren't a lot of positive options for women. In Pope's view, and in the view of society at large, women were "naturally" destined to marry and have children--and that's all. A woman was at the peak of her limited power the moment she entered the marriage market and up until the moment she married.
A woman before marriage was classified as a feme sole = an independent legal status that allowed her to own property, buy and sell stocks, etc.
After marriage a woman was classified as a feme covert = a legal non-entity, completely subsumed under the coverture of her husband. For the most part, all her property belonged to him, and she lost the legal right to manager her own affairs.
So it's easy to see how some people might have begun to question whether the marriage contract was really a good deal for women.
Belinda is a very powerful female, and Pope recognizes that, even admires that. At the same time, he warns her that she is in danger of losing the game. The "appropriate" end of the courtship game for Belinda is to make the best marriage match possible. Not making a match at all was simply not a socially acceptable option for gentlewomen in this period. If Belinda is unchaste, she will become "damaged goods" and lose her value on the marriage market. Ariel would have her believe that she doesn't need to concern herself with honor, as men do, because she has him to watch out for her. Pope's implication is that she doesn't begin to understand the concept of honor, much less is she concerned for her own.
Ariel abandons Belinda because he senses that the baron has a place in her heart. If you think about the terms Pope sets forth in Canto I, the implication is that Belinda is no longer chaste. The only thing a woman has to do to converse freely with the sylphs is be a virgin. Pope foreshadows the guilt trap in the letter to her: he sets her up mercilessly for the accusation that she's not chaste, and there's nothing she can do about it.
The Cave of Spleen: "Spleen" was the mystery or pseudo-disease of the 18th century. There was a belief that the womb traveled about the body when a woman was upset. This ailment would occur from doing something she shouldn't have been doing: having sex too much, learning too much, having a fear of becoming pregnant, etc. The womb could also give off vapors. Deep-rooted suspicion surrounded the female body, in part because very little was known about it. "Spleen" wasn't suffered exclusively by women, but it was primarily associated with women (feminized), and in Pope's creation it is specifically associated with menstruation. The spirit we encounter in the cave of spleen rules women's lives throughout their childbearing years (15 to 50). In Belinda's deluded spleen-fantasy, men get pregnant, and women become open bottles. Men have babies, and women want sex and call out loudly for it. Something is dreadfully wrong here!
The baron wants to display Belinda's lock as a trophy. (See the image gallery for a picture of the kinds of rings people had custom-made to preserve locks of hair, along with other images relevant to this poem.)
In the grand scheme of this poem, Pope would have us believe that Belinda represents a spoiled young woman whose head has been turned by all the flattery directed her way by the male suitors (and other people) in her life. She has lost sight of the real world, and she needs to have a reality check. She should simply laugh it off and stop being mortally offended that her suitor has cut off her hair. She has deified herself in her own mind, which has caused her to spurn mankind, namely her primary suitor (nevermind the paradox created by the implication that she is unchaste). As Clarissa reminds us, "honor," or integrity, is the only lasting human quality, as beauty inevitably fades. We might consider, however, the position from which Clarissa speaks. As one of you pointed out in class today, "grave" Clarissa is the jealous female who hands the scissors to the baron!
IMAGE GALLERY*
*All images (except for the Tyburn image) are taken from Clarency Tracy's The RAPE Observ'd. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1974.
370B Home
Canto 3, lines 135-46
Compare these lines with Canto 1, lines 27-78.
1. What qualifies a woman for protection by a sylph?
2. Sylphs are to women as ________ is to men.
3. Why do female spirits become male sylphs?
4. What is implied about Belinda/Arabella Fermor when Ariel abandons her?
Canto 4, lines 40-54
Compare these lines with Canto 2, lines 101-22.
1. Why might "men prove with child" in a woman's delirious fantasy?
2. What does it mean for "maids" to turn into bottles and "cry aloud for corks?
3. How is Belinda like china and brocade? What happens when a petticoat fails?
4. How are women's bodies characterized in these passages, in this poem?
Canto 4, lines 104-116
Compare these lines with the wine party scene in The Country Wife (Act V, scene iv, pp. 2347-2350).
1. What role does honor play for women according to Thalestris?
2. How does this version of honor compare to women's honor in The Country Wife?
3. In what ways is The Rape of the Lock like a Restoration comedy? [Hint: Start with the characters. How are they alike? In what ways is Pope's poem theatrical? Is it satiric in the same way as The Country Wife?
Canto 4, lines 160-176
Compare these lines with Canto 5, lines 9-34.
1. What would Belinda rather have happened than that her lock was cut off?
2. Why is her statement in lines 175-6 ironic and/or paradoxical?
3. What do these lines imply about Belinda/Arabella Fermor?
4. What does Clarissa mean by "good humor"?
LECTURE NOTES
Pope was a misogynist, but then by our standards, nearly everyone in the eighteenth-century had misogynist (or suspicious, at best) views of women except for Mary Astell and a very few people like her (and even she was what we might call a proto-feminist). We have to consider this as a mitigating circumstance when evaluating their literary characterizations of women. That's not to say that every individual hated women, per se: if you can wrap your head around the idea that women across the board were considered inferior to men in every conceivable way, and consider the length of time this notion had held sway prior to the eighteenth century, you can begin to understand how radically different their ideology was from ours. For example, whether or not women had souls was the topic of a serious philosophical discussion during this time (cf. Astell's Some Reflections Upon Marriage). Women were not considered wholly human according to some lines of reasoning--they were just slightly elevated above non-human primates. Women were the objects of profound epistemological and ontological uncertainty during this period, and that uncertainty is frequently embedded in the literature of the period. Despite the many "modern" apsects of the eighteenth century, it was still a world vastly different from our own in significant ways. At the same time, really important and positive new ideas were being circulated, such as Astell's, that would catalyze much change, however painstakingly slowly, in the relationships between men and women and between members of different social classes.
One interesting aspect of the eighteenth century is that much traditional thinking was being challenged. The long-held "truths" and concepts underlying commonly held beliefs were subject to revision, so we have a lot of ideas that are at odds with each other all existing at the same time. Mary Astell and Alexander Pope, for example, posit two completely different theories about women and marriage; they do, however, actually agree on a few things. As you read Astell, try to figure out what these points of agreement are, and what points they would disagree on as well.
The prefatory letter: Pope puts Arabella Fermor in the position of either laughing at the poem or being ridiculed. A stereotypical woman was just that. In The Rape of the Lock, the more prudish women sink down and become gnomes. In the eighteenth century, there weren't a lot of positive options for women. In Pope's view, and in the view of society at large, women were "naturally" destined to marry and have children--and that's all. A woman was at the peak of her limited power the moment she entered the marriage market and up until the moment she married.
A woman before marriage was classified as a feme sole = an independent legal status that allowed her to own property, buy and sell stocks, etc.
After marriage a woman was classified as a feme covert = a legal non-entity, completely subsumed under the coverture of her husband. For the most part, all her property belonged to him, and she lost the legal right to manager her own affairs.
So it's easy to see how some people might have begun to question whether the marriage contract was really a good deal for women.
Belinda is a very powerful female, and Pope recognizes that, even admires that. At the same time, he warns her that she is in danger of losing the game. The "appropriate" end of the courtship game for Belinda is to make the best marriage match possible. Not making a match at all was simply not a socially acceptable option for gentlewomen in this period. If Belinda is unchaste, she will become "damaged goods" and lose her value on the marriage market. Ariel would have her believe that she doesn't need to concern herself with honor, as men do, because she has him to watch out for her. Pope's implication is that she doesn't begin to understand the concept of honor, much less is she concerned for her own.
Ariel abandons Belinda because he senses that the baron has a place in her heart. If you think about the terms Pope sets forth in Canto I, the implication is that Belinda is no longer chaste. The only thing a woman has to do to converse freely with the sylphs is be a virgin. Pope foreshadows the guilt trap in the letter to her: he sets her up mercilessly for the accusation that she's not chaste, and there's nothing she can do about it.
The Cave of Spleen: "Spleen" was the mystery or pseudo-disease of the 18th century. There was a belief that the womb traveled about the body when a woman was upset. This ailment would occur from doing something she shouldn't have been doing: having sex too much, learning too much, having a fear of becoming pregnant, etc. The womb could also give off vapors. Deep-rooted suspicion surrounded the female body, in part because very little was known about it. "Spleen" wasn't suffered exclusively by women, but it was primarily associated with women (feminized), and in Pope's creation it is specifically associated with menstruation. The spirit we encounter in the cave of spleen rules women's lives throughout their childbearing years (15 to 50). In Belinda's deluded spleen-fantasy, men get pregnant, and women become open bottles. Men have babies, and women want sex and call out loudly for it. Something is dreadfully wrong here!
The baron wants to display Belinda's lock as a trophy. (See the image gallery for a picture of the kinds of rings people had custom-made to preserve locks of hair, along with other images relevant to this poem.)
In the grand scheme of this poem, Pope would have us believe that Belinda represents a spoiled young woman whose head has been turned by all the flattery directed her way by the male suitors (and other people) in her life. She has lost sight of the real world, and she needs to have a reality check. She should simply laugh it off and stop being mortally offended that her suitor has cut off her hair. She has deified herself in her own mind, which has caused her to spurn mankind, namely her primary suitor (nevermind the paradox created by the implication that she is unchaste). As Clarissa reminds us, "honor," or integrity, is the only lasting human quality, as beauty inevitably fades. We might consider, however, the position from which Clarissa speaks. As one of you pointed out in class today, "grave" Clarissa is the jealous female who hands the scissors to the baron!
IMAGE GALLERY*
 |
 |
 |
 |
 A triangular ombre table is shown here. |
 |
 |
 |
 A hanging a Tyburn--a popular spectator "sport" in this period. |
*All images (except for the Tyburn image) are taken from Clarency Tracy's The RAPE Observ'd. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1974.
370B Home