THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

*Write a brief analysis of Belinda's character keeping in mind the contemporary time rather than the 18th Century.

                 The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope.One of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque, it was first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations (May 1712) in two cantos (334 lines); a revised edition "Written by Mr. Pope" followed in March 1714 as a five-canto version (794 lines) accompanied by six engravings. Pope boasted that this sold more than three thousand copies in its first four days.The final form of the poem appeared in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humour. The poem was much translated and contributed to the growing popularity of mock-heroic in Europe.

                     The poem satirises a small incident by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an actual event recounted to the poet by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic recusant Catholic families, at a time in England when, under such laws as the Test Act, all denominations except Anglicanism suffered legal restrictions and penalties. 

                          BELINDA

                        The protagonist of the poem, Belinda is a wealthy and beautiful young woman who travels to Hampton Court for a day of socializing and leisure. Her remarkable beauty attracts the attention of the Baron, who snips off a lock of her hair in his infatuation. 

                         At the beginning of the narrative, Ariel explains to Belinda through the medium of a dream that as she is a both beautiful and a virgin, it is his task to watch over her and protect her virtue—though as the poem unfolds, it’s unclear if Belinda is really as virtuous as she seems. Despite the fact that Belinda is Pope’s protagonist, she’s actually a bit of a slippery character to come to terms with, as the reader is provided with relatively little access to her inner thoughts, and her actions are often governed by supernatural forces. 

                        For instance, it is unclear how much influence Ariel, a sylph, is able to exert over her, and there is some suggestion that he actively toys with her morality. He claims it is her virginity which makes her worthy of guarding but sends her a dream of a handsome young man, “A youth more glitt'ring than a birthnight beauty,” tempting her sexuality. 

                        Similarly, at the end of the poem, Umbriel, throws over her and Thalestris a bag of “Sighs, sobs and passions” and also empties a vial of “sorrows” over her too, meaning the rage she flies into is not entirely of her own volition. 

                        Fundamentally, as her name suggests with its literal meaning of “beautiful”, all readers can really know about Belinda is that she is attractive. The poem states that “If to her share some female errors fall, / Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all”—in other words, she is so beautiful that those around her consider her basically exempt from any moral judgement, allowing Pope to satirize the idea Ariel suggests at the opening of the poem: that beauty and virtue always go hand in hand. Belinda is based on the real-life figure of Arabella Fermor, who also had a lock of her hair cut off by a suitor.

                          Belinda represents the fashionable and aristocratic ladies of the time. She is a woman of superb beauty and charm. Early in the poem, she is compared to the sun (also at the beginning of the Canto II). 

                        The brightness of her eyes surpasses the brightness of the sun. The poet invests her almost with divine beauty. Beside this admiration, she has many denunciating qualities in her character.

                           Except being a beauty the faults of Belinda are many. The poet fully reveals to us her petty pleasure-seeking nature. She suffers from all the vanities, laziness, follies and moral scruple of the aristocratic ladies of her time. 

                       She is treated as an object of mockery, ridicule, and even condemnation because of her shallowness, superficiality, and lack of any intellectual interest or moral elevation in her life. The lady sleeps till the hour of twelve in the day. Her dog licks her and she gets up every day from her all prophesied purity. 

                      Belinda is proud to be secretly in love with the Baron just after opening her eyes; first thought is about love letter which has been addressed to her. Next, she gets ready for her toilet and her day begins at noon. The toilet-table is like a church to her. She takes help of “cosmetic power” and her maid-servant Betty assists her in her sacred ceremony of the toilet. These show her superficial nature and lack moral awareness.

                          Her rendezvous is the Hampton Court where the fashionable girls and men of upper-class society gather. But Belinda is in the limelight, attracts attention and love. Gossip, cards, coffee-drinking occupy much of Belinda’s time in the day.

                   She does not seem to have any intellectual interest. Spiritual shallowness and incapacity for moral awareness are great in her. She has transformed all spiritual exercise and emblems into a coquette. Self-display and self-adoration the used as her ornaments.

                     After cutting off her lock, the lamentation of Belinda again brings out the shallowness and superficiality of her mind because she says that she would not have been so hurt if some after hair except her golden-curl would have been stolen.

                        Pope attributes divinity to Belinda’s character. She is an incarnation of the goddesses of beauty. She is brighter than the sun. She eclipses the sun by bringing joy and gaiety into the world of fashion. As the poet says-

“Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay

Hurt to cause pain to, to wound (mentally), to damage.”

                            Pope has a mixed and complicated attitude towards Belinda. He admires her but does not spare to criticise her. The paradoxical nature of Pope’s attitude is intimately related to the paradox of Belinda’s situation. 

                             Although pope has ridiculed many of Belinda’s manners, he did not have her to be judged as a bad woman.

                           There is no doubt that Belinda has a number of “fall.” This fall consists in her manner, of life. Yet pope presents her in an agreeable form and we are led to forget her frivolities or morality. But the actual aspiration is laid on the very society of which she is the product. 

                           She is the maiden through whom Pope expresses his dislike of the society which was given to mirth and merriment at any cost.

                                 Pope has presented Belinda as a complex character. He has presented her in different roles and under different shades, some are satirical other ironical but all entertaining. The character of Belinda has created much controversy since the publication of the poem. 

                          Some critics consider her treatment fair while others as unfair. There are several aspects of the personality of Belinda as portrayed by Pope in The Rape of the Lock. It will be wrong to regard her purely as a goddess, or as a pretty spoiled child, or as a flirt. 

                          She is a combination of all three and yet much more than such a combination. We see her in many different lights. We see her as a vamp, an injured innocent, a sweet charmer, a society belle, a rival of the sun, and a murderer of millions. 

                           She has a Cleopatra- like variety. However, the reality lies in between these two extremes we can discuss her character as blow.

                         Firstly, Belinda is the heroine of the story. It is her character around whom the story of the whole poem is woven. We see her sleeping till noon and her awakening by her lap dog “Shock”. We are present at her toilet and watch the progress of the sacred rites of pride. 

                            Then we see her proceeding from the Thames River to the Hampton Court. Then her smiting looks upon the well dressed youths that crowds her. Pope compares Belinda to the sun and suggests that it recognizes in Belinda a rival. Belinda is like the sun not only because of her bright eyes and not only because she dominates her special world. She was as beautiful as every eye was fixed on her alone. She is like the sun in another regard:

Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike.
And, like the sun, the shines on all alike.

                    Belinda’s exquisite beauty is enhanced by two curling side locks of hair that charmingly set off her ivory white neck and which she has kept “to the destruction of mankind:”

Law In these labyrinths his slaves detains,And mighty hearts ate held in slender chains.

                         Belinda’s charms can work miracles and can make even non-believers kiss the cross.

Secondly, Belinda is a model arid more specifically represents the fashionable, aristocratic ladies of Popes age. Such social butterflies in eighteenth century were regarded as petty triflers, having no serious concern with life, and engrossed in dance and gaiety. Belinda’s fall indicates the decadence of her class. Through her, Pope describes the flippancy and depravity of the English society of his day.

                     Thirdly, Popes attitude to Belinda is very mixed and complicated; mocking and yet tender, admiring and yet critical. The paradoxical nature of Pope’s attitude is intimately related to the paradox of Belinda’s situation. If Belinda is to find her role of woman, she must lose the role of a virgin, and the more graceful her acceptance of loss the greater the victory she achieves through it. 

                                  Because Pope is dealing with this paradox, his altitude must be mixed and complicated. It is necessary for Pope to stress Belinda’s divinity. At the same time he does not let us forget Belinda’s mortality. 

                            He qualifies her goddess-ship by emphasizing human qualities. The scene at Belinda’s dressing table, where she is both mortal priestess and the goddess worshipped in the mirror, is an example of this device. The very frailty and transience of blushes and chastity emphasize this goddess’s humanity.

                        Thus, we get the picture of her shallow outlook about religious faiths and beliefs. She is a worshiper of beauty who prays to the goddess of beauty and offers all the items of cosmetics before her. She is a typical presentation of women’s excessive attention to self decoration and embellishment. 

                                She gathers all the fashionable items from all over the world - Indian glowing gems, Arabian perfumes, files of pins, puffs, powders, patches etc. In a satirical passage, Pope describes Belinda in a Confucius mood before her dressing table:

Here files of pains extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, blllet-doux,

                               Thus, assigned by her maid Betty, Belinda seeks to improve her bod1y charms. However, he does not show any respect for the holly book, Bible. Therefore, the moral bankruptcy of these ladies is further ridiculed when Thalestris points out the need for sacrificing everything, even chastity, for reputation. They consider that virtue might be lost, but not a good name.

                              To wind up we can say that Belinda’s portrayal is one of the awesome literary creations ever produced in the History of English literature. Pope seeks to throw light upon the fickle minded fashionable ladies of the 18th century England depicting Belinda as the representative character. She is the embodiment of the coquetry, the art, the artifice and the false pride.