Pope Admiring Belinda in The Rape of the Lock

Pope Admiring Belinda in The Rape of the Lock

The main character of Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" could be

considered both hailed and damned by the overseer, but the

complexities and sometimes contradictions of Belinda spark a more

unbiased view.

The appearance of Belinda and the world in which she lives is

described in a very fantastical and beautiful way. Even small details

such as the arrangement of Belinda's hair are due to wondrous entities

known as the Sylphs, whose sole task is to make sure she is looking

her best. This consideration of appearance in "The Rape of the Lock"

is very important as the society that Belinda lives within is very

judgmental on the basis of appearance, especially for women. Her role

is basically to attract a man, preferably wealthy, so that she can be

wed and her family receive the pecuniary benefits from the marriage.

This beauty within the society, in my opinion, is definitely admired

by Pope. He describes Belinda in particular as such a beautiful

creature and even though there is a certain air of triviality in the

society she lives in, the beauty and frivolity of it is shining.

These fantastical descriptions over something as small as appearance,

however, can signify and highlight the triviality of it. Belinda, and

the Sylphs, spend aeons on her hair and general appearance. The role

the Sylphs, beautifully fantastic entities, harbour is also very

trivial. Their entire existence is simply for looking after women's

looks. This triviality is due to wasted time on looks and therefore

shows how superficial the world that Belinda lives in is. In fact

Belinda herself is very superficial and although, as I mentioned

before, she has reason, her actions are still very vain a...

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Pope wishes to show the positive qualities of his protagonist he is

keen to do so and sometimes uses the method of direct compliment as

aforementioned. This direct binding of what is contained within in the

poem and Pope's opinion and will means that arguably whatever is shown

within the poem is what Pope thinks of the situation, and what he

wishes to show. Due to this I feel that it is impossible to consider

Pope only criticising Belinda. Alike many things within life, there is

no black or white answer but a shade of grey and although Pope is

privy to both the positive and negative sides of Belinda, and also how

these may differ with perception, the fact he is aware or both means

that he must also admire the positive side. I feel that this is

definitely true and that Pope makes it clear even without

undercurrents or imagery that he admires Belinda.