The Rape Of The Lock Poem Analysis

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A Mock epic is a long narrative poem which usually aims at mockery and amusement by nearly using the entire characteristic of an epic but for a trivial or unimportant subject.
In the poem, “The Rape of the Lock” there is an invocation to Muses, intention of subject, battles, supernatural machinery, and journey on water, underworld journey, long speeches, feasts (coffee house), Homeric similes and grand style but all for a simple family dispute instead of a national struggle. The grand action of a low subject produces comical laughter and makes the story more absurd. The poem “Rape of the Lock”, on the other hand, gives us a picture of a stylish society. The essential figure in that picture is a beautiful society girl, and the other characters are a young man, a foolish dandy and a few mannered women. The subject matters in both of the epic poems are grand. Like the epic poems, the poem “The Rape of the Lock” opens with the intention of the subject matter and invocation to the Muses. Such a grand action of a trivial subject like the cutting of the lock of Belinda provokes laughter.

The action opens with a mock heroic manner with the awakening of Belinda. Belinda is the very goddess of beauty, and the shine of her eyes surpasses that of the sun, which peeped nervously through the white curtains in Belinda’s room and opened those eyes that must eclipse the day. In the poem “The Rape of the Lock” the beautiful Belinda is described preparing herself with combs and pins –

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