Anthony House
English 109-01
Prof. Betz
23 January 2001

Pope's Role in the Rape of the Lock

In "The Rape of the Lock," Alexander Pope responds to an actual event. His effort to ameliorate the tension between the true players manifests itself throughout the poem, which hyperbolizes the situation to minimize the resentment felt by the real-life victim. Pope’s task is not an easy one. He must walk a fine line to achieve his desired effect without overtrivializing the situation. By framing the story as a heroic epic, Pope settles into a role between simple reporter and reckless satirist. By acknowledging, in an exaggerated form, the impropriety of the act, "The Rape of the Lock" treats the repercussions of an awkward situation with ease.

Regard for the victim’s image is primary to Pope’s task, since the poem as a whole is meant to address her concerns. Pope’s presentation of the fictitious Belinda seems to acknowledge this responsibility. Pope, in turn, describes her as "a gentle belle" and the "Fairest of mortals" (Canto I, lines 8, 27), and she boasts "graceful ease and sweetness void of pride" (Canto II, line 15). In securing her character, Pope spares Belinda any part in the "rape" that ensues, though he implies that her fairness is at the root of the baron’s imminent crime. He ventures further into this realm when Ariel finds "his power [to help Belinda] expired," suggesting that Belinda wanted and thus deserved the "rape" of her lock. Such victim-blaming is almost universally associated with society’s treatment of violence against women. Still, Pope’s implications are not overt, and the general image of Belinda remains intact. In a separate effort to mitigate the harm of the "rape," he weighs Belinda’s losses against her gains. This juxtaposition clearly has implications for actual situation, as well. In the poem, Belinda’s stolen lock rises to the heavens as a comet, thus immortalizing her. Clearly, her small loss merits the substantial gain it affords her. The parallel is clear: Pope’s poem serves the true victim in the same way the cosmos serves Belinda. Long after her own death, she will be remembered for her violated lock. Pope closes his poem with this argument, which clearly has some merit, as the poem’s continued notoriety three centuries later suggests.