Mocking the fashionable world

One of the aspects I like about The Rape of the Lock is the way Pope mocks high society and fashionable world by, apparently, describing its grandeur and contrasting small and great things. As we all know, The Rape of the Lock is considered as one of the best mock epic poems in English literature. The characters are seen as the heroes, surrounded by their subjects and weapons, and we could read the poem as a war between Belinda and the Lord.  

Normally, a heroic poem deals with important subjects, but the subject in The Rape of the Lock -the robbery of a lock of hair- does not seem important at all and is apparently ridiculous. The form is heroic, but the subject is not. Pope deals with this “ridiculous” theme as a very significant matter and uses high style of language to tell us about the incident. The relation between the insignificant event and the high style of the language can be seen as a comparison on how people give importance to the appearances rather than to real virtue.

As I said before, Pope mocks high society by describing its grandeur. However, by doing this, he also makes us aware of the beauties and charms of this world.

I would like to quote a couplet I like and I think it sums up what I am writing here:

“Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,

Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide”