“Pope presents the absurdities of the fashionable world with
Pope’s ability to create a humorous indictment of the vanities and the idleness of the eighteenth century high society comes from his attachment yet detachment from this ‘world’. As a man who was;-politically: isolated by his Catholicism, socially: validated by an upper class family and personally: marginalized by physical deformity-he observed all dimensions of the society; rejection, acceptance and ridicule. On this elevated plane of superiority he took advantage of his remoteness and made poetry the “business of his life”. Through publication of Pope’s early poems gained him a place within prominent literary circles with this came a substantial fame. With his privileged family background and recognition for his poetical achievements within London Pope could not-and does not-fully condemn the society of which he was involved. He, as Mack states, treats it with ‘affection’. Pope completely recognises the superficial nature; yet, this is the asset which granted him his status. Pope fondness is apparent through his satirical methods-“To last awhile the pleasures of a court; in various talk the’ instructive hours they past, who gave the ball, or paid the visit last”-
Pope’s poetic talent is enraptured through his ability to successfully involve two such conflicting opinions of acceptance and condemnation, yet I cant help but feel disappointed through Pope’s conclusive acceptance of this ‘sad disarray’-like the parent who cannot cease their child crying; gives up and permits the chew on a chocolate bar-Pope grants Belinda with the fame that she had always desired, surely this is saying that if one wishes to both act and respond in a ridiculously elevated way then your true wish can be granted, it seems nothing has much changed between the eighteenth and twenty first centuries; Belinda’s name is still on the lips of many, an absurdity: permitting the disarray of ethical judgement?! These ‘fashionable absurdities’ to which Mack refers are shown through their “joy in glided chariots”, where Pope’s satirical style highlights an obsession with pomp and consequential superficiality. Their “Love of Ombre”, suggests their frivolity. It was said that Pope was ‘ahead of his time’ and the manner in which he almost pities the existence of the women, whom, above all wish their life achievement to marry to their advantage. Pope views the absurdity of this aim and, in turn, the shallowness of the world. Yet I feel Pope recognises that the women are not conducting on the basis of abstract moral principles but are governed by the elaborate social mechanisms, such an elevated thinking would have been a result of his part exclusion from this world. He is further allowed critique of the situation through his supernatural machinery-Sylphs-with his satirical light he exonerates individual women from too severe judgement. Nevertheless, Pope’s eventual acceptance that his physical affliction placed him permanently outside the social world. This allowed him to
Some topics in this essay:
Rape Lock,
Gods Goddesses,
Nevertheless Pope’s,
London Pope,
,
Price Mack,
Martin Price,
Pride” Pope’s,
century society,
world allowed,
it’s failure,
eighteenth century society,
sword knots,
‘fashionable absurdities’,
mock epic,
true epic,
eighteenth century,
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Approximate Word count = 1233
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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