One of the best examples of a Mock Epic is Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. Pope uses highly refined verses, pungent satirical heroic couplets, and intelligence to satirize not only the irrepressible intricacy and solemnity of subject matters found within epic poems, but the commotion that results when a young lord cuts a small lock of hair from the head of an young beauty.

In The Rape of the Lock, Pope exhausts much energy preparing the audience for a ‘battle’ (card game) that will shortly take place, that of English intrigue at Hampton Court. Pope treats the subject with gravity, portraying the story as a true epic. Pope's intent was perhaps to weaken, with pl

In the Rape of the Lock Pope reveals the effects beauty has on other people. It seems that Pope's view on female absurdity becomes especially evident in the ensuing excerpt because he parallels female beauty with deception and dissuasion from ideals, such as religion. He demonstrates how Belinda’s beauty leads, not only herself, but others to abandon their religious ideals; on her seductive dress she wears a jeweled cross "Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore." Their "conversions" would not be due to their recognition of the benevolent Holy Cross, but through their devotion to her corporal charms. In fact, the sight of her face makes one forget that she might even be a part of the flawed human race: "If to share some female errors fall,/ Look to her face, and you'd forget ‘em all"(). Pope also reveals the consequences beauty has upon society. For example, when the Lock was cut from Belinda’s hair, in her shrieking, she said: "O, hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize/ Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!” Belinda has crudely told the truth; she would have favored an actual sexual violation, rather than the nonsexual theft, which exposes her to public scandal. This expresses the importance of beauty- it helps classify people. Pope clearly and cleverly portrayed the effects of beauty upon various characters, he attempted to persuade his readers that beauty holds to much sway and its importance is overemphasized. The second theme in Pope's mock epic is seen through a parody of the structure and language of the classical narratives that had served since the Middle Ages as the models for literature at its grandest. As Russo, John P., author of Alexander Pope: Tradition and Identity (1972), points out Pope begins with an epic statement that echoes the first line of The Aeneid of Virgil: Arma virorumque cano, "Of arms and the man I sing O Heavenly Muse!" "What dire offense from am'rous causes springs,/ What mighty contests rise from trivial things,/ I sing."( He establishes immediately the fact that the battlefields in this epic will be in the war between the nymphs and swains: "Say what strange motive, goddess! could compel/ A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle!/ Oh, say, what stranger cause, yet unexplored/ Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?" Pope transforms the real-life Arabella into Belinda, a par

Some topics in this essay:
Rape Lock, Holy Cross, Lock Pope, Gods Goddesses, IV Pope's, Court Pope, , Heavenly Muse, Canto IV, Shakespeare's Tempest, female vanity, rape lock, mock epic, epic poems, fun epic, effects beauty, lock pope, rape lock pope, meddling gods goddesses, pope reveals, canto iv, card game,