Theobald published his edition of Shakespeare restored in which he termed Pope as an inefficient critic. Pope retaliated by making Theobald the hero in his poem, Dunciad, which is an indisputable example of violent satire. The poem clearly alienates Pope's satire from that of other writers. .
The Rape of Lock is perhaps one of Pope's greatest works in poetry. In this poem he demonstrates aspects of the restoration period literary work. One of the ways through which Pope achieves satire is through ironic juxtaposition. In the poem, he describes ordinary human beings in heroic terms. For instance, the comparison of Belinda's toilet ritual to sacred rites portrays the excessive vanity of human beings instead of elevating them to the level of goddesses (Szwec, 2011). The portraiture also exposes the mediocrity of the human beings of the time for putting too much value on things that did not matter. Under the ideals of rationality, knowledge and order the society had adopted a veneer of traditions and vanities that disguised their true actions (Naeem, 2010). Through his poetry, Pope demonstrates both realism and satire which are two of the main literary trends in the restoration period. .
John Locke.
John Locke referred to as the father of liberalism, was a physician, political theorists and an English philosopher who lived during the restoration period. The works of Locke were more focused on realism rather than satire. Being a philosopher, he helped shift the political view and simplify philosophy so that many people could understand it (Kerns, 2013). In his essay on human understanding, he discussed significant aspects of how human beings express themselves through language, logic and religion. In his book, Locke attacks philosophies by Plato and Descartes on the existence of innate principles. According to his theory, human beings cannot possess knowledge that they are not aware of. He further explained those human beings are either taught the things they know or think them through.