This blog is a response to a task assigned by Vaidehi Ma'am (Department of English, MKBU). In this blog, four questions are discussed related to the poem "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope. For more details about the blog Click Here.
Q-1: According to you, who is the protagonist of the poem, Clarissa or Belinda? Why? Give your answer with logical reasons.
Ans.
According to me, the protagonist of the poem 'The Rape of the Lock' is Clarissa. This work is written as a satire of a higher-class society. When we go through the work, we find that Belinda is just a showcase of the higher-class society; she does not have the qualities that are needed as a protagonist, but to make the point and to describe the high-class life, Pope portrayed her as a tool. But in a real sense, Clarissa is the protagonist. When we see the speech given by Clarissa, we find that she is speaking what Pope tries to convey through this work, and that really makes sense and gives us a clear view of the real beauty and misconceptions about beauty.
Q-2: What is beauty? Write your views about it.
Ans.
Beauty is perception. Beauty is everywhere, and everything is beauty; it depends on how we see it. Each and everyone has their own concept of beauty, but does beauty have any relation to the word itself, 'beauty'? For me, this word is kind of a mystery; maybe we have misconceptions about beauty.
For example, we all find beauty in nature, right? We all like trees, birds, mountains, rivers, and so on. We find beauty in butterflies, don't we? But when we see cockroaches, we say it's disgusting. When we see a beautiful dog that is healthy,well fed, and full of fur, we find it beautiful, but when we see a street dog with no beautiful fur and who is sick, we say it's not beautiful. See our perspective on how it is based on the object. When we put something in criteria that this is beauty and this is not, we lose sight of the real beauty. I say real beauty is inside; when we see something, we see something with beauty; when we speak, we speak it with beauty; then we change the concept and our conditioning with the word itself. Now we are the beauty, and the world is also full of beauty.
Q-3: Find out about a research paper on "The Rape of the Lock". Give the details of the paper and write down in brief what it says about the poem by Alexander Pope.
Ans.
According to the paper, Pope has portrayed the high-class society of his contemporary time. Through mocking the class system, Pope tries to convey the trivial idea of how much emphasis is placed on just a lock of the hair. Belinda, the Baron, and the society they represent are obsessed with material things, such as the lock and self-worship. Pope suggests that attention to spiritual matters, the strengthening of character, and the development or value of inner beauty are matters to which society does not properly attend. This attention to the material and tendency to give in to worldly temptations indicate a frivolous aristocracy that lacks virtue and morality.
The poem satirises the trivialities of fashionable life as a commentary on the distorted moral values of polite society and as a criticism of human pride. The world of The Rape of the Lock is an artificial one, a trivial realm of calm and decorum sustained by the strict observance of rigorous rules, a microcosm in which very real and very powerful human emotions and passions have been ignored.
Q-4: Write your views about the significance of hair. Is it symbolic?
Ans.
Since ancient times, hair has had its own significance. In society, women have much more significance than keeping long hair. It symbolises women's pride and beauty. In the poem 'The Rape of the Lock', the lock of hair is much more symbolised with pride. In the poem, hair is more emphasised, which becomes a really huge matter. The cutting of the lock is compared with the 'rape' word, which has much more importance in society. When Belinda's lock of hair is cut, she behaves like she lost everything in her life, making it a really huge matter, like she behaves as if she lost her virginity. So, in today's society, much more importance is placed on hair.
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