Alexander Pope Vs Thomas Paine

Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” is a mock epic poem that scoffs at emotion and frivolous things that society values and instead values reason and sensibility. “The Rape of the Lock” pokes fun at people who are focused on trivial matters. Similarly, Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” reiterates Pope’s thinking about reason and rationality; Paine often implies that any reader with logical and common sense thinking will agree with him. While these authors can be traced to different literary periods, Pope’s being the Augustan/Neo-Classical Period and Paine’s being the Age of Reason, both authors reflect similar ideas and thoughts about societal needs and values. The Augustan/Neo-Classical period values reason above other things, and the authors of this period often place social and societal needs above individual needs. The Age of Reason emphasizes sensibility and sincere emotion, and the works typically use plain language to engage people of all classes. While both Pope and Paine use reason as a means to refute counter arguments to reason, Pope sees reason as a learned trait whereas Paine believes that reason is something that all people have regardless of their class or upbringing.

Pope’s definition of reason can be defined as placing societal interests above individual interests because society as a whole is more important than one’s individual needs.

Pope’s diction, use of satire, and general wit allows him to create a poem that mocks the upper-class without explicitly chastising them. Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” is a satirical work that exposes the shallowness that the upper and middle class British greatly cherished. The upper and middle class often owned luxurious imported goods and placed emphasis on what Pope would determine as “trivial” matters. In “The Rape of the Lock,” Pope suggests that the British society has come to cherish beauty as sacred and remarkably

important:
A heavenly image in the glass appears;
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears.
The inferior priestess, at her altar’s side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride. (The Rape of the Lock, 125-128)
In this particular passage, Belinda is preparing to dress for the day with her servant at her side. Pope’s word choice in this passage is interesting because he associates Belinda with the status of the gods and goddesses, which illustrates the upper-class as a people that sees themselves as more important than the lower-class. Pope continues the passage mentioning that her servant is at her side, and trembles with the honor that she has been given to assist Belinda in preparing for the day. This entire passage is set up to allow readers to understand how the upper and middle-class people were treated and how they were expected to be treated. Through this particular passage, Pope expresses his reasoning that the upper-class placed a significant importance on their own needs rather than societal needs; in this sense, reason is therefore an inherited trait based on class, rather than reason as accessible to all people in society.
Through the form of the mock epic and satirical poem, Pope implicitly implies the shallowness of the upper and middle class in England in “The Rape of the Lock.” In the first canto, Pope describes the items on Belinda’s dresser: “Here files of pins extend their shining rows, / Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux” (The Rape of the Lock, 137-138). The casualness with which Pope lists the items on Belinda’s dresser might first cause readers to overlook the importance of the mention of the Bible. At a second glance, readers may assume that because Belinda has her Bible on her desk with her makeup items, that she reads the Bible while getting prepared for the day. The casualness that Pope uses, however, provides readers with the sense that Belinda only sets her Bible on her dresser for looks, along with her “billet-doux,” which is a love letter (OED). Belinda may have set out her love letters on her dresser as well as her Bible, to flaunt her popularity among men.
As well as the casualness that Pope mentions the Bibles on Belinda’s dresser, it is also important to notice the plurality of the word as well. If Pope had used Bible in a singular sense, readers may infer that Belinda is faithful to one religion and that religion is a prominent subject in Belinda’s life. The plurality of the word Bibles, however, may lead readers to assume that Belinda has multiple Bibles for possibly two reasons. The first reason for having multiple Bibles may be that Belinda is interested in studying multiple religions to broaden her knowledge of other religions. The second reason may be that Belinda is only interested in displaying multiple Bibles to appear to anyone who walks in her room that she is very interested in religion. These two lines are what Pope would define as a threat to reason because Belinda views the importance of her self-image and reputation to be more important than having actually read the Bible and having knowledge of it. Because Pope valued reason in the sense of societal needs, a threat to reason would be any person or group of people that rejected this idea, and instead placed their individual needs above societal needs. The use of “The Rape of the Lock” as a mock epic allows Pope to convey rationality as placing societal needs above individual needs, and once again claims that reason is an inherited trait that may only be learned through a high societal and class standing.
Whereas Pope implies that reason is an inherited trait, Paine believes that reason and sensibility are traits that all people have, regardless of their societal standing. Paine greatly values reason and rationality and his writing conveys that all rational thinkers agree with him; he explains his ideas and thoughts simply to imply that it is very basic so that he should not even have to explain his arguments. Paine was also a very political writer and played an important role in the Revolutionary War. Paine offered a new method of thinking about politics and often argues for newness and novelty in a new country. Paine used propaganda to rally supporters for the Revolutionary War; he argued that the new nation should be founded with reason at the core of the country. While outlining his opinions on his thoughts regarding the Revolutionary War, Paine states: “I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected with Great Britain” (Common Sense, p. 962). Paine is very confident that his opinion should be regarded as fact because he states that there is not one single reason, not one, for America to remain connected to Great Britain. Paine even seems to imply that if any person does think of one simple reason to remain tied to Great Britain, they are wrong and should be regarded as ignorant. Here, Paine believes that reason is available to all people, and that any ignorance or lack of reason only occurs from those who disagree with his logical thinking.
Paine is very explicit about his definition of reason and rationality as “I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense” (Common Sense, p. 959). He often writes in a simple language in order for people of all classes to understand his works and so that all logical thinking done by the people will agree with him. Therefore, Paine would view any opinion that differs with his opinion as ignorant and wrong claiming that “not a single advantage is derived,” not even one, can be found in a relationship between American and Great Britain (Common Sense, p. 962). Paine’s self-confidence in “Common Sense,” allows himself to assert his opinions regarding reason and rationality with a certainty authority and influence over the soon-to-be American people; Paine’s confident opinions likely swayed many American’s opinions regarding the idea to depart from Great Britain. Paine’s own reason and rationality allows him to write in a way that is accessible to all people, regardless of their social status.
However, on some level, Paine was aware that not all who would read his works or hear about them, would agree with him or even understand him. Paine’s “Common Sense” suggests that arguments regarding his works would prevent reason from existing in society; Paine believes that reason is available to all people, and any unreason would be arguments about his works rather than ignorance. Paine also claimed that: “’Tis repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this Continent can long remain subject to any external power” (Common Sense, p. 963). Paine believes that any unreason is directly related to ignorance regarding the desired separation from Great Britain.
Despite the two authors being from two different literary eras, both use reason as a measure to rebut any counterarguments. Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” establishes his definition of reason as placing societal needs over the individual needs of people that make up society. Any threat or differing opinion of reason would be that individual needs are most important, which is why Pope mocks the shallowness of the upper and middle-class British. While Paine’s “Common Sense” is from a different literary period than Pope, Paine also highly values reason and rationality. Paine views reason as any thought or idea that agrees with his way of thinking about society and the functions of the world; any differing view or opinion that contrasts with Paine’s definition of reason would be deemed as ignorant and wrong. Although Pope and Paine are from two different literary periods and time periods in general, both have similar ideas and beliefs about the role of reason and rationality in society; Pope claims that reason is an inherited trait, while Paine believes that reason is accessible and available to people of all classes.