Imagery In Alexander Pope's Eloisa To Abelard

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Nature is often used as imagery in Alexander Pope's, Eloisa to Abelard, as well as descriptions of heaven, holiness, God, being wedded to God, Jesus' sacrifice, the sacred, solitary confinement, crime and offense, desire for submission to God and often tears and weeping. As the poem is about Eloisa and Abelard being in love, married and having a child, then being separated and Abelard castrated and Eloisa forced into a convent, descriptions of nature are useful imagery, because it is used to explain Eloisa's conflict between what is natural for her to feel. More specifically, Eloisa is torn between being a devout Christian and her love for Abelard that has been condemned. She struggles between following God and loving Abelard because she feels it is natural to do both, yet she is being forced to choose, however, she cannot. Although, if she must decide, she chooses Abelard, against what she has been taught she must do, which is to serve God piously. Eloisa is forced into a kind of purgatory, caught between loving mortal and carnal desires, and higher divine love.
Nature is used in another way as well, Eloisa describes nature as no longer being of comfort to her. She is so torn and feels very melancholy, as Pope writes: "Black melancholy …show more content…

She felt that her love for him could be no sin because whom she loved seemed angelic and celestial. However, she goes onto say that she came to her senses: "Back through the pleasing sense I ran, / Nor wished an angel whom I loved a man" (Pope 69-70). Although she came to her senses and realized Abelard was a mortal man, she accepted him as such and loved him despite his imperfection as a human being. This suggests that Eloisa cannot understand why God, or Christian's and Christian doctrine cannot support her as a moral being, one who simply loves God as well as a

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