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On the surface, The Rape of the Lock is a retelling of an episode that caused a feud between two families in the form of an epic. One might believe that in his version, Alexander Pope portrayed the women of the story as shallow, vain little girls, however on a deeper level the women are crucial to the story. Aside from not being as helpless as they appear, each woman possesses a different kind of power that contributes to their character greatly. Rather than being the conceited and shallow figures expected of the time period, the women in The Rape of the Lock posses more power than meets the eye.
First of all, the poems main focus is Belinda. She is presented as an upper class aristocratic woman with no real duties or concerns. She is constantly surrounded by Sylphs who's only purpose is to protect and pamper her. This is one example of her importance, the fact that she requires such protection suggests a certain level of importance to begin with. As she goes about her day, she sleeps in quite late, takes her time getting ready and being pampered, then she sets out to enjoy her afternoon with friends. Not once does she have to ask permission from anyone or answer to any man. For a woman in this time, this is a big deal, women were usually seen as dependent upon their husbands, but here Belinda can do as she pleases. She also gets into a heated argument with the Baron, "See, fierce Belinda on the Baron flies, With more than usual Lightning in her Eyes;" (Canto V, 75-76). Although Belinda may not be triumphant in the end, her power of free will is in stark contrast to most representations of 18th century women.
Another important female character in this story is Thalestris, one of Belinda's friends. She is also portrayed as rather...
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...dence that he believes women can in fact have a power similar or even greater than men.
In the end, a story that appears to poke fun at the carefree lives of upper class women actually gives great appreciation to the subtle powers women hold over men. It could be argued that one of the most important powers of women is that of controlling men with their trivial problems and needs. Perhaps Pope was demonstrating women's skill in controlling men by simply playing the part of the vain shallow debutant. Whatever his intentions were it is clear that Alexander Pope did not in fact find the women of his time to be completely powerless, instead they were the driving forces of the household and of society.
Works Cited
"The Rape of the Lock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 1137-1155. Print.
Pope, Alexander. "The Rape Of The Lock". In The Norton Anthology Of English Literature: The Major Authors . Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 5th Ed. New York: Norton, 1987. 1108-1128
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
To begin, in The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope uses satire to invoke a capricious, melancholy mood to illustrate the absurdity of fighting over the cutting of one's hair. Hidden inside this poem is a crafty criticism of the society that helps create the crisis over the stolen lock. A Society in which appearances ere more important to a person’s sense of identity, and treats the insignificant with utmost importance.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Shakespeare’s Katharina, of The Taming of the Shrew and Beatrice, of Much Ado About Nothing, are very similar characters. Each is plagued with unrequited love, and depressed by their inability to woo the suitor of their choosing. Neither will accept the passive female role expected by society. Yet, both women seem to accept their role as wife by the conclusion. Upon further examination, one will find that Beatrice is a much more complex character. One would have to agree with the critic who said, "Katharina is a character sketched in bold, rapid stokes, with none of Beatrice's sophistication, verbal brilliance, or emotional depth."
“Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men” (Sophocles, 18). The popular literary works, Antigone and A Doll’s House, written by Sophocles and Ibsen, are two famous tragedies that have been performed and read throughout the decades. Although countless audiences have been entertained by these well written plays, few would care to guess that many lessons and several unfortunate truths can be found with a less than tedious inspection of the characters and the reactions they give to their circumstances. The two main characters in these stories, Antigone and Nora, face adversities and problems that are amplified by their society’s views on the rights and abilities of women. The two main male characters in these plays, Creon and Helmer, cause the greater part of the struggle that the female protagonists face. The difficulties that Helmer and Creon create during the plot of these stories are the cause of three major characteristics of what one would consider typical to a headstrong man in a leadership position. The three features of Creon and Helmer that lead to the eventual downfall of Antigone and Nora, are pride, arrogance, and ignorance.
Shakespeare undoubtedly creates a coherent distinction between Beatrice and Hero, the two main female characters, in such a way that allows the audience to irrefutably note their differing dispositions. Hero, “a face without a voice” (Cook 8), is characterized by her passivity and inability to assert herself, whereas Beatrice, whose speech “might seem [like] a serious violation of Messina's conventions of gender” (Cook 7), is characterized by her witty and unconventional independence that ultimately delineates the sure separation between her and women of 16th Century Europe. Almost immediately, one can observe Beatrice's acerbic demeanor towards one of the main male characters, Signior Benedick. As the messenger is informing Beatrice...
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology Of English Literature. 8th. A. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006.
This shows that even if Creon is obstinate, the audiences are inspired by Antigone’s bravery. Though some people support Creon openly, somewhere deep down, they secretly side with Antigone’s bold and daring behavior. Similarly, through Nora, Ibsen tries to illustrate the status of women and how they should be brave and speak for themselves in times of need. Many women are able to relate to these two female characters and I’m certain that they have served as role models for women’s emancipation. I hope that every woman is motivated by these characters to become ‘the empowered woman’ from Sonny Carroll’s poem.
Antigone asks Ismene, her sister, if she recognizes how Zeus fulfills them as they live the curse of Oedipus. Although this idea of fulfillment manifests itself specifically in the tragedy of Ismene's and Antigone's radical behavior, the myth also serves as an archetypical model of a woman's position in society, and its patriarchal elements. The influence of Oedipus' curse over his daughters, whether mythological or directly familial, lingers in the ethos of psycho-sexualized European mores. Culturally, this notion characterizes masculinity as being `large and in charge,' the provider and protector; thus, femininity necessarily involves a certain subservience. Such ethos associates femininity with certain gender roles. The story of Oedipus and his daughters, therefore, highlights the overshadowing efficacy of the male presence and it's effects on the female psyche. For instance, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, each paint a picture of the feminine gender role, which predominantly consists of becoming a proper wife, so as to secure a husband, or mother, so as to produce his heir. Essentially, the occidental woman of this period is confined to a life of marriage. In such a patriarchy, what happens to an Antigone, a vicious rejection of all social conventions? And to an Ismene, a passive surrender to patriarchy's nomos? A woman's relationship to society's oppr...
Pope, Alexander. "The Rape of the Lock". The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams et al. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1993.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.
“The rape of the lock” is a satiric poem which treats a trivial subject, with the sophisticated language and heroic style of the classical epic. Pope addresses a variety of ideas ...
Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a satirical poem that features a theme of gender roles. Throughout the poem, Pope uses his protagonist Belinda, to poke fun at the superficial nature of aristocratic women. He focuses on the ritual of womanhood and approaches it like a trivial matter, and her reaction to the offence is hysterical. Through this portrayal, he reveals that the Baron has a childish quality in his need for revenge for Belinda’s stab at his ego. The speaker’s view does come across as misogynistic, but the woman is trying to stand her ground in a society dominated by men. Taking into consideration that a male wrote the poem, during the 18th century, when woman had a particular place in society, and men often trivialized their concerns. Pope alludes to the idea that most wars are indeed over very trivial matters. The conflicts between men and women are exposed during Pope’s exploration of this “trivial war.” The narrative of Belinda and the Baron in The Rape of the Lock reveals the main underlying theme as the power struggle between the genders.