Pope’s attitude to the character of Belinda in "The
Rape of the Lock"
The Rape of the Lock is the truest and loveliest
satirical picture of the days of Alexander Pope. It is a poem ridiculing
the fashionable world of his time. In this mock-heroic work, Pope satirized
feminine frivolity. Belinda, the principal female character of the poem is
the representative of the women belonging to the upper-class society which has been the target of Pope’s satire.
There are several aspects of the personality of Belinda as
portrayed by Pope in “The Rape of the Lock”. It will be wrong to
regard her purely as a goddess, or as a pretty spoiled child, or as a flirt.
She is a combination of all three, and yet much more than such a combination. We
see her as a coquette, an injured innocent, a sweet charmer, a society belle, a
rival of the sun and a murderer of millions. She has, indeed
a Cleopatra-lick variety.
When Belinda is introduced in the poem, she is said to
have such brightness in her eyes as to surpass the brightness of the sun. But
at the same time, she is represented as being a lazy woman who continues to
sleep till twelve in the day. On waking up she again falls asleep to
be awakened ultimately by the licking tongue of her pet dog, Shock. After
opening her eyes, she reads a love letter which is waiting for her and which
makes her forget the vision that she has seen.
Toilet was the chief concern of these aristocratic
ladies. One of the most celebrated passage in The Rape of the Lock is
the one in which Belinda is described at the dressing-table. We are told
that, before commencing her toilet operations, Belinda offered a praying
to the cosmetic powers. The poet makes fun of her church, the toilet is her
goddess and the cosmetic are her offerings in her prayer. Her God is the pagan
god of beauty and charm. Assisted by her maid, Betty, Belinda improved her
natural charms-
“The fair each moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace
And call forth all the wonder of her face”
Pope has praised Belinda for her beauty and charm. She
is the nymph, the maid, the fair, the virgin, the goddess who is the rival of
the sun’s beams. She is attended upon by a large number of aerial beings for
the protection of her chastity. Her lock is not only sacred but as a symbol of
her chastity, it is called an ‘inestimable prize’. When her hair was cut off
she flew into a rage fierce than mortal indignation.
Time
and again, Ariel warns Belinda of the approaching danger to her, but
she does not care, she is headless. The sylphs try their utmost to make her
aware
of the Baron who is nearing her to cut off the
lock of hair from her head. But she seems to be indifferent. This willing
indifference leads Ariel to believe that she is amorously inclined toward a gallant.
To sum up Pope’s attitude to Belinda is very mixed and
complicated, mocking and yet tender, admiring and yet critical. The paradoxical
nature of the Pope’s attitude is intimately related to the paradox
of Belinda’s situation. In this poem, Belinda is the representative of
the decadent aristocratic society