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Homework Help: English: Books, Novels & Plays: The Rape of the Lock
by Christopher Davis
The Case for Paradox:
A Formalist Reading of Pope's Early Lines
The case for Pope's paradoxical writing of 'The Rape of the Lock' can be made in the four opening lines of the second stanza of the poem in question. The poem is about a belle named Belinda who becomes the victim of an impromptu hair cut by a Lord of the time who could not stand to be without her. At least on the surface that is what it seems to be about. A close reading of the four opening lines in the second stanza lends the poem's story a new meaning all together and, keeping in mind the language of this poet being well based in paradox, a more fitting one. The poem is in fact about a belle who is incredibly beautiful, who uses her beauty for the dual purposes of gratifying herself and controlling those around her and in so doing becomes just as faulted as a common harlot. The Lord who ends up raping her thick locks of hair from her head becomes less a villain and more of a victim, or even a savior of all who would otherwise fall for her charms and become slaves to her undeniable beauty. Not only does he liberate her from the burden of playing the coquette, but he also enables her name to writ large among the stars for all time, far out living whatever temporary glory her beauty may win her while she still breathes.
The second stanza begins 'say what strange motive, Goddess! Could compel.' The words strange motive already begins to cast the name that may follow in a decidedly negative light. The author seems to want to indicate that whatever compels the following action must not be in any way right or just, but instead strange and corrupt like a very base, near animalistic type of motivation. Who ever the line refers to must be someone who does bow to any type of standard of behavior or civility, or at least must be someone interested in pleasing only them self. The author implores the 'strange motive' be explained because it is that difficult to understand how anything so weird and wrong could compel any normal person to do anything like what may be, and is, described in the coming lines as an awful thing.
The poem continues: 'a well bred Lord to assault a gentle Belle.' The author's questioning of the strange motive is reasoned out by the fact that whatever the Lord's motive, a delicate, beautiful woman, a Belle, suffered an assault because of it. This is unheard of for a woman of such standing and beauty to be assaulted by someone of equally high standing and perhaps equal charm. Perhaps a common woman might suffer, but certainly no Belle. The forecasting of the Lord's nature in the previous line through the phrase 'strange motive,' and the authors entreaty to understand how something so absurd could come to pass, allows the reader to believe the Lord to be inherently at fault. Clearly he is at fault with his weird motivations that the Gods may only be able to explain and was somehow compelled to attack a gentle Belle who certainly would never solicit anything so horrible and drastic as physical assault. The close reading thus far has only revealed what any other more than cursory reading would reveal: The Lord is the villain and the Belle is the victim. The next lines are what, when closely read, hint at there being more to the poem than its face or historical value. The next lines hint at the deeper paradox or at least hint at the true depth of the poems, somewhat convoluted, story.
In the third and fourth lines of the second stanza, Alexander Pope writes, 'What stranger cause, yet unexplored / could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord.' These two lines together are the first clue that there is much more at work than a villainous Lord out to assault, abuse, and generally mistreat a Belle. The Lord is not just any Lord, but a well-bred man of nobility and clear sexual eligibility. Why then should a Belle reject him? The author is also astounded, wondering what cause even more strange than the Lord's absurd motivations could compel a Belle to flat out reject the advances of someone who was likely bred from birth to be worthy of her attentions. When the author says the strange cause is 'yet unexplored' it adds a sense of mysteriousness to the strangeness of the cause, as though what follows will so defy the laws of nature as to never have happened before in recorded history. Not only is the cause outlandish, but it is also something that has yet to be uncovered until now. The sense that whatever is about to follow will explore just how strange the cause can be adds credence to the idea that 'The Rape of the Lock' is not as straight forward as it seems to be. Pope wrote this poem as a paradox and once the 'unexplored, strange, cause' of the Belle's rejection that leads to the Lord's compulsion to assault her is revealed, the paradox will be made quite clear.
The Belle may not be as gentle as she appears and the Baron not as maleficent as he was originally painted to be. The paradox unravels further when it is reveal her soft bosoms contain a 'mighty rage,' as only a Belle could contain. Although she is seemingly innocent and beautiful she apparently has some anger management problems or at least a darker side that has yet to be loosed and may be itching to do so. At the same time the Barons position is rebuffed as he is referred to as a 'little M[an]' engaging in tasks too bold for someone of his internal stature. Though he seems, on the surface, to be the driving force in the strange interaction between himself and Belinda, he may actually turn out to be someone who is simply in over his head in interacting with a rage filled Belle in the first place. Little more is said of the Baron, but so much more is said for Belinda. The poem goes on to speak of just how unspeakably beautiful she is, so much so that she must worship her own image over all others because she simply cannot see anyone or anything beyond herself. The Baron is not the one responsible for the trouble that later ensues, his character is already becoming marginalized in a big way.
The first four opening lines, when read closely, hint at Pope's cleverness in his poem 'The Rape of the Lock.' The Lord is not who he seems to be and neither is the Belle. Though his motives may only make sense to the Goddesses themselves they are still not as strange as the unexplored causes of the Belle's rejection of his advances. The Lord is not simply a villain he is a well-bred gentleman; Belinda is not an innocent Belle, she is a woman with motives as complicated and difficult to fathom as any man. Both of the characters in the poem lend themselves to paradoxical interpretation and a formalist reading of the opening lines of the second stanza reinforce the idea that Pope intended it to be so, even the paradox becomes later reversed by Popes artful wrting.
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