Contrast Between Satire in The Rape Of The Lock and A...
Contrast Between Satire in The Rape Of The Lock and A Modest Proposal
Although Alexander Pope s, The Rape Of The Lock and Jonathan Swift s A
Modest Proposal are both witty satires, they differ on their style, intention, and
mood. To begin, in The Rape Of The Lock, Alexander Pope uses Horation satire to
invoke a light, whimsical, melancholy mood to illustrate the absurdity of fighting
over the cutting of one s hair. In fact, Horation satire is defined by K. Lukes as a
device that is: urban, smiling, witty and seeks to correct the human foibles. and is
further reiterated in The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Literary terms as: Horation
satire, often contrasted with the bitterness of Juvenalian satire, is a more... Show more
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Of course, such an event is viewed by Pope as foolishness: an idiotic event which
has no bearing on the movement, creation, or destruction of the universe. In fact, a
calamity in which the worst consequence is that Belinda has a sister lock that now
sits uncouth, alone (English, 1125). Thus, the intent of Pope is not to be invective
or bitter but rather to give insight to the comical nature of the event, to bring to
light that the universe does not move to the cutting of one s hair and that to have
such a mistaken belief is foolhardy. This mockery and satire of aristocratic society
is revealed by Pope throughout the poem: Belinda is depicted as a heroine goddess
whose beauty causes The tortoise here and elephant unite, / Transformed to combs,
the speckled and the white (English,1113). Furthermore,her trinkets are depicted as
being spoils and ornaments of war, as one would use to prepare for battle: files of
pins extend their shining rows, / Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, [and] billet doux
(English,1113). This is comical in that such commoneveryday items suddenly have
grave importance to the preservation and transformation of Belinda s beauty. They
bring her from the mundane to God like. Yet, the irony exists that these are just
everyday items. The tortoises and elephants did not give