"The Rape of the Lock"

Paper Summary:

In Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock", it is the exaggeration of the cutting of a lock of hair from a woman, Arabella Fermor, that incites an argument between two families and results in a petty social quarrel. This paper examines the exaggerated style of the poem for its comical effect, but also as a satire to throw light on 18th century society's obsession with trivial events.

From the Paper:

"Understating this aspect forms the basis for the heroic significance of the poem and also for understanding the impact of the incongruities and comparisons that Pope makes in the poem. In the poem the order of social life is upset "but here it is on a trivial and comic scale. The Rape of the Lock places the cutting of a lock of hair against the great heroic and titanic efforts of heroes."

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