The Moral Of "The Rape Of The Lock"

By Saprovo goswami, Student

The essay deals with the moral in The Rape Of The Lock. The essay also shows how the poem mirrors the disarray of values in Pope's society.

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The Moral Of " The Rape Of The Lock"


Introduction:--------------

The Rape Of The Lock is a page torn from petty, pleasure-seeking life of a fashionable beauty. Some of Pope's contemporaries, like John Dennis found The Rape Of The Lock immoral and distasteful. According to them it lacked true wit and judgement. Dennis's remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape Of The Lock(1728) severely criticizes the poem for deviating from the rules of the Epics. His charge was that Pope dealt in trifles, without morals in his mock Epic. However, most critics feel that Clarissa's speech at the opening of Canto V sets the moral tone. As Warburton put it, Pope introduced Clarissa's speech " to open more clearly more clearly the moral of the poem". Pope knew that a moral was thought as an important aspect in an Epic. From the very beginning, The Rape Of The Lock has moral motive, though it remains hidden for some time. His aim was to teach the lesson of "Concord" and good humour between two quarrelling families. But Satire in Pope is so finely chiseled by wit, that it is rarefied into pure humour. Thus, in such a scheme of poetry there is not much scope for serious moral lessons. Even the moral lesson that is there in Clarissa's speech is one more facet of Pope's consummate wit and humour. Even so what can we call these lines of Clarissa but setting a strict moral standard for the 18th century ladies:
"But since, alas frail beauty must decay,
Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to grey;
Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,
And she who scorns a man, must die a maid:
What then remains but our power to use,
And keep good humour still, whatever we lose?" (LI. 669-674)
It would not be wrong then to say that Pope did have a moral preoccupation, even if it is covered in a veneer of wit and humour.


Satirical tone implies moral tone:---------------------

A true satire is purposive and instructive. In fact, the real end of satire is 'the amendment of vices by correction'. The Rape Of The Lock is a perfect specimen of satiric literature, and its moral tone is quite patent. Here comes the element of the criticism of life in Pope's mock-Heroic satire. The Rape Of The Lock contains a good deal of the poet's critical evaluation of the English social life of the eighteenth century. Pope's subject of study here is the showy, artificial and frivolous life of the aristrocratic, fashionable society of his own time. He ruthlessly exposes here the gay and thoughtless belles and the idle and vain beaux of the time. He misses no chance to hit hard at all that characterizes that shallow, artificial age --- its affectation and vanity, its coquetry and frivolity, its gay foppery and spineless morality.
A particular incident in the battle scene of canto V shows Pope's mastery in reducing to size the pompous men and women of his age. It is the scene where Belinda vanquishes the Baron with a pinch of snuff:
"Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew,
A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw" (LI. 725-726)

"Sudden, with starting tears each eye O'erflows ,
And the high dome re-echoes to his nose". (LI. 729-730)

What a sorry figure the Baron cuts! And what scandalous behavior on the part of an aristocratic lady! In one stroke Pope has demolished the pompousness of his vainglorious characters.

Pope's moralizing tone on Belinda's toilet and the Baron :
Pope's pointed and critical survey of his age is amply evident in his descriptions of the toilet of Belinda, the strange altar raised by the proud Baron and the 'nice conduct' of Sir Plume and his 'clouded cane'. Belinda's long and laborious toilet clearly demonstrates her vanity and pride which are certainly unfortunate sins. Pope brings out forcefully the obdurate female pride as well as vanity of his age through his portrait of Belinda and her conduct.
"And now, unveiled the toilet stands displayed,
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
First, robbed in white, the nymph intent adores,
With head uncovered the cosmetic poweres.
A heavenly image in the glass appears,
To that she blends, to that her eyes she rears
The inferior priestess, at her altar's side
Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride,(LI. 121-128)

And how ridiculous the Baron looks when he,
"But chiefly Love-to-Love an altar built,
Of twelve vast French romances neatly gilt.
They lay three garters, half apair og gloves;
And all the trophies to his former loves;
With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the fire.
Then prostate falls and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize" (LI.185-192)

The Baron's too is, indicative of the moral depravity of the age. Sir Plume stands for the shallow lazy punctilio of the age that has no strength of character or force of morality.

Moralising tone of Clarissa :---------------------

But Pope's criticism is not negative. He strikes mightily with his sweeping banter. But he instructs and advices, too, for the cure of the moral degeneration of his age. The poem has a moral purpose, and this constitutes the constructive aspect of Pope's criticism of life. The long speech, given to Clarissa, at the beginning of Canto V chiefly contains his unambiguous instruction to his age, particularly to the ladies of fashion and rank of his time. Through his lecture, Pope tries to enlighten and rectify the frivolous society of his time.He gives his wise counsel here to the gay and silly pursuers of pleasures and vanities, about the transience of all fashions and show, and the triumph of the quality of character. After all, beauty, with all its charms and allurements, must pass away ere long, and can gain nothing, in the ultimate analysis without the virtue of heart. All the female charms of a lovely belle would sem meaningless, unless a good and loving husband brings out the best in her:
"And trust me dear: good humour can prevail,
When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll,
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul." (LI. 675-678)
It's this 'merit' - the 'good humour' which wins the soul; that Pope wants his ladies to imbibe and not merely the 'charms' that only 'strike the sight'. And all through this mock-epic poem Pope sets himself to poke fun at this terrible and excessive obsession with one's beauty. The women spend most of their time with their 'toilet' and in reading letters and the men with writing these obnoxious love letters replete with conventional Romantic phraseology.
But Clarissa is not at all prude as the lines quoted above might convey. Hers is the one same voice advocating a sense of good humour so as to preserve all the achievement of the beauty and charm of her sex. Even in her view beautification is not undesirable.
"Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,
The wise man's passion and the vain man's toast?
Why decked with all that land and sea afford,
Why angels called, and angel like adored?" (LI.653-656)

To her even the amorous supplication of the fashionable youth is highly desirable:
"Why round our coaches crowd the white-glove beaux?
Why bows the side box from its inmost rows?" (LI. 657-658)

But she cannot resist from giving a warning and stating the disadvantages of shunning morality:
"How vain are all these glories, all our pains,
Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains:
That men may say, when we the front-box grace:
Behold the first in virtue as in face" (LI.659-662)

In fact, Pope cannot resist revealing Clarissa's hypocricy either. Even Clarissa forgets her sense of morality and perhaps out of envy towards Belinda or simply out of goodwill towards the baron aids him in his heinous crime of 'raping' the lock of Belinda.
"But when to mischief mortals bend their will,
How soon they find fit instruments of ill!" (LI. 415-416)

Even Clarissa is tempted towards evil and she aids the Baron in his evil designs:
"Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting graces,
A two-edged weapon from her shinning case:
So ladies in Romance assist their knight,
Present the spear, and arm him for the fight." (LI.417-420)

Pope's attitude is impersonal in "The Rape Of The Lock"---------------

The Rape Of The Lock is a triumph of English satire, although it is not a personal satire, like The Dunciad or Mac Flecknoe. Its moral purpose is directed not to any individual in particular, but to society, specially the polished society of Pope's age. In his Dedicatory Epistle to Miss fermor, Pope writes of the purpose of his poem: "It was intended only to divert a few young ladies who have good sense and good humour enough to laugh not only at their sex's little unguarded follies, but at their own". The poem, indeed, is a refined, playful satire on the universal follies andf foibles of the fasionable people of all ages, particularly those of England of the 18th century. The superiority of the poem as a satire is patent, in no less measure, in the moral aspect.

Conclusion:-----

Actually Popes satire is a double-edged sword; it cuts both way. At the very moment when he is using Clarissa, a sort of mouthpiece of his, to lay down the moral tenets for his age(itself of a flimsy nature as is the subject of his mock-epic) he is making a fun of her and revealing her weakness and hypocricy. He leaves none unscathed. So strong is the vanity and the deep-rooted rottenness of their nature that their shortcomings stick with them even after their death:
"Think not, when women's transient breath is fled,
That all her vanities at ince are dead:
Succeeding vanities she still regards,
And though she plays no more O'erlooks the cards,
Her joy in gilded Chariots, when alive,
And love of ombre after death survive.
For when the fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire." (LI. 51-58)

Even the men turn to gnomes after death, with all their vices. But of course Pope does all this 'beating' in good humour and tries to laugh off the vices in men.
In the opinion of Matthew Arnold, poetry is at bottom a criticism of life. This criticism, however, should not be merely critical. It must be constructive and instructive too. It must imply a contrast between what life is and what life ought to have been. Judged from this criterion The Rape Of The Lock is a satisfactory work by Pope. It is not merely a scathing satire but a criticism of life in the true sense of the term and it is a style which is witty and humorous.

BY,
Saprovo Goswami

Further Reference:------------
1. John Dennis-The age Of Pope
2. Modern Critical Interpretation Series-The Rape Of The Lock
3. Ian Jack--- Augustan Satire
4. Geoffrey Tillotson --- On the poetry of Alexander Pope