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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper which looks in detail at the speech by Clarissa in Canto V of Rape of the Lock, with specific reference to ideas of morality, vanity and sexual relationships. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLclarissa.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
reason in contrast to the hyperbole and hysteria which has characterized the previous events in the poem. Popes satire is primarily based on the use of the epic form to
describe an incident which is trivial and insignificant, although it assumes literally epic proportions in the life of the central figure, Belinda. In the preceding cantos, Pope has set the
scene for the pivotal action of the narrative - the actual rape of the lock of hair - by showing that Belinda, like all fashionable society ladies, is unable to
distinguish between the meaningful and the superficial. On her dressing-table, we find bibles mixed in with love-letters and cosmetics; in Canto II Pope describes how staining her brocade is seen
as having the same importance as staining her honour, and losing her necklace is as great a cause for concern as losing her heart. Pope creates an entire pantheon of
small deities, the Sylphs, whose role is to guard and protect Belindas artificially-constructed beauty, and her coquettish, empty-headed interactions with society and couches his descriptions of these actions in the
kind of imagery normally found in the heroic epic. Consequently, when the Baron sneaks behind Belinda with his scissors and clips a
lock of her hair, the background to the event imbues it with a completely disproportionate quality of the melodramatic. Clarissa, addressing Belinda shortly afterwards, seems to be attempting to re-introduce
a sense of proportion, to make Belinda realize that in the greater scheme of things, the loss of her lock of hair is not as devastating a violation as she
thinks. Clarissa begins by asking why society Beauties are so universally adored, and why they deck themselves with "all that land and sea
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