The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock is Alexander Pope’s mock-epic poem about the cutting and taking of a young woman’s lock of hair. Belinda’s preparations, a card game, and the disputed lock receive the elaborate comparisons and supernatural machinery associated with heroic epic. This disproportion between subject and treatment makes a social quarrel both comic and revealing. The poem gives close attention to manners, objects, reputation, and the small gestures through which status is displayed. Its controlled couplets allow admiration for polished social life to coexist with criticism of the vanity and rivalry that disturb it.