Essay: Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

Literature is a representation of the times in which it is printed. This can be considered as very true for the Augustan Period. Alexander Pope is the cut stone of the aforementioned period. Pope is not only renowned as a grand comic writer but furthermore as a resourceful artist. He is the person who came up with the excellent The Rape Of The Lock out of a minor uproar and because of this he cannot be deprived of the position of a creative artist. It is believed by all that in order to understand mankind one has to understand man himself. But it was the human race as seen merely in the minute civilization of a metropolis- the life that was lived by people in London and in fictitious London. Pope is the leading role of a complete age of an outlook of intelligence of a method of writing. In a single piece of his work he has presented to us the finest appearance to the societal and ethical manners and literary experience of an age. Pope’s work of art, The Rape of the Lock is the most excellent ironic picture of fashionable culture in which he has offered the gay high jinks, manners and ardent adventures of the stylish women of the high-class. The Rape of the Lock is a montage vivant of a civilization where the standard of a person is at stake of every word. The complete scene is restricted to the eighteenth century upper-class life.

Pope shared with further refined Englishmen of the premature eighteenth century a sagacity of being ‘Augustans’. Augustan literature foes not merely speak to but also portrays common citizens, their principles and civilization, their follies and shortcomings, prides and chauvinism. The people who were dealt with consisted of political people, vigorous merchants and society, priests and gentlemen, men belonging to various professions and women focused on fashion. Having unexpectedly surfaced out of the marketable affluence of England, the upper class were chiefly inner-city people.