18th Century Picture By The Alexander Pope

18th century picture In the Rape of the lock the satire is directed towards the little men and the gentle ladies who are capable of such a mighty rage. The habits and artificial modes of the aristocratic society of eighteenth century England�s are the targets of pope�s satire. The vanities of women are also ridiculed. Through the minute description of Belinda�s toilet. But the most important subject of the satire here is the utter moral confusion of that society. In the Rape of the Lock Pope brings in a wide variety of satire weapons. Bible and billet-doux are carelessly thrown together toiletry assumes a religious importance a masked ball is as important as a prayer and satin on the honor is on an equal plane with a satin on a brocade dress. The painted contrasts are very important from the satiric point of view, for they most effectively show the moral bankruptcy of that society in that age. A heart or necklace being lost a lap-dog and husband has the same status. The lord are as bad as the ladies, they equally lack moral sense and trivialize the serious and vital aspects of life as they give importance to the trivial. Their great accomplishment is the cutting off of a lock of hair. Exaggeration is another effective device of satire in pope�s hand. There is more than a touch of it in the passage in which pope speaks of the souls of fashion in the form of spirits. Satiric cartages are used to convey the confusion of values prevalent in that society. The Rape of the Lock according to pope was �formed to delight of once and lash the age�. However the moral lesson is present by implication all through the poem. He speaks against the disintegration of values and the hypocrisy. On the above discussion we can say that the picture of the trivial occupations of the society could have been much bitterer. So the Rape of the Lock exposes the ethos of a section of the eighteenth century society.