The society shaped Belinda and Baron in The Rape of the Lock
It all began in the 1712 when the infamous Lord Robert Petre cut a lock of hair mistakenly from the head of his beloved Arabella Fermor, and set off a chain of events that led Alexander Pope to write one of his most famous poems, The Rape of the Lock. Pope’s main purpose was to make fun of two lovers and solve the social crisis that had resulted; however Pope accomplished something else as well. Hidden inside his poem is a cunning criticism of the society that helped create the catastrophe over the stolen lock in the first place. Pope’s classical beliefs in God as the source of identity were profoundly challenged by the society in which he lived, where appearances were more important that a person’s sense of identity. On the surface, The Rape of the Lock appears to be simply a humorous poem making light of a real event. Pope uses the depiction of Belinda and the Baron, through the stereotyping of gender roles and the frequent use of irony, to show the inability to gain “true” identity in the existing social world of his day. By simultaneously criticizing Belinda and portraying her as the “hero”, a double meaning is achieved. Pope successfully uses Belinda as a commentary through his use of irony about the superficiality of her world and by pointing out the gender stereotypes inherent in it. To prove his point, Pope must first illustrate Belinda as the goddess she believes to be. Throughout the poem, Belinda is described to be “the fairest of all mortals” and by the superficiality of her appearance is thus elevated to a high position in her society, and in the poem (Pope, Canto 1, 27). This position is achieved through the virtue of appearance. In the poem, Pope constantly plays with the idea that a woman’s life and role in society is defined by her appearance, both beauty-wise and morally. When she sits down at her mirror, “a heavenly image in the glass appears as she practices the sacred rites of pride” (Pope, 125, 128). Belinda is portrayed as the typical capricious, superficial female, only concerned with appearances and not actual morals, but Pope takes it to another level. By having her elevate herself to the level of a God, Pope is playing with the idea that if she was really a God, she would have real morals. Her idea of a God is to be perfect on the outside. The ironic contrast this points out is that Belinda may believe herself to be God-like and perfect, but she is the exact opposite. Moreover, society has trained her to be this way “Hear and believe! thy own importance know, her heavenly little spirits tell her” (Pope, 35). This fact shows that Belinda’s main concern is her appearance, both physically and socially comments on the society she lives in; a society that places more value on the appearance of virtue than of virtue itself. This can be notice more by examining the role of Belinda’s angels. The use of angels, demons, and other sprites that follow Belinda around, are the only thing keeping her within the “morals” of her society. Pope uses the sprites in an ironic way, hypothetical holy creatures aiding nothing more than shallowness and propagating the female stereotype. “Know then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, the light militia of the lower sky” (Pope, 41-2). These demons keep her from losing her virginity, protect her body from outside harms, and even predict things that will happen to her in the future. But “Tis [also] these that early taint the female soul, instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll, teach infants cheeks a bidden blush to know, And little hearts to flutter at a beau” (Pope, 87-9). This establishes the demons not so much as protectors of her virtue but as protectors of the appearance of her virtue. It is extremely ironic that angels, righteous beings, are programming Belinda from birth to be so falsely virtuous. These “angels” are functioning as symbols of society and beauty rather than the usual heavenly image. In this context, aiding Belinda’s female vanity, they are being used as observation on the society in which Pope lived, on the inability for females to obtain a true God-given identity when they are predetermined from birth to only value virtue on the outside. In other words, Pope does not think that Belinda is inherently such a dimwit; rather he thinks the society that formed her contradicting morals is to blame.
The ironic choice of words and images surrounding the male roles, specifically Baron, is also very symbolic of Pope’s views about gender relation and identity in his social setting. Pope plays with the idea that men are programmed by society to aid in the superficiality of women. When the Baron is contemplating his future theft, “Though honor is the word with men below,” (Pope .78) something else entirely is going on beneath the surface. The way that Pope portrays the figure of Baron, can easily be seen that, like Belinda, the Baron’s honor is only on the surface. His only thought, in blunt contrast to honor, is to claim the lock as his own, “Fairtresses man’s imperial race ensnare, and beauty draws us with a single hair” (Pope, Canto 2, 27-8). The way his lines are written, is almost as if it is not his fault at all. The double meaning in this line gives it even bigger power. If the lock is interchangeable with Belinda’s virginity, then it is in fact, the prospect of sex that man cannot resist the prospect of claiming her innocence for his prize. The Baron’s whole situation is ironic, similar to Belinda’s. While he confesses honor, he is in fact propagating the male stereotype, that of the dominant male only after his prize. This can be seen while he plans stealing the lock:
Th’ adventurous Baron the bright locks admired, He saw, he reached, and to The prize aspired: Resolved to win, he meditates the way, By force to ravish, or by fraud betray; For when success a lover’s toil attends, Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends. (Pope, 29-34)
The word “prize” is repeated at least ten times over the course of the poem in reference to the pursue after lock. The fact that Baron believes that his conquest is a prize directly contradicts statements he makes previously in the poem: This is that the lock would be an addition to his collection of“love” mementos, “to Love an altar built”, (Pope, 35). This is a very ironic use of the word “love”, the Baron does not see love as love, but as war. Belinda’s lock is just a trophy in his war of love, one he is determined to win. This is how men are portrayed in The Rape of the Lock, in relation to women. The Baron himself has no true identity. Men’s views of themselves in this poem are very similar to that of the women: the Baron believes himself to have an identity, but by Pope’s definition he does not. He only has his false honor and machismo that society has programmed him to have. His identity exists solely in relation to conquering others therefore his identity is not his own, it is made up entirely of others. His lack of identity can also be seen in his lack of responsibility towards his actions, “Coffee (which makes the politician wise, And see through all things with his half-shut eyes) Sent up in vapors to the Baron’s brain New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain” (Pope, 117-9). This is where the irony comes in. The use of this language, placing the blame for his actions directly on the ridiculous shoulders of coffee, is Pope’s way of pointing out the ridiculousness of the Baron’s actions. Moreover, not only does the Baron not accept responsibility for his despicable thoughts, he gathers a sense of honor from it, “So long my honor, name, and praise shall live!”, he taunts after he has stolen the lock (Pope, 119-20). Not only is he not responsible in the eyes of society for the desire to violate the one whom he “loves,” he is also not responsible for the very act. The purpose of portraying the Baron this way is to show that the Baron, and others like him, have been programmed by society to be this way. Just as Belinda has been programmed to be superficial, the Baron has been programmed to only think of women as objects, hence the preservation of gender stereotypes that prevent these characters from having true identities. A character cannot have an identity solely based on stereotypes and superficiality. The ironic imagery of “love” as war is further employed in the “battle” scene in which the Baron steals the lock which serves to further prolong the ridiculousness of the situation. When Ariel the spirit is warning Belinda of her danger to come he says, “This day, black omens threat the brightest fair That e’er deserved a watchful spirit’s care; Some dire disaster, or by force or sleight, but what or where, the fates have wrapped in night” (Canto 2, 101-3). The irony lies in the fact that what is to come is not a disaster at all. It only appears to be because of the twisted social and sexual standards of the society they live in that associated appearance with virtue. As the “battle” begins, Belinda is playing cards with a group of gentleman. Belinda puts on her figurative battle armor: the sprites have Belinda “armed with ribs of whale, form[ing] a strong line about the silver bound, and guard the circumference around” (Pope, 119-20), treating her corset as a shield in times of epic battle. The Baron then employs his “war-like amazon” which “her host invades” (Canto 3, 65-7). Then it happens, “at this, the blood the virgin’s cheeks forsook, a livid paleness spreads o’er all her look (Pope, 89-90). At this point, Belinda can tell what is about to happen to her, she is about to lose the battle. The language is very serious, but paradoxically this is not a serious situation. This finely tuned irony makes what is happening ridiculous and unbelievable. As she loses, the Baron reaches over and commits the deed, “What wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel The conq’ring force of unresisted steel?” (Pope, 177-8). Here Pope literally means steel cutting hair but this also contains an undeniable ambiguity that connotes forbidden sex and actual loss of virginity. Later, Belinda cries, “Oh hadst thou, cruel! been content to seize Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!”(Canto 4, 175-6). Belinda is practically admitting that she would rather have had sex with him than him stealing the visible sign of her innocence. This is the final irony: the superficial identity that society has constructed for her, so visible in those locks of hair, has been compromised and this is all that matters to her: the appearance of being virtuous as to be accepted in society. This is why the rape of the lock to their society is more heinous than an actual rape. This is what Pope is criticizing: that a set of people could have a code of behavior so strict and only practice it on the outside of their lives is completely opposing to his moral point of view. In other words, if they care more about the outside than the inside, the inside is not worth anything, and they have no identity. The identity is not based on the false gender roles that Pope utilizes in the poem. The very first line of the poem is suggestive of his eventual meaning: “What dire offense from am’rous causees springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things” (Canto 1, 1-2).
Pope implies from the start that Belinda’s dilemma is trivial and that the deeper meaning lies in the constructed superficiality of her nature. The poem ends with the lock that has been lost shooting up into the heavens to become a star; the ultimate and final mockery on the part of Pope. This ridiculous image is a humorous ambiguity that simultaneously supports what is not the surface, the “importance” of the lock, and subversively undermines it upon closer inspection: the lock is not important. The two protagonists in the poem, as Pope is comparing them to society, are rooted in nothing but stereotypical gender roles and superficial morals. To Pope, the people who facilitate these social mores are living with false identities. If identity is not rooted in truth, then it is not really identity at all.

Work Cited:
Pope, Alexander. The Rape of the Lock. Lane, 1902. Print. http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/pope/rape.html http://www.scribd.com/doc/23359303/knji%C5%BEevnost-II
http://people.umass.edu/sconstan/