The Rape of Lock---a Social Satire

Introduction: Poetic satire may be regarded as didactic poetry or the object it has in view is the reformation of man and his manners and to this end, the satirist takes the liberty of boldly censuring vice and vicious characters. “The true end of satire is the amendment of vice by correction”, says Dryden. Most people agree that satire is the criticism of life and an exposure of human weaknesses, follies, absurdities and shortcomings. The satirist uses humor, wit, mockery, ridicule and irony to achieve his goal – his moral end. 

The Rape of the Lock is a satire on the aristocratic strata of the 18^th century society. In the very opening lines, the poet laughs at “little” men engaging in “bold” tasks and at gentle ladies who are capable of such “Mighty rage”

In tasks so bold little men engage,

And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage

The contrast between “tasks so bold” and “Little men” and another between “soft bosoms” and “Mighty rage” is very wittingly constructed and cuts down to size these vain people of Pope’s time. Juvenal and Horace are the two well-known satirists in the verse of Roman Literature. The former’s satire is pointed, full of force and often savage like that of Swift, but Horace’s irony is more graceful and easy. He chides with a smile. Satire is a distinct element in Chaucer and yet he cannot be called a  satirist. There is no misanthropy or cynicism            in him. In the Elizabethan Age, John Donne and John Marston wrote poetic satires, but their work lack vigor. In the seventeenth century, Dryden wrote a number of satires such as the Hind and the Panther, the Dunciad and the Progress of Dullness. According to Richard Garnett, “The expression in adequate terms of the sense of amusement for disgust excited by the ridiculous or unseemly, provided that humor is a distinctly recognized element. Without humor satire is invective; without literary form it is mere clownish jeering.”

Pope’s satire: The true objective of satire is moral. It amends vice by castigation. The satirist, in the words of Dryden, “is no more an enemy to the offender than the physician to the patient when he prescribes harsh remedies to an inveterate disease”. Pope’s satire, too, functions in somewhat the same manner. Satire predominates the work of Pope. Even a cursory glance at his poetry reveals that the major part of it consists of satire. The Rape of the Lock, the Dunciad and Moral Essays are the best of his satires. Pope wrote many satires against individuals, which were deadly, sharp and bitter marked by malice. Stopford Brook in comparing Dryden and Pope as satirists says, “Dryden’s satire has relation not to the man he is satirizing, but to the whole of human race. Pope’s satire is thin, it confines itself to the person and has no relation to the world.”  In the Rape of the Lock, the whole panorama is limited to the 18^th century aristocratic life. In the strange battle fought between the fashionable belles and the vain beau, the fall of Dapperwit and Sir Fopling is particularly demonstrative of the hollowness of the people of this age:

A beau and witling perished in the throng

One died in metaphor, and one in song

Even the greatest of the great, the Queen herself is satirized to produce a truly comical and witty effect.

Here thou, a great Anna whom three realms obey/ Dost sometimes counsel take – and sometimes tea.  

The satire in the Rape of the Lock is directed not against any individual, but against the follies and vanities in general of fashionable men and women. Pope started writing this poem to reconcile two quarreling families but as the poem progressed, the poet forgot his original intention and satirized female follies and vanities. Belinda is not Arabella Fermore. She is the type of the fashionable ladies of the time and in her the follies and frivolities of the whole sex is satirized. The Baron represents not Petre alone but typifies the aristocratic gentleman of that age. The strange battle between the sexes shows what kind of people they are.

When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down,

Chloe stepped in, and killed him with a frown;

She smiled to see the doughty hero slain,

But, at her smile, the beau revived again.

Instances of Satire: The poet has satirized the system of judges that they, at 4 o’clock, hurriedly sign the sentence so that they could have their dinner in time.

Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day,

The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray,

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,

And wretches hand that jurymen may dine;

Even the concept of friendship has been attack. Friends are hollow and fickle. Belinda’s friend Thalestris is as shallow as the age he lives in. As soon as Belinda’s reputation is gone, she doesn’t like to be called her friend. Thus it a direct satire on the upper-class society of Pope’s time. It doesn’t condemn like Swift, but simply and lightly exposes the frivolities and dandies of the people.

It is in fact a satire on feminine dandies. Women are all frivolous beings, whose genuine interest lies in love-making. The same sentiment is really implied in the more playful lines of the Rape of the Lock. The sylphs are warned by omens that some misfortune impends; but they don’t know that. Use Diana’s Passage above! Pope was inspired by a prevailing sentiment of contempt against the whole female sex. The witty lines are read not with kindly irony but as disagreeable sneers.

Conclusion: The poem is a reflection of this artificial and hollow life, painted with a humorous and delicate satire. It paints the ideal life of the pleasure-seeking young men and women. It introduces to us a world of fashion and frivolities. These pleasures are petty – flirting, card-laying, driving in Hyde Park, visiting theaters and writing love-letters. Their whole day’s program seems to be nothing but a waste. Their whole day’s program seems to be nothing but a waste.

Give here a synopsis of the poem.

Pope’s satire is unique, intellectual and full o wit and epigram.  Lowell rightly says that “Pope stands by himself in English verse as an intellectual observer and describer of personal weaknesses”.

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Donne as a Love Poet

Introduction: The variety and scope of Donne’s love poetry is really remarkable. He hinges between physical and holy love, between cynicism and faith in love and above all the sanctity of married life. He was born at the time when writing love-poems was both a fashionable and literary exercise. Donne showed his talent in this genre. His poems are entirely different from the Elizabethan love-lyrics. They are singular for their fascination and charm and depth of feeling.

When by thy scorn, o murderess,

I am dead

And that thou think’st thee free

From all solicitations from me,

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed

Donne does not lay stress on beauty or rather the aesthetic element in passion. His poems are sensuous and fantastic. He goes through the whole gamut of passion. Dryden writes: Donne affects the metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses where nature only should reign. He perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softness of love”

Tenderness and sentiment are not the qualities to be found in Donne’s poetry. Donne in Lover’s Infinitenesse, pleads with his beloved that she should give him a part of her heart. After she has given him the part, he demands the whole heart. This is the goal and consummation of love. He then startles and outrages the expectations of his readers.

I long to talk with some old lover’s ghost;

Who died before that God of love was born,

Twice or thrive had I loved thee,

Before I knew they face or name.

Donne’s love poems can be divided under three heads.

Poems of moods of lovers, seduction and free love or fanciful relationship

Poems addressed to his wife Anne More (his wife) before and after his marriage.

Poems addressed to other noble ladies.

Three Strands of his poetry. Firstly, there is the cynical which anti-woman and hostile to the fair-sex. The theme is the frailty of man – a matter of advantage for lovers who liked casual and extra-marital relations with ladies. Secondly, there is the strand of happy married life, the joy of conjugal love in poems like A Valediction: forbidding mourning. Thirdly, there is the Platonic strand, as in The Canonization where love is regarded as a holy emotion like the worship of a devotee to God. Donne’s treatment of love-poems is realistic and not idealistic because he knows the weakness of the flesh, pleasures of sex, the joy of secret meetings. However, he tries to establish the relationship between body and soul. True love doesn’t pertain to the body; it is the relationship of body and soul to the other soul. Physical union may not be necessary as in A Valediction: a forbidding mourning. However, in the Relic, the poet regarded physical union as the necessary complement. Despite the realistic touches, Donne nowhere seems to draw the physical beauty or contours of the female body. Rather, he describes its reaction on the lover’s heart. It is highly surprising that a poet so fond of sex, be restrained from describing the physical patterns of the female body.

True Sex is holy: That sex is holy whether inside or outside marriage is declared by Donne in his love-poems. If love is mutual, physical union even outside marriage cannot be condemned. As a Christian, he may not justify extra-marital relationships, but as a lover and poet, he does accept and enjoy this reality. Donne feels that love-bond is necessary for sexual union otherwise mere sex without any spiritual love for the partner is degrading and mean. However, true love can exist outside marriage, though moralists may sneer at this idea of Donne. He doesn’t feel that woman is a sex-doll or a goddess. She is essentially a bundle of contradictions. He believes in ‘Frailty, thy name is woman’. His contempt for woman is compensated by his respect for conjugal love. At times, he regards woman as the angel who can give him ultimate bliss. This two-fold attitude is Donne’s typical quality as the poet. The poems referring to his wife, Anne More reflect true serenity and consummation of love.

Donne’s uniqueness: While the Elizabethan lyrics are, by large limitations of Petrarchan traditions, Donne’s poems stand in a class by themselves. He broke away from the traditional concept of poetry as was Petrarchan in nature. The concept of woman in Petrarchan and in that of Donne is totally different. Another quality is his passion and though, he doesn’t allow his passion to run away with him. Grierson writes: Donne’s poetry is a very complex phenomenon, but the two dominant strains in it are just these: the strains of dialectic, subtle play of argument and wit and fantastic; and the strain of vivid realism and a record of passion. Donne shows the supremacy of love.

Love, all like, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time, in fact true love is the merger of two souls. Donne has certainly been an innovator of a new kind of love-poetry. What surprises the reader is the variety of different moods and situations of the theme of love – sensual, violent, and full of vivacity of life. There is scorn, cynicism, bitterness and sarcasm but the force of love is genuine and unquestionable. Donne is one of the greatest English love-poets. In fact, among all the English love-poets, he is the complete amongst them.

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The Hero of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Much controversy has clustered round the question as to who is the hero of Paradise Lost. There are very sensible persons, who advocate the claim of Satan, and others, that of Adam. One critic suggests God, and another the Messiah (Christ). A French critic (Denis Saurat) puts forward the strange thesis that Milton himself is he hero of Paradise Lost.

(A) SATAN: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

Satan as A most Powerfully Drawn Character

Let us see some of the points of his character which are definitely indicated. In the beginning, it is Satan who, first of all the angels, arouses himself up from the lake of fire. He has the power of recovery in the face of defeat. Not one word, which he utters, expresses despair, when he discovers the terrible nature of the place to which God has banished them. Immediately his active mind begins to scheme, and he proceeds to reassemble his shattered forces. We are often told that adversity reveals the best qualities in a man; adversity certainly reveals the vigorous intellect and driving personality of Satan. He shows the highest degree of fortitude and "courage never to submit or yield." His personal example soon communicates itself to the other angels, and they gather round their great leader. In the plays of Shakespeare, we have often seen that the great dramatist contrives to create his finest characters by letting us hear what other people think of them, and say about them, so it is with Milton. All the angels welcome with joy their mighty leader. It matters not that they have been defeated and expelled from Heaven, because of their share in his rebellion. They gather round him with absolute confidence such as earthly men feel instinctively at times when they realize the worth of a great leader. The mighty qualities of Satan's mind, and the indomitable resolution which animates him, are displayed when he exclaims:

... and thou, profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

There are sentiments which might well be uttered by the most spiritual of characters. The spirit of self-reliance, of mental courage, which rises independent of environment, is a quality possessed only by the greatest characters. This might well have been spoken by some saint in exile, or languishing in dungeons of a cruel tyrant. A few lines later, there blazes a burst of strong, over-mastering ambition, the expression of a nature the must, be first in all things:

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

It is no ordinary ambition which we see here; there is something colossal in this bold challenge to the Almighty for supreme power. We have seen instances in the history of the human race where two great natures clashed, and neither would give way: Caesar and Hannibal, Wellington and Napoleon, and we have been impressed by the greatness on either side. It may be a wicked things to defy God, but, in this case, God is far-removed and unreal, and it is the greatness of the challenge, rather than the wickedness, which is the prominent impression.

Beelzebub bears witness to the great worth of Satan as a leader:

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
.... they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire.

If this was said of the noblest general who ever led mortal armies, he would be acclaimed by all as a leader of men. The effect here is similar; we must judge Satan according to earthly and human standards since we have no other. We respect him because of the confidence with which he inspire the forces. When the downfallen angels reach the shore, their dejected spirits are cheered, and their look show:

Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief
Not in despair...

Million then makes Satan console them, raise their sinking courage, and dispel their fears. The poet seems to feel here that he is ennobling the Archfiend unduly, for he reminds the reader that Satan achieves this by:

high words that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance.

A Great Figure of Epic Dimension

But Milton has endowed Satan with all those qualities which make a hero. In fact, it is the grandeur of Satan's character that makes Paradise Lost an epic. Milton has imparted something of himself to Satan, and so Satan arouses our admiration by the strength of his character and individuality. He assets himself against the autocracy of God, and is able to win over to his side the third part of the angelic host in Heaven. He is no doubt defeated by the Messaih (Christ) but his defeat and his expulsion from Heaven cannot curb his indomitable spirit. He would urge eternal war against God; he remains as bold in spirit and as defiant as he was before his defeat; and the change of his surroundings cannot in any way dampen his unconquerable spirit. He will make Heaven of Hell, and undertakes all kind of risks and dangers in order to take revenge on God. This figure is heroic in every way. He is a perfect leader, and all the fallen angels submit unquestioningly to his authority. "It is surely the simple fact" says Abercrombie, "that Paradise Lost exists for one figure that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles and the Odyssey for Odysseus. It is in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise Lost is centered; his vast unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern consciousness." Satan is indeed a great figure of epic dimension. He is a true hero, but he is so only in Books I and II of Paradise Lost.

Robert Burns strongly upheld Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost, in these words: "give me a spirit like my favourite hero, Milton's Satan", W. Hazlitt was of the same view, "the interest of the poem arises from the daring ambition and fierce passions of Satan, and from the account of the paradisical happiness and the loss of it by our first parents, Satan is the indubitable hero - in fact, the most heroic subject that ever was chosen for a poem".

Arguments against Satan being the Hero of the Poem

As the poem proceeds, this heroic figure gradually loses its splendour, though he retains his original greatness even when he comes to the earth and sees the joy; but pride prevails over him, for he must have his revenge on God who is his eternal enemy.

Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches, when all these delights
Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe-
* * * *
Yet no purposed foe
to you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied

From now onward, the deterioration of Satan starts. In fact when he enters into a serpent to tempt Eve, he has turned from a great hero into a despicable spy and cunning trickster. So when we take the whole of Paradise Lost into consideration, we cannot agree with the view that Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost.

Admiration and Sympathy of Satan Misunderstood

According to some critics, Satan is the hero of the poem. In the preceding chapter, we have expressed the view of these critics of the Romantic age and the twentieth century. Now let us interpret the views of these critics. In fact, Satan is not the hero of the poem. Even Dryden was misled by the epic current in his day. The Romantics misunderstood Blake. It is a pity that even a great critic like Tillyard misunderstood him. As Rudrum Alan remarks in his book Milton: Modern judgements: "It is only in the context of his own highly complex system of thought that Blake's remarks on Milton's Satan can be properly understood. But of course they have been abstracted from that context..." Blake never means that Milton identifies himself with Satan. According to him, poetry is emotional rather than rational. In other words, evil inspires a poet more than the good; a poet finds it easier to depict evil than good, as stated by Blake. It is in this sense that Milton is of the Devil's party. So, the Romantics misunderstood Blake. A poet has 'as much delight in depicting an Iago as an Imogen' (an evil and good character). Milton took pleasure in the exercise of his power.

Secondly, those who think that Satan is the hero of the poem, confine their criticism to the first two books. As A. Stopford Brooke remarks: "The interest of the story collect at first round the character of Satan, but he grows meaner as the poem develops, and his second degradation after he has destroyed innocence is one of the finest and most consistent motives in the poem. This at once disposes the view that Milton meant Satan to be the hero of his epic." Thus in the first two books he is made a heroic figure. Subsequently, his character degenerates.

Thirdly, Milton's identification with Satan is misunderstood. Tillyard says that the character of Satan expresses something in which Milton believed very strongly. But Tillyard forgets that the identification of Milton with Satan, is only partial. Milton is also Adam. Milton thought himself a sincere Christian. Milton has Satan in him and wants to drive him out. "He was of the devil's party without knowing it; but he was also of God's party, and what is more important, he knew it." (Denis Saurat Milton: Man, and Thinker). Further Denis Saurat remarks: "And yet Satan is not the hero of the poem: he is intellectually condemned, in spite of all the poet's and the reader's sympathy."

We should not be taken in by Satan's impressive speeches. For what indeed does his fine sounding phrase sense of "injured merit" mean but simply "not fair" which is far from being a heroic cry. Stylistic reasons enforce superficially the heroism of Satan-his utterances are always couched in language of unrivalled poetic splendour. But this should not mislead us, for in the end Satan himself realized his impotence and inner helplessness.

Finally, the splendour of Satan is misunderstood. The magnificence and splendour of Satan must be exalted in order to indicate the epic greatness of the coming conflict. In other words, in order to rouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and gratitude for his redemption, Milton has shown the magnificence of Satan's character. George Sampson remarks: "Those who maintain that Satan the rebel is the real hero of the poem fail to understand that the adversary of God and Man must be presented in majesty and magnitude if he is to be worthy of his place in the story that he must have, in fact all the fascination of evil. "We should not be swept away by the sheer grandeur of Satan's speeches, or by the splendour of his personality. Heroism exerted in the bad cause, ceases to be virtue. And, therefore, it is not enough to say that Satan is the hero of the poem because he is brave and bold.

Many of the twentieth century critics do not hold the view of the Romantics i.e. Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost. John Peter is of the opinion that "the loss of poetic energy or resonance in the heroic similes applied to Satan shows an important aspect of the deterioration in Milton's treatment of the Devil". According to David Daiches, the whole poem is the story of Satan's inevitable degeneration.

(B) MILTON: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

This theory has been formulated by Denis Saurat, a French critic. He says in his book Milton: Man and Thinker that Adam is not the fitting counterpart for Satan. According to him, the hero of the poem is Milton himself. As stated by him: "Though Satan is Milton's own creation, and he has displayed a greater force of poetry in him than in any other character in Paradise Lost as he represents a part of his own mind and character, yet it seems that Milton throws himself personally into the struggle against Satan". Further Saurat feels that Milton has exalted Satan because he himself wanted to drive out malignant and militant Satan from his own heart. In this connection, he says: "Milton had Satan in him and wanted to drive him out. He had felt passion, pride and sensuality. The displeasure he takes in the creation of Satan is the joy of liberating, purging himself of the evil in himself by concentrating it outside himself into a work of art. A joy peculiar to the artist……a joy that, perhaps was God's ultimate aim in creating the world, as we have seen.

The argument is not plausible that Milton himself is the hero. No doubt, Milton's personality is revealed in Paradise Lost: and he never conceals where his sympathy lies. There is again some similarity between the position of Satan and that of Milton. Satan had defied the authority of God the autocrat, just as Milton had defied the autocracy of the King. Hence, Satan is endowed with all the force and fire of Milton's own spirit. But Milton's object was to justify the ways of God to man. He therefore, expresses himself here and there to execute his avowed aim. The epic, it must be remembered, is a piece of objective art. He calls Satan's "infernal serpent" 'Arch-fiend' and uses abusive epithets to expose Satan's real character. But Milton himself cannot and does not take part in the action of the poem. The lyrical qualities of Milton's genius inevitably enter into Paradise Lost. But to say that he is the hero of Paradise Lost, is nothing short of preposterous.

(C) ADAM: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

To put forward the claim either of God or of the Messiah (Christ) is absurd, for they do not take part in the central action of Paradise Lost. However, the whole epic, turns rounds what Milton indicates even in the first line of the poem 'Man's first disobedience.' Adam disobeyed God, and by this act of disobedience, he not only lost Paradise but brought about the fall of the whole human race. No action can be more tremendous in its import and significance than that which brought the fall of the whole of humanity. And Adam, being responsible for it, is obviously meant by the poet to fill the role of the hero of the great poem.

Difficulty arises because Adam does not act. He is merely a passive figure, who is acted upon by others. But it is his fate that engages the attention of God and the Angels in Heaven, and of Satan and the devils in Hell. His fate again causes a terrible upheaval on the Earth. When Eve plucks the fruit, "Nature sighs that all is lost." Adam may not be a heroic figure in the same sense as Achilles is. But Paradise Lost is a different kind of epic from Homer's Iliad. Milton himself says,

... Yet argument

Not less but more heroic than the wrath of stern Achilles.

In creating Adam, Milton attempted a very peculiar task. Adam, the father of mankind is almost without human experience and so cannot have much personality. Milton has to present a figure who appeals imaginatively and poetically and this he does. Adam has a natural magnificence that fits him to be the hero of an epic. However, Adam is not a hero like Achilles and Ullyses, etc. capable of incredibly heroic deeds. Adam is a hero of a nobler kind.

Adam's role is not that of a warrior but that of a God-fearing man, faced with a temptation and defeated in the conflict between himself and Satan. In studying the question of the hero of Paradise Lost, we need not be obsessed with the classical conception of the epic here. Adam is defeated no doubt but through the Messiah (Christ) he regains the Paradise 'happier far'. Thus the ultimate victory which is of a spiritual nature goes to Adam. Adam is the real hero of Paradise Lost.

Conclusion

"One supposed defect in the story of Paradise Lost has been frequently dwelt on, and the fact is that Satan, and not Adam, is the hero of the epic. We think that only those, who reading of Milton has been confined to the first two books, can be misled by this nonsensical paradox. In the first two books Satan is naturally made a heroic figure; he is still an Arch-angel (though fallen) one of the chief Arch-angels and king over his fellows. "His character has power. His capacity for evil must be exalted in order to show the epic greatness of the coming conflict and in order to arouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and gratitude for his redemption. But we have not to wait for Paradise Regained to see the steady deterioration in Satan's character. Surely, to take one instance alone there is little of the heroic in Satan when he takes the form of a toad to whisper in Eve's ear and is stirred up by the spear of Ithuriel. At the close of the poem Satan's degradation is complete." (Wyatt and Low).

“Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, but he is in no sense the hero of the epic as a whole; he is only a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity" Helen Grander.

Although Adam is a passive and not an active agent in the poem and although he suffers more than he acts, his claim to the title of the hero seems to be better than anybody else's. As Landor points out, and as everybody at once notices, Adam is the central figure in the poem, round whom the others act. It is his fall that is the subject matter of the poem. Our interest centres round him; our sympathy goes to him. He may reasonably be called the hero of 'Paradise Lost'. Adam does not have a romantic character and obvious bravery of a noble; he is Every man as he recognizes his own weakness: accepts his responsibility, and faces life with true courage. His battles are within him, as is fitting for the hero of a great religious epic.

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Art of Poetry (Horace's view of the Artist as a craftsman)

Horace was the classicist who established the classical sets of belief rules and orders, restraint and correct expression. He wished that the writer should choose correct and right words; that he should use meters maintaining their appropriateness; that he should be able to choose a proper subject; that he should make use of proper poetic diction; and that he should follow the rules of ancient arts. Alexandrian influence can be noted in his demand for careful workmanship and polish and order and organization. Moreover, for that he says an artist is always a craft man who using his architectural genius maintains decorum and ‘urbanity’ in his work of art.
    For Horace, a writer must choose a subject within his power and appropriate to his gifts; he must say at any given moment what needs to be said, and no more. He must choose vocabulary, meter and form that are right for his subject, whether noble, exciting, erotic or joyous. He warns against extravagant implausibility and incongruities. Indeed the prevailing emphasis throughout is on the need for consistency, coherence and seemliness. It is the writer's business to refine and polish his text that the highest standards of propriety and artistry are maintained. However, Horace demands a craft man’s skill in an artist; he does not utterly neglect the role of natural talent in art. In fact, he is insisting on a complementary relationship between learned artistry and genius.
    His Art for poetry can also he read as a useful advice to the perspective writers. It remained an influential document or a Bible for esp. Boileau, Pope, Eliot and Fyre. He equates poetry with painting. In poetry, words are like various colors that are put beautifully. He focuses on decorum in poetry i.e. the rightness of each part to the whole. There should be the harmony of each parts of poetry to the whole. These ideas become laws for neo- classical writers. He outlines the following points to be in good poetry so that the pragmatic effect of poetry can be achieved.
Unity and simplicity of forms:
    Simplicity refers to lucidity that is everyone understands. Unity is the perfect combination of beginning, middle and ending. Everything should be matching so that it creates decorum and the sense of propriety. (Correctnes + Suitable)
Form and content matched:
     The style should be proper. By proper, he means that the trivial and serious matters should not be written in grand style. And in the same way, the treatment of serious matter should not be in trivial form. Therefore, from and content should be matched. Poets and painters should not create monotony by showing dolphin in the forest and elephant in the sea. Such unnatural combination fails to teach and give the delight.
Appropriate use of words:
    The words come and go like the leaves of a tree. The words need to be used in proper places according to the nature of the words. Cliché should not be used and the language of common people should be magnified. Poets should use familiar words in quite different way. If characters want to speak words then it is okay but it should have its origin in Greek.
Appropriateness of meter:
Horace prefers Virgil's opinion that to follow Homer is to follow nature. Homer says it is appropriate to use hexameter in epic, iambic pentameter in tragedy and hexameter and iambic pentameter in elegy.

Consistency of characters:
    The characters should be consistent and life like. His views on characters are identical to Aristotle. Character traits should be based on age, there should not be any exaggeration, that is which is not possible to the character must not be presented. Therefore, characters should be convincing, probable and consistent.

Style (Starting and ending):
The writer can take one of the following techniques to present the content.

Prolepsis (flash back): What happened before the action takes place.
Analepsis (foreshadowing): What happens next to on going action.
Anachronistic (random): Mixture of all techniques.
    Whatever the technique there is, the end of poetry should teach and delight. To teach actions should be physical than verbal because whatever people see, they are likely to believe. Therefore, it is better to perform everything. But scenes of murder, violence etc should not be shown on the stage. Deux ex machine (performing of God on the stage) is to be hidden.

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What is Critical Essay ???

The essay in its purest form uses words to establish ideas addressed directly by the essayist to the reader. On this basis we can see that its essential quality is persuasion. The essay is a form of literature. It may be surprising because we have read numerous essays that we would not consider literary at all. In fact, many essays are not literary in any respect.

Many are completely practical pieces of writing, designed to report something, or explain something, or make a case for something. Essayists like Virginia Woolf seek to create an experience that is valuable for its own sake, and they do so by using language imaginatively, as in other forms of literature. Pleasure is the last thing we expect of an essay, but it was certainly the first thing on her mind. And the kind of pleasure she had in mind was what we commonly expect of literature – that it temporarily remove us from the world of everyday affairs by immersing us in the world of the imagination.

      The essay is a very flexible form and has been so ever since it originated with the sixteenth-century French writer Montaigne. He used it as a means of exploring himself and his ideas about human experience, and his essays were, in a sense, a means of thinking on paper, of trying things out in writing. And he deliberately emphasized their tentative and informal quality by calling them essais, a term he derived for the French verb essayer – to try. The tern “essay” has since come to be used as a catch-all for non-fictional prose work of limited length, but that description of the form turns out to be misleading. Some essays are fiction, and some essays are very long. Essays may be long or short, factual or fictional, practical or playful. They may serve any purpose and take any form that an essayist wants to try out.
      The essay is a pure form which uses words to establish ideas that are addressed directly by the essayist to the reader. Thus, its essential quality is persuasion. But there is the proximity of the four forms –essays, fiction, poetry, and drama – to one another. Each of the forms is capable of using the elements, techniques, or even strategies of the other forms. The essay, then, is not confined to the form of straightforward persuasion, it may also be narrative, or dramatic, or poetic in form. Or an essay may involve a combination of the forms; and the longer it is; the more likely it will be to combine the various possibilities of form in rich and complex ways.
      In its pure form the essay explicitly attempts to persuade us of something by means of an appeal and argument that the author addresses directly to us, much as any public speaker would address an audience. In a narrative essay the author becomes a narrator, a storyteller, who reports directly to us on persons and events. A narrative essay sees its subject in time and presents it in the form of history. A dramatic essay takes the form of a dialogue between two or more characters, and the author is present, if at all, only to perform the duties of a director to set the scene and identify the characters whose words and actions are to be witnessed by the reader. An essay is poetic to the extent that its author or speaker appears to be talking to himself rather than to others. A poetic essay takes the form of a mediation “overheard” by the reader.
      In approaching an essay we should first read it through for our own pleasure. Following this first reading, we should review it quickly and assign it tentatively to one of four types.
      If the essay is directly persuasive-argumentative, we should read it a second time, more analytically than the first time. Then we should examine its arrangement to see how the author has structured his persuasion. We should examine its arguments, particularly any analogies used or assertions made, for (a) their accuracy in themselves, and (b) the extent of their relevance to the point being made. We should consider any assumptions required by these assertions or analogies. Then we should consider the personality of the essayist and the kind of role it invites you to play. Finally, formulate your response to the view presented and evaluate the presentation.
      If the essay in narrative, we should pay attention to its narrative elements in our second reading. We should try to divide the story into its meaningful parts and consider the way of description, dialogue, and commentary works in each part-how they contribute to the events being narrated. After we have focused on these elements, we should look for passages of special thematic import in which the author steps back from the story to comment on its significance, to offer an interpretation of the story. We should consider the persuasive force of the story in supporting the ideas the author is proposing. Then we should consider the implied personality of the essayist both during the narrative sections and the interpretive parts, and how that affects our response to the essay. Finally, we might ask ourselves if we find the essay convincing-both as narrative and persuasive.
      If the essay is meditative, our re-readings should be especially close and careful in their attention to the associative play of mind with words, images, and ideas. We should consider how one detail generates, or suggests, another, and explain, if we can, the process that leads the author from one detail or idea to the next. The sort of examination that we think of as appropriate for poetry is appropriate for the meditative essay as well. We should pay special attention, then, to tone and imagery. Only after we have made an investigation of this kind should we begin to ask questions about the persuasive dimension of the essay.
      If the essay is in dialogue form, our second reading should concentrate on its dramatic elements – character, setting, and plot. We should consider whether any one character seems to speak with the author’s authority behind him, and if we feel this to be the case, we should investigate the details that have led us to that view, in order to determine whether the evidence is really sufficient for this to be an appropriate response. We should be alert for any words of scene-setting as this may be a way of inserting some narrative commentary into a dialogue. The scene-setter may speak with the author’s voice. Finally, we should look for some dramatic movement toward a climax, in order to determine the relation between the dramatic form and the persuasive purpose of the essay.
      Any essay my in fact be a combination of the basic forms, and the longer it is, the more likely to combine the various possibilities in rich and complex ways. We should try to be tactful and vary our approach to suit the variations in the work we are reading. We should remember that reading an essay or any other work of literature, like carrying on a human relationship, requires attentiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness.

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Belinda : Alexander Pope - Summary and Critical Analysis

This extract (Belinda) is a section of "Rape of the Lock" in which the main character Belinda is doing her make up before going to a place where all the high-class people chat, gossip and drink tea and coffee. First of all, Belinda dressed in white robe and bareheaded, worships with concentration the deities who preside over the art of makeup. Thus, she looks at her own reflection in the mirror. The reflection reveals to her heavenly beauty. Therefore, she looks to the details of her make-up and embellishments.

She stoops down to examine the lower portion of her body right, and then she looks again at the reflection in the mirror. The inferior priestess stands by the side of the sacred table. She is there to assist Belinda in her make-up and dressing, and trembling with fear for the best she begins the ritual of dressing up her proud mistress. Numerous caskets are opened, each of which contains precious presents from different parts of the world. From each casket, Betty, the inferior priestess, takes out skillfully and with exact care some bright and precious things to adorn the Goddess (Belinda).

     From one casket she picks out the most brilliant pearls and diamonds of India, and from another she takes out the best perfume of Arabia. Next, she takes up the spotted combs make of tortoise shells, and the milky white combs made of ivory. Then she uses the rows of shining pins, hairpins, puffs, powders, patches, bibles and love-letters.
     The awfully beautiful Belinda now puts on her different ornaments and cosmetics to add still further to her beauty. Her entrancing beauty appears to greater advantage with every adoring piece of jewels. Her smiles become more attractive and her graces more important by the use of cosmetics and jewels. All the wonders of her face area roused when her cheeks are artfully roughed. Her eyelashes and eyelids are delicately colored so as to give to her eyes the brightness of lighting.
     When we critically analyze this piece of extract from the classical mock-epic (or mock-heroic) poem The Rape of the Lock, a description of make-up being done by the heroine of the poem, Belinda, as she prepares to go for a daily idle gathering in the afternoon. This is a parody of an epic hero preparing for the battle. The piece, in its original context, can also be interpreted as a bitter social satire of the time (18th century).
     In its literal paraphrase, the poem simply describes the dressing table of Belinda and how she does her make-up. Belinda, wearing white dress, first appreciates her cosmetic materials. Then, she looks at the mirror with pride and self-praise. Her belongings are seen to be many and disorganized. As the make-up proceeds, Belinda looks more and more beautiful.
     However, at each point, we can see that the poet has ironically compared her with an epic hero putting on armor before going for battle. First Belinda worships her "Cosmetic Powers" and that is the parody of the hero worshipping his ancestors, gods and goddesses for giving him strength and courage. After that, she worships herself, and may be this is more than the epic hero's ritual! Like the hero, she then begins other rites, though her rites are not the tribal or religious rites but "scared rites of pride", that is make up and false pride in artificial beauty. Next, the poet parodies the description of the epic hero's weapons by describing her dressing table with a lot of satire on the girl and her society. He uses words from real epics like "spoil", "arms", "files", etc. And finally, our mock-hero is prepared with lighting in her eyes and 'repaired' smile n her lips. Her weapons also include "Puffs, Powers, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux", she doesn't know herself what is what! Combs, pins, perfumes, gems, artificial blush and the artificial fairness may also parodies deadly weapons!
     More important than parody is satire in the extract as well as in the whole poem. Belinda prays to cosmetic objects. That shows how the women of the time gave 'divine' value to petty things. Her narcissistic self-worship is another deadly satire on vain women's foolishness. But that was asocial behavior of the time and therefore it is a social satire! Pope uses many words of religion to suggest that the girl was giving herself, too, a religious importance. The deification is completed with the metaphor "Goddess" (line 10).
     The satire on the particular girl Belinda is not only meant to criticize female vanity but the vanities and absurdities of that society. Besides, there are more complex political satires, too. The "spoil" (weapons or wealth seized from victims of battles) from all the world are offerings of the British empire, specially to its lazy ladies at home! The British Empire had seized the gems of India, perfumes of Arabia, and killed animals like elephants and tortoise everywhere to make cosmetic offering to these good-for-nothing hypocritical women around the queen. In general Belinda's narcissism, pride and vanity, over-estimation of petty things, confusion of values, false beauty and every other weakness represent a culture of the time. Pope is giving an example of a society and culture so full of corrupted lazy, hypocritical and vain behaviors, especially in women in his time. The line "Puffs, powders ..." is the example of how the people of the time put everything together because they didn';t know their difference in value or appropriateness. On the same table, there are puffs (symbols or aristocratic standard, and hypocrisy), powders (feminine beauty, and artificiality), patches (political batches, and dogma), Bible (religious life, and apparent faith), and billet-doux (love letter, affectedly in jilting romance). Like Belinda, the society was confused between and among the spiritual and the worldly, the religious and the profane, the great and the mean, the genuine and the pretentious, the political, the romantic, and so on. The general social satire is symbolically represented by the table and Belinda's behavior and attitude towards things and herself. In the larger context of the poem, it is more a social satire then personal or that of the gender only. In short it satirized the false culture of artificial "personality" of the time.
     The extract is from a classical poem, and it also exhibits many classical features. The metaphors, the use of poetic diction, the structure of sentence, the use of words in unusual sense, and the rhythm and rhyme of the classical heroic couplet are the features of classical poetry. The words like Nymph, Priestess, altar and Goddess are religious metaphors ironically used to suggest the "sacred rites of pride", which is another satiric metaphor. The war and epic metaphors like breathe, files, spoil, arms, and lightning are also ironic satires: there is nothing heroic and artificial preparation of the awful beauty by a flirt who has no real powers or skills. The words like robed, uncovered, unnumbered, unlocks, ope, yonder, billet-doux, etc, belong to the special poetic diction (vocabulary). Finally, the use of the pair of rhyming lines with iambic pentameter in both, called heroic couplet, is another feature of classical poetry.
     The combination of three images- the first of the vain goddess becoming goddess by putting on make-up appearance, the second image of an epic hero putting armors, and the third image of the chaotic scene of a woman's toilet' - make the poem really funny, striking and deeply satirical. Pope is perhaps the best of satiric poets, with a special gift for technical mastery, too. It's a rare word-game, though the music is conventional, and the expression is rather difficult to understand without someone supplying us with the general context.

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