Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Would you consider Alexander Pope a misogynist after reading The Rape of the Lock?

To make the claim that Alexander Pope was a misogynist
based on The Rape of the Lock might not be unfounded, but you would
have to take several things into consideration. First, during Pope's day, women had no
rights. Feminism was a far-off idea. Pope's attitude toward women would have been
considered within the norm. What Pope really detested was not so much women, though
there was that undercurrent in his writing, but the pretentions of the idle rich. Pope
was Catholic, which meant that he was at a disadvantage in England, both socially and
financially. "The Rape of the Lock" really reflects his attitude toward upper-class
young people more than just women, though he is rather unkind in his depiction of
Belinda's mental acuity.  She is not a deep thinker. Pope was, after all, a satirist. If
you look at his other work, particularly "The Dunciad," you can get a better idea of how
he felt about people generally. Moreover,  ROTL is meant to be a mock-epic; it makes fun
of the epic genre by using lofty words to tell a silly story, poking fun at both men and
women.

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