supernatural machinery in rol

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HOW DOES POPES EMPLOYMENT OF SUPERNATURAL MACHINERY ENCHANT THE ELEMENTS OF MOCKERY IN THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.

The Rape of the Lock is the masterpiece of mock-heroic poem on Lord Petres cutting off a lock of from Miss Arabella Fermors hair, written to laugh the two families out of the quarrel that resulted. The poem brought out in Pope a combination of qualities that he never again displayed together. Delicate imagination, subtly ironic wit, mockheroic extravagance, the most perfect control over cunningly manipulated versethese qualities go together with an almost tenderly affectionate humour. A criticism of female vanity at once is indulgent and penetrating, and the faintest breath of underlying melancholy shows the inevitable disparity between profession and the realities of social life. M.H. Abhrams in Glossary of Literary Terms says that the supernatural beings which take an interest or an active part in the epic were in the Neoclassical Age called the machinery, in this sense they were part of the literary contrivances (plot) of the epic.

The Supernatural is an ingenious and delightful device which serves to heighten the mock-heroic effect. Martin Price in his essay The Problems of Scale observesThe principle symbol of the triviality of Belindas work in the machinery of the sylphs and Gnomes. Light militia of the lower sky are a travesty of both Homeric deities and Miltonic Guardian angels.

Pope took the name Aerial from Shakespeares Tempest and the idea of the sylphs from French book, Le Comte de Gabalis, which gives an account of the Rosicrucian mythology of spirits. According to this mythology, the four elements are inhabited by spirits, which are called sylphs (air), gnomes (earth), nymphs (water), and salamanders (fire). The gnomes or spirits of earth, delight in mischief, but the sylphs, which dwell in the air, are the best conditioned creatures imaginable. Two of these kinds sylphs and gnomesare introduced by Pope in Rape of the Lock.

These aerial spirits of Rosicrucian mythology were tiny, light being which would exactly suit his mock-heroic poem. The gods and goddesses of Homer would not do for his flimsy poem, nor would the angels of Miltons Paradise Lost. The pigmy beings, like the sylphs and the gnomes, are suited to the theme and atmosphere of the poem and they are as artificial as the society depicted in The Rape of the Lock.

The fairies of Shakespeares The Midsummer Nights Dream are also tiny beings but they are different in nature and spirit from the sylphs and gnomes of the Rape of the Lock. The former are gay, delightful spirits wandering about in the moonlight. They embody all the beauty and freshness of nature, and in their limited sphere, they are endowed with the supernatural power, and play pranks in humans. The light militia of the lower sky, in the Rape of the Lock are of a very different character. They are artificial spirits and they have all the vanity and superficiality which they had when they were one enclosed in a womans beauteous mould They take delight in the game of Ombre and help Belinda in her game: Soon as she spreads her Hand, th Aerial Guard Descends, and sits on each important Card.

This artificial mythology of the sylphs harmonizes with the artificial story. It is full of the most fanciful wit. Indeed, wit infused with fancy is Popes particular merit.

The Supernatural in all the epics are of gigantic loftiness exciting our wonder and fears. They leave us awe-stricken at their brilliance and power. The supernatural machinery in Homer have the authority to steer the course of actionLantonas (Apollo, son of Lantona) son a dire contagion spread And heaped the camp with mountains of the dead. In contrast to this Popes Denizons of the air possessed the qualification of a handmaid. Our humbler Province is to tend the Fair Not a less pleasing tho less glorious care. So flimsy and trivial are these spirits that they are even capable of being cut into two by a mere pair of scissors. Therefore in Popes use of the machinery we see a delightful downscaling of the epic machinery. There is delightful mock heroic tone in the fact that Aerial who is the leader of the sylphs is essentially the keeper of Belindas dog. Even the punishments that are described are related to the various articles of the ladys makeupBe stopt in Vials, or transfixed with Pins Or Plungd in Lakes of bitter washes lie Or Wedgd whole Ages in a Bodkins Eye: These are momentous punishments that Aerial can think of. It is however in keeping with the grand fragileness of Popes machinery that they can do nothing to change the course of action in the poem. Before the final cutting of the Lock, Aerial finds that Belinda after all has some feelings for a Beau-

Amazed confused he found his power expired, Resigned to fate and with a sigh retired. The echo of Paradise Lost is unmistakable here reminding us of the Angelic hosts that retire mute and sad resigned to the fall of man.

Pope gives us a detailed description of the Machinery through the two speeches delivered by Aerial--the chief of the Sylphs. Aerial tells Belinda that the spirits were once women of the world but now they have assumed airy bodies. However the vanities of these women are carried over to this new forms of existence. For instance, their love for Ombre and Gilded coaches survive even in their sylphian existence. When beautiful women die in fullness of their pride they will turn to these elements from which they were first derived. E.g. The violent tempered termagants pass into fire and become salamanders while light coquettes go back into the air as sylphs.

Umbriels journey to the Cave of Spleen is yet another concentrated use of the supernatural machinery in Rape of the Lock. This journey is described in proper epic grandeur and reminds us of Virgils Aenied where Aeneas makes a journey to the underworld. The scene of the Cave of Spleen is central in the whole poem. It epitomizes the dominant passion satirized in the poemSpleen or ill humour which caused the quarrel between the Fermors and the Petres. Unlike the light, airy sylphs Umbriels gnome is a dusky melancholy spright. The devotees of spleen suffer from fits of hysteria. Spleen herself is waited upon by two peopleIll Nature and Affectation

A vapour flies over the Gloomy, palace of Spleen which causes hallucinations of- Pale Specteres, Gaping Tombs and Purple Fires.

The Rape of the Lock is in no doubt a masterpiece of Pope. He has moulded the poem in a mock-heroic form and used the supernatural machinery beautifully. Pope once wrote to a friendThe making of that (the machinery) and what was published before fits so well together, I think is one of the greatest proofs of judgement of anything I ever did.