specialty—could not forego the chance to not only defuse the dispute between the Fermors and Lord Petre but also to hold a mirror up to what he viewed as the frivolousness of the upper classes.

Pope begins the mock-epic with an epic's traditional opening:

What dire Offence from am’rous Causes springs,
What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things,
I sing — This Verse to C——, 3 Muse! is due;
This, ev’n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the Subject, but not so the Praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my Lays.

As with all epics, the poem begins in medias res, in the middle of things, but unlike conventional epics, Pope immediately characterizes the subject as "trivial Things" rather than, for example, what we read at the beginning of Virgil's Aeneid—"I sing of arms and of a man." In addition to labeling the subject trivial, Pope confirms that "Slight is the Subject," leaving no doubt as to his purpose, which is to help quell the fight between two families and to point out the greater follies of a society that thinks a lock of hair is worth going to war over (figuratively speaking).

Pope elevates the cause of this dispute to epic status when he describes Arabella Fermor's hair:

This Nymph, to the Destruction of Mankind,
Nourish’d two Locks, which graceful hung behind
In equal Curls, and well conspir’d to deck
With shining Ringlets her smooth Iv’ry Neck.
Love in these Labyrinths his Slaves detains,
And mighty Hearts are held in slender Chains.

Whereas in Homer's Iliad the epic's subject is what follows the "wrath of Achilles," we have the cause of another epic battle: locks of hair. Pope's readers, most of whom would have been very familiar with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, both of which were translated into English by Pope shortly after the composition of this mock-epic, were undoubtedly pleasantly surprised by Pope's use of the epic genre to depict such a frivolous waste of time and effort as the Fermor-Petre dispute, which shows the upper classes to be consumed by self-indulgence.

Perhaps the most damning indictment of upper-class shallowness comes with Pope's description of Arabella Fermor's immediate reaction to Lord Petre's act of "rape":

Then flash’d the living Lightnings from her Eyes,
And Screams of Horror rend th’ affrighted Skies.
Not louder Shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,
When Husbands or when Lap-dogs breath their last,
Or when rich China Vessels, fal’n from high,
In glittring Dust and painted Fragments lie!

Miss Fermor's cries of outrage are equal to the shrieks of women losing husbands or lap-dogs, a juxtaposition that is both funny and damning at the same time. To say that the upper class depicted here lack perspective is an understatement, and the comparison is a masterful stroke on Pope's part because it places the upper-class worldview on display as not just out of touch with reality but oblivious to the proper concern of mankind, which, according to Pope, is man.

"The Rape of the Lock" presents us with a rather unflattering portrait of upper-class English society. The social elite are given to us by Pope as shallow, superficial, and hopelessly vain, obsessed with their appearances and wasting their copious free time on the pursuit of mindless trivia. In short, this is a society where surface is everything, and substance nothing.

In such an environment, virtue is almost non-existent. What matters is the appearance of it. We see this feature of upper-class English life starkly illustrated by the contents of Belinda's dressing table, on which a Bible is ostentatiously displayed alongside her beauty creams, powders, and hairbrushes. The Good Book, like everything else in Belinda's life, is there for show. She herself worships at the altar of beauty, especially her own, and men and women in her social milieu are fellow acolytes, elevating physical attractiveness above all human qualities. This explains why Belinda is driven to such paroxysms of rage by the theft of her lock of hair and why the rest of society becomes embroiled in an epic conflict to get it back.

"The Rape of the Lock" offers a window into upper-class society in the early 18th century. At this time, England was rising as an empire and on the brink of becoming a world power. Wealth from various colonies, especially colonial outposts in India, flooded into the country, most of it to be captured by the upper classes. 

In this poem, we see a very wealthy upper class enjoying leisure and trivial pursuits. They go to balls, visit each other, gossip, drink tea, and play cards. The poem mocks  them for their idleness and their tendency to exaggerate issues that don't matter into "epics" or "dramas" of grand proportions. Today, we might call them "drama queens" or say they make mountains out of a molehill. 

As Pope writes, the rich focus on the following:

Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word a reputation dies.

The "Indian screen" represents the many coveted objects from India coming into England, expanding a mercantile or trade-based culture. Tea drinking represents wealth, as the tea imported from China was very expensive in the early 18th century (the cost would fall over the course of the century), and thus a status symbol. "At every word a reputation dies" suggests that upper-class people engaged in petty and destructive gossip rather than building a strong community.

The poem reflects anxieties that the British upper class lacked the courage, virtues and abilities of the men and women in the Greek and Roman world. By framing the poem as a Classical (Greco-Roman) mock epic, Pope highlights how trivial and misguided upper class pursuits had become in comparison to the real probems the Greeks and Romans faced. If a war were to come, could the British upper classes lead armies effectively? Could a group focused on card playing, gossip, flirtations, and balls manage the growth of England into a world power? At this time, England looked to Rome with great admiration as a model of how to run an empire: the poem calls out to people to note what is lacking in the English and to become more serious.

Alexander Pope's famous poem The Rape of the Lock is not only a wonderful satire, but also a valuable illustration of the upper class society of Pope's day (remember that Pope published the final form of the poem in 1717, making it an illustration of 18th century English society). By poking fun at the foibles of upper crust English social life, Pope also provides insight into and a reflection of this society.

Take, for instance, Belinda's extensive preparation in Canto 1. In this section, Pope describes Belinda's process of putting on makeup and preparing for the day as if he were describing some elaborate ceremony of great importance. As an example, check out this brief excerpt:

The inferior priestess, at her altar's side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.
Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil. (127-132)  

In this passage, we see that Belinda's beauty accessories are likened to treasures stored in an altar, while Belinda herself becomes a goddess decked "with the glittering spoil." From this outrageous description, we get a glimpse into the extreme materialism of elite English society, while also getting insight into the inordinate value placed upon appearance. As such, in this passage Pope pokes fun at the vain, materialistic nature of upper class English culture.

Additionally, Pope reflects the triviality of wealthy English society by describing a card game in epic fashion in Canto 3. For a clearer example of this idea, take a look at this excerpt:

Behold, four Kings in majesty revered,
With hoary whiskers and a forky beard;
And four fair Queens whose hands sustain a flower,
The expressive emblem of their softer power;
Four Knaves in garbs succinct, a trusty band,
Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand;
And parti-colored troops, a shining train,
Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain. (37-44)

This epic passage is actually describing cards arrayed for a simple card game. However, this passage is also rendered in a tone suitable for epic poetry, and so Pope makes fun of the seriousness with which his characters approach their card game. In doing so, Pope also displays the trivial concerns of the English upper classes, as the importance they give to their card game seems out of touch with reality.

These examples are just a sample of the ways in which Pope reflects and makes fun of the society of his day. Now that you have some examples under your belt, it should be easy to identify all the ways Pope reflects society in The Rape of the Lock.

Pope critiques the vacuousness of upper-class eighteenth-century society by writing a mock epic that compares it unfavorably to the heroic culture of the Iliad.

Rather than fighting a war to save their society, the upper class members of English society spend hours getting dressed, donning jewelry, and having their hair done so they can float down the Thames in boats to a card party. They are worried not about life and death, but about gossiping about each other and about who will win the card game. A lord cutting a lock of Belinda's hair without her permission is likened to a "rape." The following quote shows how inane and empty the lives of these aristocrats are:

In various talk th' instructive hours they past,
Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen

The overheated language with which Belinda's lost lock is treated at the climax of the poem, as if it is a disaster of epic proportions, only underscores how ridiculous these people's lives are. Pope is hoping to wake privileged people up to be less concerned with petty matters and more with issues of genuine substance.

"The Rape of the Lock" is a social satire in that it pokes fun at the upper classes of early eighteenth-century England.

Pope turns a critical eye on the English aristocracy and shows them to be vain, shallow, hypocritical, and obsessed with mindless trivia. In the style of a mock-epic, Pope presents the relatively trivial case of a baron snipping off a lock of an upper-class lady's hair as if it were a matter of considerable importance, the kind of earthshaking event that would form the basis of an ancient epic, rather like the Trojan War in the Iliad.

The use of mock-epic allows Pope to make the aristocracy look utterly ridiculous. Here they are, he seems to say, making a mountain out of a molehill over a mere lock of hair, obsessed as they are by physical appearance and social status.

Pope's satire is relentless, never missing an opportunity to poke fun at those deemed to be the cream of society. As with all the most effective satire, Pope doesn't just snipe; he also suggests the possibility of a different world, a world where people aren't obsessed with trivia and see beyond mere outward appearances.

Let's define what is exactly contemporary satire. This genre belongs to a form of comedic literature whose purpose is to present a mocked scenario as it if were serious. This is an aim to criticize and basically laugh about serious topics that, in a contemporary satire, will be ridiculed and belittled.

In "The Rape of the Lock", Pope criticizes the aristocrats of his time with their ridiculous social rules and expectations by blowing out of proportion an argument between two rich families over a stolen lock of hair. This is what is known as the idiom "a tempest in a teacup", or the exaggerated rendition of a petty situation.

Pope modeled the family feuds as an epic battle almost identical to The Iliad, complete with a mirror version of the abduction of Helen of Troy in the form of the rape of the lock. Everything from excerpts of The Illiad are quoted, the names of gods are used for characters, and the exaggeration of it all is what makes it a satire.

If "The Rape of the Lock" were a traditional poem the situations would not be satirized nor mocked, especially to the extent that Alexander Pope uses it. The theme of love, beauty and courage are idealized in Pope's age. Hence, what he did is like a "mockumentary" of one of those uber romantic and emotional episodes to humor a population that craved a change of pace.