About Him…• Born in London

• Catholic

• Limited Education

• Translated Homer’s Ilida and Odyssey

• Educated himself by reading the works of classical writers and English writers

• Interested in translating pomes

• Suffered from Tuberculosis

• Friends with Tory writers

• Created the Scriblerus Club with Gay, Swift, Parnell, and Arbuthnot

• Became famous among with them and readers

• Criticized by his enemies

“Youthful poetry, with tender concern with natural beauty and love…abound in visual imagery and descriptive passages of ideally ordered nature; they remind us that Pope was an amateur painter.”

Norton Anthology

Beliefs, Motives &

Philosophies •Roman Catholic •For the translation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey ,Pope undertook it for profit and fame.•Plagued with illness from early on, he didn’t allow that to defeat him instead turned those disadvantages into positives. •He made the best of what he had.

•Although brilliant with crafting Mock-epics he was concerned with natural beauty and love. •Attacked for his writings, religion and physical deformities Pope was always defending himself against attackers.

Terminology •Jacobitism - The political movement in England to restore the Stuart line to the throne. Began in response to the deposing of James II. Most Jacobites were Catholics who hoped that restoring James II would also restore the rights they lost under Protestant rulers.•Whigs - A political party in the English Parliament formed on the belief in a constitutional monarchy and an opposition to absolute rule. •Tory - A political party in the English Parliament formed with the belief that a stronger monarchy was needed to counteract the power of Parliament. 

Timeline of Important Historical & Cultural Stuff

•1688 - Alexander Pope is born•1688 - James II abdicates and flees England. Is replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William in the "Glorious Revolution“•Bill of Rights is passed by Parliament limiting the power of the monarchy over Parliament •1689 - First of many rebellions in support of the exiled James II. His supporters are called Jacobites.

•1690  - New, stricter Penal Laws are passed denying Catholics and Presbyterians rights to teach, attend university or hold public office•Because of these laws Pope had to live off of his work.•1692 - 150+ people are accused and 20 are hanged for practicing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts•1694 - Mary dies leaving William to rule alone•1700 - Death of John Dryden•1701 - James II dies in exile in France. France recognizes his son as "James III"•1701 - Agricultural Revolution begins with the invention of the seeding drill

•1702 - King William dies and is succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne.•1704 - Jonathan Swift publishes Tale of a Tub•1709 - Alexander Pope publishes his first work, Pastorals, at age 21•New law called the Copyright Act is enacted. Grants owner 14 years protection, renewable for another 14 years if author is still alive.•1711 - Alexander Pope publishes Essay on Criticism•1713 - Jonathan Swift becomes Dean of St. Patrick's •1714 - Pope publishes the first version of the satirical poem Rape of the Lock

•1714 - Death of Queen Ann and accession of George I•1719 - A Jacobite invasion is discovered and stopped•1722 - Parliament levies another tax on Catholics•1727 - George I dies and George II accents to the throne•1726 - Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels•1728 - Pope publishes The Dunciad, considered by many to be his masterpiece•1729 - Jonathan Swift publishes A Modest Proposal•1733 - Pope publishes Essay on Man•1744 - Benjamin Franklin invents the Franklin stove

•1744 - Alexander Pope dies May 30th.

•Although Pope befriend both Whigs and Tories, Pope seems to have leaned more towards the ideology of the Tories with his later friendships and collaborations being with outspoken Tories such as Jonathan Swift, the poet John Gay, and the poet Thomas Parnell. 

The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the LockBelinda (Arabella Fermor) –

Pope's friend from Catholic church group.

Baron (Lord Petre) – Pope's friend from Catholic church group. Cuts Arabella's hair off.

Caryl (John Caryll) – Pope's friend who informed him about the fight between two families and suggested to write poem to “sooth ruffled tempers“

Canto 1Mock heroic style – Love

and War

Use of “Machinery“ – the super natural agents

Parodies from “Liad“, “Aeneid“, and “Paradise lost“ – compare small things with great = ironic

Satiring society that cares about small things and making it to huge trouble

Canto 2 Details on Belinda –

criticizes how people only care about the external and not care about the quintessence

Adoration of beauty = natural thing

Ritual = mock heroic – sacrifice

Sylphs protecting Belinda from men – morality of sex in this era

Cutting hair off from a girl =

“Rape“

The Dunciad

•“answer song“ to Pope's critics and other authors

•Invokes irony by parodying and mocking “Paradise Lost“ mainly

•“Satan's threat to return the world to its original darkness, chaos, and ancient night“ (2560).

•“The subject of The Dunciad is the undoing of God's creation“ (2560).

The Dunciad

Book of the Fourth

•“Chaos and eternal Night“ - invoked in place of the muse, because “the restoration of their empire is the action of the poem“ (2561). Also mocks the quote below

•“Of darkness visible“ - parody from “Paradise lost“ by John Milton

•Dog-stars – Super hot season + Roman poet had tradition to read their work during summer = Mad poets

•Venal – using power in a dishonest or unfair way and accepting money as a reward for doing it

•Higher the throne, the dumber the person

•Laureate = Colley Cibber – the hero from The Dunciad 2, and an English poet Laureate and writer who copied things from a lot of people

•Chicane in Furs = Judges

•Casuistry in Lawn = Bishops

•Science = intelligence / knowledge

•Billingsgate = cussing

The Educator•“The first address“ = “Paradise Lost“

•“Specter” = mad poets

•Wand = teachers

•Beavered = Doctors

•Eton, Winton, Westminster = Name of schools where sons of rich went

•“fancy“ = creativity

•“exercise the breath“ = “students are taught only to recite the classic poets by heart“ (2562).

•“pale to words“ = bad quality copy of an earlier works

•“House of Hall“ = place where law cases were heard

Canto 3

•Hampton Court (Crime Scene): Royal palace where royal families and famous people traditionally attend parties; Baron (Lord Petre) commits the heinous crime of cutting Belinda’s (Arabella Fermor) lock of hair.

•Ombre: Card game that is similar to modern day game of Bridge, where tricks may be played and trumps may be called.

•Toilet: May be a metaphor for the origins of Vanity, but in this poem it takes the meaning of toiletries or dressing room cosmetics.

•Forfex: Fancy name for Scissors; Sexual imagery.

•Steel: Used for the male embodiment of strength and firmness; Sexual imagery.

Canto 3 Continued

•Belinda and friends arrive at Hampton Court to flirt, gossip, and ruin others’ reputations.

•Toiletries cease and Ombre (War of the Sexes or Courtship) takes place on a card table, battlefield of “green velvet.”

•They get tipsy with Coffee or Liquor causing Belinda to lose the card game even with the help of her Sylphs.

•Clarissa gives the Baron the Forfex (pair of scissors).

•Baron is foiled:-1st by the Sylphs blowing

Belinda’s hair away.-2nd by the Sylphs twitching

Belinda’s diamond earrings causing her to turn away.

-3rd attempt is successful.

•Ariel discovers Belinda’s secret desire to lose•her virginity and leaves her defenseless.

•The Baron claims his prize and Belinda screams as though she has been raped.

-Belinda loses her lock of hair (Honor, Reputation, Pride).-Belinda does not lose her virginity.

•Belinda surrenders to her fate against male steel;•Sexual imagery.

Canto 5

-The Baron doesn’t give up the lock.

-Belinda tries to understand her error in being so vain.○Why is beauty most important to man?○Why are angelic appearances more important than angelic

virtues?○Why not place more importance on good sense and good

humor?

-Belinda’s audience isn’t impressed.

-Thelastris initiates an all out war against the Baron.

-Chaos between heroes and heroines and Umbriel sitting proud of his accomplishment.

-Belinda does a Kamikaze attack on the Barn throwing powdery snuff at him and threatened to stab him with her bodkin.

-The Baron tells her to humble herself because she’ll suffer the same fate in return.

-The Baron begs her to let him live with bad future courtships instead of dying.

-Nobody wins in war. The prize (Belinda’s lock) is lost in battle and becomes a star along with all the other envied treasures of the moon.

○Honor○Lover’s Hearts○Courtiers Promises○Sick Men’s Prayers.○Smiling Harlots

-Moral is supposed to be that beauty fades, but honor and integrity are the only lasting human qualities.

○Pope’s intentionally mocks this moral of society with his poem because none of the characters really learn anything.

○Quarreling over cut hair is petty compared to the demoralizing effects of actual rape.

Dunciad: The Carnation and the Butterfly

•The Virtuosi: Amateur scientists and collectors.•The Carnation: Queen Caroline; an enthusiastic gardener.

Dunciad: The Carnation and the Butterfly Continued

•Pope degrades The Virtuosi into a tribe of locusts, crowned with weeds and shells; bearing collected gifts to the Queen Dulness.•Two childish scientists whine to Queen Dulness about a Carnation and a Butterfly.

◇ Carnation: Raised by the scientist to be the perfect carnation and displayed in a glass-encased throne.

■Caroline is praised only while she is alive.

■Once dead, no cries of “charming” or “divine”

◇ Scientist accuses the other for trampling his perfect carnation to catch a butterfly.

◇ Butterfly: Caught by another scientist without any regard to the carnation.

■ Line 431: “Rose or carnation was below my car; I meddle, Goddess! Only in my sphere.” (narrow minded characteristic)

■ Line 433: “I tell the naked fact without disguise, And, to excuse it, need but show the prize;” (disregard for others is justified by the prize)

◇ Pope mocks the actions of the scientists by having Queen Dulness commend them.

■ Line 441: “The common soul, of heaven’s more frugal make, Serves but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake:” (The soul is cheap and insignificant.) ■ Pope describes the dull as easily amused and preoccupied with minor things. ■ Line 452: “Poised with a tail, may steer on Wilkins’ wings.”

◇ Absurd idea from John Wilkins, founder of Royal Society, that men may fly by attaching wings to their bodies.

"A Just View of the English Stage" by William Hogarth. The print shows Wilkes, Colley Cibber, Booth rehearsing a new farce to out-compete John Rich (producer) at Drury Lane. N.b. the toilet articles scattered around, and the toilet paper reading "Hamlet" and "Way of Ye World."

Dunciad: The Triumph of Dulness

•After announcing her dunces, Queen Dulness commands them to “indulge in the triviality closest to their heart.”

◇ Line 582: “Be proud, be selfish, and be dull.”

■ Carnation and Butterfly

•Following her speech, the dunces run rampant. ◇ Everything is upside down and

backwards. ■ Leaders chase after trivial things. ■ Tyrants rule the Land of the Dunciad.

•Nature and the Gods yawn. ◇ Parliament is lost. ◇ Laziness among the battlefront.

•Dulness got rid of sense, shame, right, and wrong.

•Rebirth of Night and Chaos. ◇ Darkness ◇ No more lights of knowledge, art, religion,

and morality.

•Universal Darkness

Criticism of Pope & His Works: Title: Pope as a Moralist Author: Leslie Stephen Publication Details: The Cornhill Magazine 28.167 (Nov. 1873): p583-604.

•“…theory that all literature is nothing more than an imaginative rendering, in concrete terms, of a writer's philosophy or beliefs. It is the role of criticism, he contends, to translate into intellectual terms what the writer has told the reader through character, symbol, and event”

•Stephen observed that: “The whole art of criticism consists in learning to know the human being who is partially revealed to us in his spoken or his written words.”

• Stephen judges the moralistic quality of Pope's verse.•“The extraordinary vitality of Pope's writings is a remarkable phenomenon in its way. Few reputations have been exposed to such perils at the hands of open enemies or of imprudent friends.”

Rape of the Lock-•“I shall venture to assume, indeed, that Pope was a genuine poet”•“It is sufficient to name the Rape of the Lock, which is allowed, even by his bitterest critics, to be a masterpiece of delicate fancy....”

Title: Hair apparentAuthor(s): Peter Ackroyd Source: The Guardian, Friday 1 October 2004Petere Ackroyed’s areticle in The Guardian, October 2004 critique’s Pope’s “Rape of the Lock”:

•“The Rape of the Lock is itself an image of warfare in miniature.”

•“The narrative is based upon a real incident in what we might now describe as ‘the war of the sexes’ ”

•“It is life measured as a dance. Pope's own description was of a "whimsical piece of work ... a sort of writing very like tickling". No critic could give a better account.”

•“Never has so great a poem emerged from so trivial a cause. The stolen hair has achieved immortality.”

Title: Alexander Pope: Overview Author(s): Pat Rogers Source: Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St.

•“In some respects it might be better to think of The Dunciad as a ``middle-period'' work, still fanciful in execution and somewhat veiled in its methods.”

•“The Dunciad is an uproarious and splendidly comic version of recent political and literary history”

Title: Pope and plagiarism Author(s): Richard Terry Source: The Modern Language Review. 100.3 (July 2005): p593. From Literature Resource Center.

•“Pope is the poet of the English Augustan age whose peace of mind and posthumous reputation were most disturbed by allegations of plagiarism”.

•“In the 1720s Pope increasingly identifies plagiarism as a disorder generic among bad writers, and accordingly the plagiarism accusation becomes in his writing a staple form of satiric incrimination.”

•“Pope's complex relation to the plagiarism allegation reflects his turbulent working life as a satirist: no author whose career was as controversial and divisive as his could have hoped to avoid the plagiarism accusation, for in the early eighteenth century such accusations were traded as a currency of literary enmity.”