For what purposes does Pope include the machinery and say how far you think they influence character and events. Pope's protagonist is protected and guided by tiny fragile sylphs, who are portrayed throughout the poem

Authors Avatar

For what purposes does Pope include the machinery and say how far you think they influence character and events.

Pope’s protagonist is protected and guided by tiny fragile sylphs, who are portrayed throughout the poem as powerless creatures. Instantly we recognise the poem as a mock epic by the use of such delicate machinery who are supposed to take the role of the gods presented in epic texts, protecting and guiding the hero or in this case the heroine. The sylphs’ incapacity to seize or gain power demonstrates their inability to protect Belinda’s honour; nevertheless, we notice the importance of the sylphs as they demonstrate a major role in Belinda’s life. It is also significant that Pope did not include the sylphs in his original text of rape of the lock, but in fact the sylphs were only introduced in his second making of his poem; evidently, Pope acknowledge the need to employ his machinery, perhaps as a dramatic device, however, there may be a great deal more to their existence than simply to create interest and entertainment for the reader.  

It is through the sylphs that Pope is able to communicate his message to the reader, illustrating the absurdities of Belinda’s world; the sylphs are almost a tool which enables him to criticise Belinda’s character in a subtle matter and indirectly, he is able to satirise Belinda’s world and even society of the time. The sylphs are also a device to convey the character of the ‘coquette’ in the first canto. This is achieved indirectly through the characteristics of the sylphs rather than Belinda herself. The priorities for women of Belinda’s social class are social ones. Women’s ‘toy is gilded chariots’ indicates an obsession with pomp and superficial splendour, whilst the love of ombre suggests frivolity.

Join now!

Another central concern is the protection of chastity, women such as Belinda are taught from an early age to promote themselves and manipulate their suitors without compromising themselves. The sylphs become an allegory for the mannered conventions that govern female social behaviour. Principles like honour and chastity are no more than another part of social convention. Belinda is not conducting herself on the basis of abstract moral principles but by an elaborate social mechanism of which the sylphs are a fitting caricature. When the rape of the lock occurs the sylphs vanish to thin air, their job being done.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay