The introduction of The Rape of the Lock identifies the poem as a heroi-comical poem- i.e. mock heroic. This style of poem is a type of satire; and in this case, Pope satirises the beau-monde of eighteenth century England

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The introduction of 'The Rape of the Lock' identifies the poem as a 'heroi-comical poem'- i.e. mock heroic. This style of poem is a type of sattire; and in this case, Pope satirises the 'beau-monde' of eighteenth century England of which he was not a part of and Canto 1 demonstrates both his crticism and perhaps even fascination or admiration for Belinda and the society in which she moves.

The tone of Canto one already indicates that the high seriousness of traditional topics has suffered severeve diminishment, and the second line confirms explicitly what the first hints at: 'the am'rous causes' Pope describes ar enot comparable to the grand love of Greek hereos, but rather represent a more trivialized version of the same emotion. In lines one and two, Pope suggests that society is taking a fairly trivial incident too seriously, displaying an exaggerated sense of their own importance. The 'contests' Pope alludes to prove to be 'mighty' only in an ironic sense. They are card-games and frilvous tussles as opppsed to the great battles of epic tradition. Unlike the Helen of Troy, 'the face that launched a thousand ships', Belinda prompts foppish nonsense. With Belinda's dream, Pope