The Rape of the Lock and Satier.

Society in the Poem

• Indeed, Pope succeeded to treat the social customs of the age with an assumed epic seriousness. The poem is all about "Lords" and "Belles" of the 18th c. London. We see here the elegance and emptiness; the meanness and vanity; the jealousies, treacheries and intrigues of the then society. Both the sexes of the aristocratic society led voluptuous, materialistic life. Pope has shown himself as the spokes-person of his age.

Trivialities in Social Life

• Pope is making fun of a certain lifestyle-culture where people have nothing serious in their life. So they make up their time with silly, trivial matters. They only play with silly emotion. They are pre-occupied with flirtation, envy, vulgar jokes, dressing up, mundane pleasure, cheap poetry, card-play, coffee drinking, balls and masquerades.
• Pope uses dignified style of epic to exaggerate those trivialities; hence satirizes the aristocracy of the 18th c. He shuns  the silly matters of the society, where lords and ladies quarrel about some nasty things. He directs his satiric weapon against self-love and self-interest of the Augustan society.

Subjects of Satire

• It is clear that, the Lord and Baron represent male aristocrats and the Belle represents female aristocrats and the Hampton Court is for the meeting place of the 18th c. aristocratic society. Thus, the satire is confined to a certain section of the English society. A wider satire field is introduced with the ridicule of judges and jury who care more for their belly than for judging. So, the poem satirizes not the whole contemporary society of the 18th century.

Feminine Frivolity

• Belinda wakes up at noon, dreams of a Beau-lover, keeps lap-dogs, desires to be sought after, wastes time beautifying herself, loves to ride gilded chariots and to dress lavishly for the parties. Ladies of the age, learn early in their life how to roll their eyes and to blush in an intriguing manner. Their hearts are like 'toy-shops'.
• The poets satirical vision does not spare Queen Anne, who "Does sometimes counsel take - and sometimes tea" at the Hampton court. It shows that even for the Queen the counseling and drinking tea is the same trivial matter. With Belinda, the follies and frivolities of the whole sex are satirized.

Satire of Contemporary Fashion-culture

• Belinda wakes up late and her eyes first open on Billet-doux. The poet laughs at the conventional vocabulary of those letters. He ridicules excessive attention to self-decoration and -appearance.
• Belinda is described as commencing her toilette operations with a prayers to the cosmetic powers. At her dressing table is "the various offerings of the world"- Indian diamonds, Arabian perfumes, and African white comb of Ivory. Bible is a dressing table element like pins, puffs, powders and Billet-doux. Her honor is less valuable than 'her new brocade'; her necklace is more precious than her heart. She may forget a prayer, but not a masquerade. Such witty and humorous comparison and details show that, Pope censures the fashionable ladies of the century.

work Citation

Csécsi, Petra. “The Rape of the Lock-Analysis.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/38450422/The_Rape_of_the_Lock-analysis.