The Rape of the lock and Themes

•  Sexuality & materialism

The other flaw of that 18th Century’s society was sexuality & materialism that Pope is trying to depict in his poem. It's fairly obvious to us that if you put a bunch of attractive, well-off, and bored young men and women together, sparks are bound to fly in one way or another. They'll get attracted to one another, feel desire for one another, have dreams about one another, maybe even fall in love. That's the trouble with the society Pope depicts in The Rape of the Lock: there's absolutely no way for anyone in it to safely express or act on his or her sexuality, desire, lust, or love. The rules forbid it. And so, instead, sexuality gets warped and twisted into materiality and narcissism: Belinda's love of her own face; the Baron's desire for her locks; Sir Plume's love of his cane and snuffbox. Even when Ariel finds "an Earthly Lover" in Belinda's heart, that fact only serves to put her more in danger of losing her hair to the Baron.

•  Lacking of real manhood

In one angle Pope is showing the lacking of real manhood in 18th century society. Those Greek and Roman guys; Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Aeneas, and all of their ilk were heroes. They all were Armor-wearing, battle-tested, honorable men. So many of the hip men of the upper classes in Pope's era seemed to have fallen woefully short of that heroic & manly traits. They drank tea. They took snuff. They wore silk and satin. They wore wigs as well. And as for honor—they seemed to care more about gossip, backstabbing, and personal gain than the good of society, or of their country. In the Rape of the Lock, Pope juxtaposes the heroic classical ideal of manhood from the ancient epics, with the reality of the beaus (admirers/lovers) who moved through his own society, that he found the latter sadly lacking. 

• Religious piety 

The Rape of the Lock demonstrates Pope’s anxieties concerning the state of religious piety during the early eighteenth century. Pope was Catholic, and in the poem, he indicates his concern that society has embraced objects of worship (beauty) rather than God. His use of religious imagery reveals this perversion. The rituals he depicts in the first and second cantos equate religion with secular love. During Belinda’s toilette, the poem imbues the Bibles and love letters on her dressing table with equal significance. The Baron’s altar to Love in the second canto echoes this scene. On the altar itself an integral part of Christian worship. Pope symbolizes this equation of religious and erotic love in the cross that Belinda wears. This central symbol of Christianity serves an ornamental, not religious function, adorning Belinda’s “white breast”. The cross remains sufficiently secular that “Jews might kiss” it and “infidels adore” it. Of course, Pope leaves ambiguous the implication that the Jews and infidels are admiring Belinda’s breasts and not the cross. This subversion of established principles of Christian worship critiques the laxity of early eighteenth-century attitudes towards religion and morality.

• vanity

The poem is perhaps the most outstanding example in the English language of the genre of mock-epic. One of the main themes of The Rape of the Lock is “vanity”(Self-admiration), specifically the vanity of upper-class English society during the early eighteenth century. Belinda, the glamorous society lady, is an exemplar of this. Each day upon rising, she enters the inner sanctum of her boudoir (a private room) where she proceeds to get dressed, taking great pains to ensure that she is as beautiful and as ravishing as any woman could possibly be. The enormous effort she expends during this elaborate ritual proves well worth it, as admiring heads turn in her direction as she embarks upon her stately journey up the Thames toward Hampton Court Palace.
In fact, Belinda moves in a world that is completely lifeless and shallow, where personal appearance is everything. Her reaction to the Baron's theft of a relatively small piece of her hair may seem a trifle excessive, but her implacable wrath is a satirical reflection on just how vain Belinda and the society she inhabits really is.
The theme of vanity spills over into how the esoteric social elite treats religion. The upper classes of early eighteenth-century England clearly pay nothing more than lip-service to prevailing religious beliefs. Faith, like everything else, is something to be shown off, paraded in front of others as a means of securing their approval and admiration. The juxtaposition of faith and vanity is epitomized by Belinda. She keeps a copy of the Bible on her dressing table, which squats uncomfortably next to all her various accoutrements (additional items) of vanity: hairbrushes, powders, and—appropriately enough—vanity cream.
The Baron also has nothing more than a superficial attachment to religious faith. He wakes up at the crack of dawn to pray for the success of his forthcoming plan to steal a lock of Belinda's hair. But it is all just a sham; he is no more religious than Belinda. His prayers are simply a rather cynical attempt to put a pious gloss upon an act of common thievery. Once again, the motivation for action is vanity; the Baron wants to steal some of Belinda's hair so he can boast of its possession, making him an object of admiration among the smart set.

Work Citation

 Anjum, Arslan. “Rape of the Lock Themes.” Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/39289782/Rape_of_the_Lock_Themes.