Formative Assessment Essay

The Rape of the Lock, scripted by pontiff in response to a feud betwixt two friends about the theft of a lock of hair, is revolutionary in its evolution of the comic satire genre into the field of epic poetry.pope, an devouring(a) student of the Greek epics (he produced his own translations of some that provided much of his income during his life), takes the basic plan of an epic its structure, critical contented and level(p) linguistic points and crafts around the skeletal system a poem of wit and comedy that is at its core epic, unless also dos this very epic backbone to undermine its tales own impressiveness and to satirise the content that has been moulded around the form. This creation from Pope marks the appendage of the epic genre, transforming it into mock epic, an independent genre that bears many of the traits of its forebearer in a new light.The transformations to the epic that Pope undertakes in the Rape of the Lock to satiric effect can be broadly split into t ransformations of heroic content and transformations of heroic expression. The former can be clearly observed hither Pope takes a staple of epic writing, heroic implementry, and catchs its use to his satirical needs. The weapon itself is given, through the use of a similar description, equal channelise with great weapons like Agamemnons sceptre, whose air was used to reinforce Agamemnons dominance and power in the Iliad, being forged by Hephaestus and own by the Gods from Zeus to Kronos.Belindas weapons melodic line is far less great. quite of a scepter, the weapon of kings and priests in Homers writing, Belinda wields a poniard, a hair needle. Even that difference itself is satirical Agamemnons kingship is of great logical implication to the Iliad so the parallel with a bodkin, which relates to the hair in principal much like the scepter links with kingship, makes a clear recital on the relative importance of the quarrel in the Rape of the Lock.The lineage too satirises the pointlessness of dispute no claim of divinity (and consequently righteousness) is made on the part of Belindas weapon in situation its lineage mainly consists of feminine objects with the only male mentioned in its lineage also being the only one to explicitly be mentioned dying. mayhap Pope, often accused of being somewhat sexist, is using this contrast and phylogeny to imply that the whole issue is a womans trivia and nothing next to the male quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon.On top of this, the weapon is not the fixed centre of the lineage as in the Iliad, in which the weapon started as a shaper weapon and stayed that way. Instead the object is shot it starts as signet rings, develops into a buckle and then becomes a bodkin. Pope changes up the epic formula of the mighty weapon into something changeable and thus insignificant, paralleling with the motive he is satirising, the implication being that it is insignificant and will easily be forgotten. The weapon also sho ws another perversion of the epic poem that Pope uses.Protection, be it through armor or weaponry, tends to have a amply place in the Greek epics. Heroes often wear famed suits of armour or use shields/weapons to survive insurmountable odds (for example the pensive shield in Perseus tale in Ovids Metamorphoses that slays Medusa). This element of protection, divine or otherwise, is a theme that Pope subverts consistently. From the slyph Ariel who is half dissolvd even by light to the Cosmetic powers of her dress and make-up, nothing effectively protects Belinda.The bodkin is no different, it fails to protect her locks from being cut in the initial case, and here, although she uses it to feeler the Baron, it fails to return its charge, her hair, to her. Pope is modernising traditional epics, using these typical protections to mock game societies fixation on appearance. All of her outward facing beauty and ancient bodkins cannot protect her from the advances of a single man, so wh at, Pope asks, is the use of all this artifice? Pope also mutates generic language elements from epic literature for his satirical intentions.In this passage, the clearest example is in his use of the ten syllable rhyming heroic twain. Pope takes the rhyme of the couplet and uses it to link together two separate words or ideas, often to a comical effect. Here, in the lines, Nor feared the chief the unequal fight to try, Who sought no more than on his foe to die. Pope has the first line of the couplet set up the Barons bravery by exhibition his fearlessness in fighting against Belinda in unequal combat (ironic in itself due to Belindas natural weakness compared to his manly strength referred to in the next couplet) before defeating the heroic xpectancy with a sexual pun the forge to die holding at the time a dual heart and soul referring to sexual climax, and often premature climax at that. His heroism is create up and destroyed within a couplet with the contrast of formal brav ery and base desire providing a humorous and satirical twist on the typical heroism of the heroic couplet by suggesting that the sustain behind the Barons actions is, at its deepest level, sexual, rather than noble or courtly.