Do you justify that The Rape of the Lock has no moral?

Question: Do you justify that The Rape of the Lock has no moral?

Or, “The Rape of the Lock is more than a mock-heroic poem; it is a criticism of life”. Discuss.

Or, Comment on the significance of Clarissa's speech in Canto-V of The Rape of the Lock.

Or, What moral lesson do you get from your reading of The Rape of the Lock?

Or, Comment on the moral of the poem The Rape of the Lock.

Or, What moral has been noted in The Rape of the Lock?

Answer: The use of the word ‘rape' in the little of the poem The Rape of the Lock invited many of Pope's critics and contemporaries to comment on it as an immoral and distasteful poem. Because the word ‘rape' refers to the severe and gross violation of social, religious, moral, or ethical codes. It has a sexual implication. It relates to the violation of a lady's chastity or virginity. So the poem received a mixed reaction from the critics and contemporaries. John Dennis an eminent poet and critic charged the Pope for not following the accepted convention, and rules of epic a for dealing with a pettifogging substance without any morals. But a close and careful reading of the text discloses that Pope was really following the conventional code of morality in his epic.

The poet Alexander Pope has used Clarissa as his mouthpiece. Pope's critic Warburton commented that the poet has introduced Clarissa's speech "to open more clearly the moral of the poem” Her (c) proverbial lines have earned enormous popularity among many critics and readers far and wide. Through her, Pope imparts the moral of the poem:

“But since, alas! frail beauty must decay,

Curl'd or uncurl'd since Locks will turn grey;

Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,

And she who scorns a man must die a maid;”

“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”

These beautiful lines of Clarissa are some universal truths of human life that the external pomp and show, ostentations and grandeur, and physical charm or beauty are all but transient and temporal. Human beings will grow old, and beauty will turn to dust once. And the ladies who neglect or defy men will die unmarried. The coquettes may roll their eyes or ogle at the young gallants to attract their attention but this way they can only satisfy their sights not their souls. Now, this speech of Clarissa has been vehemently criticized. Critics have raised a storm over the fact that Clarissa who has helped the Baron in his evil design by supplying a pair of scissors to rape Belinda's beautiful lock, cannot be a moralist. The helper of a ‘raper' imparting a moral is like a “lecher turning a “preacher' Despite the fact of massive opposition from many critics, Clarissa's speech has been widely accepted as the moral of the poem.

Moreover, Ariel's speech over Belinda's excessive jubilation on the fortunate victory in the game of ombre has a moralizing effect.

"O thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,

Too soon dejected, and too soon elate."

What Ariel wants to say is that men should think before they ink, the show should look before they leap. Because human beings do not know what is going to happen next. Belinda never knew that the day of her victory would be the day of her misfortune and woe, she would part with her precious possession and treasure, her beautiful lock of hair. So in dejection and rejection, man should be moderate and mediocre. Misfortunes do not last forever. Because "every cloud has a silver lining” And in elation and jubilation man should control excessive emotion. Because weal and woe come by turns and happiness cannot dominate for long as it “is an occasional episode in the long drama of pain.”

Throughout the poem, Pope has been critical of the follies, frivolities, vanities, shallowness, hollowness, false pride, artificial ego, laziness, idleness superficiality, and hypocrisy in the life of the 18" century people. Mirroring the faults and weaknesses in the character of the people, Pope wanted to teach them that they should shake off these defects of their character. Pope has criticized the fashionable belles and beaux of the time with a view to correct them. Dryden said, "the true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction.” The great satirist Jonathan Swift said that his satire was,

“With a noble view designed

To cure the vices of mankind.”

Thus all satirists have a noble mission or a moral lesson in view. “ Concord preserves and discord destroys'- can be another lesson of Pope's The Rape of the Lock. Discord disturbs the peacefulness and tranquillity of life. Pope advocates good sense and reason against external pomp and splendor. He imparts the lesson that vanities and pride are deadly sins- the most important flaw and weakness in human character. The practice of it will lead one to damnation and avoidance of it will ensure one's salvation. This is how The Rape of the Lock with all of its implicit and explicit sexual and emotional implications, shatters, attacks, and criticizes the follies, shams, and frivolities with a view to establishing a calm, order, a balance, a decorum, and etiquette in an artificial world. And it makes "The Rape of the Lock” more than a mock-epic.