Alex's Analysis Of Any Abject Abuse

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Pope is definitely pointing to the "lightness" of the social life
of the privileged, he also recognizes their sincerity in attempting to be
polite and well-mannered and pretend to recognize where the true values lie.

Pope satirizes female vanity. He wrote the poem at the request of
his friend, John Caryll, in an effort to make peace between real-life
lovers. The incident of the lock of hair was factual; Pope's intention was
to dilute with humor the ill feelings aroused by the affair. He was, in
fact, putting a minor incident into perspective, and to this end, chose a
mock-heroic form, composing the poem as a "take-off" epic poetry,
particularly the work of Milton. He is inviting the individuals involved
to laugh at themselves, to see how emotion had inflated their response to
what was really an event of no consequence. For the reader, the incident
becomes a statement about human folly, a lesson on female vanity, and a
satire of the rituals of courtship. ...

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offense" that springs from "amorous causes" and the "mighty contest
s" that rise from "trivial things" (1-2) -- hardly the lofty and weighty
subjects of epic poetry -- and names his Muse "Caryll" (3) for his friend
John Caryll, the relative of the young lord who stole the lock of hair from
Arabella Fermor -- not the proper sort of Muse for epic poetry. By way of
mythological spirits hovering over earthly concerns, Pope gives us sylphs
that are really the spirits of young women like Belinda. Milton's Adam had
the angel Raphael looking out for him; Belinda has Ariel, one of the "light
militia of the lower sky" (42). He jokingly raises Belinda to the exalted
stature proper to epic heroines ...

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