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Milton Vs Pope - Paper

Milton Vs Pope

In Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve commit the first sin, and from this point on, all other sins are mere copies of this. Alexander Pope uses this to his benefit when he depicts the crime in The Rape of the Lock. By alluding to Milton’s work, Pope is able to comically refer to the cutting of a lock of hair as a tragic and epic event. In doing this, he paradoxically assumes that the crime is not one of personal fault, but one fated to happen by God, just as in Paradise Lost.
“What dire offence from amorous causes springs, / What mighty contests rise from trivial things,” (Pope, ll. 1-2). These first lines of The Rape of the Lock immediately try to make light of the entire ...

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assault a gentle Belle? / O say what stanger cause, yet unexplored, /could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?” (Pope, ll. 7-10). This is an allusion to Adam’s rejection of Eve in Paradise Lost when he laments, “ ‘Out of my sight, thou serpent!’ ” and to Eve’s crime against God (Milton, Bk. X, l. 867). The motives of Sir Plume’s actions are now seen as similar to that of Adam and Eve’s and it sets up the crime against Clarissa as one that could not be avoided.
While Clarissa seems to be visited in her sleep by her guardian angel, it is an obvious reference to Eve’s visit from Satan in Paradise Lost, Book V. The angel, whom we can assume is evil, tells Clarissa she is the “Fairest of mortals…” while Satan addresses Eve as “Nature’s desire” (Pope, l. 27; Milton, l. 45). Both women are instructed in their pride, and can not help but feel better than others. Clarissa must “Hear and ...

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Milton Vs Pope. (2006, March 1). Retrieved January 12, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Milton-Vs-Pope/41991

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/1/2006 01:30:53 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Free Paper
Words: 576
Pages: 3

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