Rape of the Lock

RAPE OF LOCK AS A MOCK EPIC

An Epic is along narrative poem written in an elevated style with a serioustheme at least of national level. As a procedure the poet starts the poem with invocationto the holy spirits to assist him in this task and then plunges into the middle of the story ortheme. The high sounding, bombastic and ornate language, war like speeches, ancientand mythical references and the use of supernatural machinery are some of the mainfeatures or essential ingredients of the epic writing.On the contrary, mock epic, the very word Mock Epic itself suggests the meanings.A mock epic is a type of poetry, which is written in a mocking style or in a ridiculousmanner. In this type of poetry, the poet follows all the rules and convictions of epic writinglaid down by the pioneers except the seriousness of the theme. The intention of the writerof a mock-heroic is not to poke fun at the epics or their conventions and devices thoughthe term “mock epic” or “mock-heroic” suggests such a mockery: he follows instead allthe conventions of the epic in order to point out the discrepancy between the heroic formand the triviality of the subject-matter. The mock epic can be defined as:

“The mock epic is a poetic form, which uses the epic structure, but on a miniaturescale and with a subject that is mean and trivial. Its purpose is satirical to make thesubject look ridiculous by placing it in a frame work entirely inappropriate to it simportance”.

Though this form of epic has rarely been taken up but out of these few, AlexanderPope’s “The Rape of the Lock” is the brilliant example over since it has been produced. The outstanding creator of this mocking poem having gone though the study of ancientepic writers like Homer, Virgil and Milton and was desirous to do something in this form of writing. Pope a profound scholarly person with full command took up the very trivial themeof theft of lock of hair of a beautiful girl, transforming it into an epic just with the...