The Grand Trivial Epic

Casey Johnson

12/7/14

D. Cavin

The Grand Trivial Epic

Written by Casey Johnson

In “1712 saw the first appearance of the The Rape of the Lock, Pope’s best-known work and the one that secured his fame. Its mundane subject—the true account of a squabble between two prominent Catholic families over the theft of a lock of hair—is transformed by Pope into a mock-heroic send-up of classical epic poetry.” Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is a good and unified poem showing how through satire, ordinary daily life can be taken too seriously which represents the Romantic worldview. This poem is unified because all of its component parts pull together to specify the theme’s expression.

In an essay written by David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick College on The Rape of the Lock describes how Alexander’s poem was based on an actual event that was just as trivial as the poem itself. For example in the essay “The Rape of the Lock had its origins in an actual, if trivial, incident in polite society: in 1711, the twenty-one year old Robert, Lord Petre, had at Binfield, had surreptitiously cut a lock of hair from the head of the beautiful Arabella Fermor.”Who, in turn blew the entire incident way out of proportion leading Alexander to write a mock epic poem of the insignificant incident.

Alexander pope’s The Rape of the Lock, in canto three, is an excellent example of a mock epic in blowing things out of proportion. “Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites, Burns to encounter two advent’rous knights, At Ombre singly to their doom: and swells her breast with conquests yet to come.” Lines 25-28. Belinda in stating this is basically boasting her grand battles filled with victories yet to come. As Belinda sits down with Baron and another man to play a game of cards called Ombre, Alexander describes this simple trivial card game as a heroic battle where the cards are the troops combating on the velvet plain. In contrast to Alexander’s The Rape of the...