Question

Why does Alexander Pope use the style and narrative form of epics to describe a relatively insignificant incident in “The Rape of the Lock”?
a.)to mock the epic form, which was popular among the upper class

b.)to mock society for attaching too much importance to trivial things

c.)to mock the foolish acts committed by young gentlemen in love

d.)to mock the vanity and pride of upper-class young women like Belinda

Answer 1

B.)to mock society for attaching too much importance to trivial things

Answer 2

Answer:

b.) To mock society for attaching too much importance to trivial things .

Explanation:

In "The Ra pe of the Lock", Alexander Pope utilizes the mock epic form to mock the society for attaching unnecessary importance to things irrelevant. The poem narrates how a lady's hair was "rap ed" by a young man without asking for permission, and how that "rap e" led to a far more serious issue.

Belinda is the heroine of the poem. She had gone to a place where a party is going on. there, the character Baron, already premeditated, steals a lock of her hair. Pope describes the incident that follows as something like a battle. Belinda then initiates a "war' attempting to get back the piece of hair.

Pope, in symbolizing the attempts to get the hair back as a 'battle', and asking the various "divine beings" to be a part of the poem, gives the poem an epic nature.

This incident was based from a real life occurrence when Arabella Fermor's hair was taken by one of her suitors, Lord Petre. This lead to an argument so serious that the two families started having rifts between them. This inspired Pope to write how little unnecessary things affect families, trivial issues becoming the cause of a family breach.