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Trivial Matters Make A Good Satire

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Trivial matters make a good satire. A satire, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a poem ridiculing prevalent vices or follies by means of elevated language and other poetic devices. Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock poem is a mock-epic, a subgenre of the satire. Pope’s poem follows a pattern that resembles epic poetry – It is relatively long, divided in cantos, developed in heroic couplets in Iambic Pentameter. Also, the action of the story takes place in a single day, in a single location: London; thus, there is a unity of time, place and action. By means of these devices, the speaker creates a mock-epic where otherworld characters –Sylphs, spirits, and so forth – interact with Belinda, an earthly character with the intention of protecting her from any harm (Canto 2, 122); Belinda is an aristocratic young lady who, according to fate (Canto 3, 151) –a central point in epic poetry, loses one of her locks at the hands of the baron in the social gathering that is taking place later on that day at the Hampton Court Palace. Belinda, being part of the aristocratic circles, is determined to be the center of attention in that social gathering, for she wants to be highly regarded (Canto 3, line 25); however the opposite happens when the Baron cuts one of her locks that Belinda feels dishonored (Canto 4, 152), according to her viewpoint. It is the excessive importance that Belinda gives to her flock what, by a change of focus, the speaker uses to play with the

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