Table of Contents

Academic Details
Assignment Details
The following information—numbers are counted using QuillBot
Keywords
Research Question
Hypothesis
Introduction
The Social Goddess and Her Performed Power
The "Superior Force": Belinda as Masculine Dominator
The Passive Prize: Belinda as Colonized Territory
The Unwitting Catalyst: Belinda as Psychological Trigger
Conclusion: The Illusion of Power
References

Academic Details:

Name: Mulrajsinh Gohil


Roll No: 23

Enrollment No: 5108250016

Sem: 1

Batch: 2025-27

E-mail: mulrajsinhgohil100@gmail.com

Assignment Details:

Paper Name: Literature of the Neo-classical Period 


Paper No: 102

Paper Code: 22393

Unit: 2 - Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock

Topic: The Conflicting Natures of Belinda: An Analysis of Her Power

Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Submitted Date: 6th November 2025

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Words: 2954

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Paragraphs: 46

Sentences: 131

Reading time: 11m 49s

Abstract

This essay investigates the contradictory nature of female power in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock by analyzing its heroine, Belinda. The central problem is that Belinda is simultaneously portrayed as a "Goddess" with the power to "compel" and a passive, "gentle Belle" who is easily "assaulted." This paper synthesizes four distinct critical lenses to deconstruct this paradox: a social reading (via SparkNotes) of Belinda as a "coquette" trapped in a "misogynistic bind"; a gender-reversal critique (via Cohen) that posits Belinda as a "dominant," "manly," and "superior" force in a world where men are the "weaker sex"; a post-colonial reading (via Salma) that inverts this, arguing Belinda is an entirely "passive" "metaphorical female" symbolizing the "humiliated" and "colonized" British Empire; and a psychological reading (via Meyers) that frames her as an unwitting "catalyst" whose beauty triggers the Baron's "hair-fetishism." This essay argues that these conflicting natures are not mutually exclusive but are the core of Pope's satire. Belinda's "power" is ultimately a required social performance—an illusion that provides her with no real agency. She is the ultimate paradox: a "superior force" (Cohen) who is, in the end, nothing more than a "humiliated and appropriated" (Salma) object.

Keywords

Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Belinda, Power, Contradiction, Gender Reversal, Post-colonialism, Psychological Criticism, Fetishism, Mock-Heroic, Satire, Coquette, Agency

Research Question

What is the true nature of Belinda's power in The Rape of the Lock, and how do the conflicting interpretations of her character (as a social coquette, a dominant masculine force, a passive colonial symbol, and a psychological trigger) collectively reveal the core of Pope's satire on 18th-century gender roles?

Hypothesis

Belinda's "power" in The Rape of the Lock is an intentional, satirical illusion. While she appears powerful through social (coquette), gendered (dominant "superior force"), and psychological (fetishistic "trigger") lenses, these are all superficial performances. A post-colonial reading reveals the core of the satire: she is ultimately a passive object, a "metaphorical female" symbolizing the colonized empire. Therefore, her conflicting natures demonstrate that in her society, female power is a required performance that offers no real agency.

Introduction

Alexander Pope’s 1714 mock-heroic epic, The Rape of the Lock, opens with a central, guiding question: "Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel / A well-bred Lord t'assault a gentle Belle?" This invocation immediately establishes the poem's central paradox. The "gentle Belle," Belinda, is depicted as both a victim to be "assaulted" and a "Goddess" with the power to "compel." Throughout the poem, she is a figure of shimmering, profound contradiction: a "Priestess" at the altar of her own vanity (Canto I, l. 135), a fierce "Amazon" in a game of cards (Canto III, l. 87), a weeping, hysterical victim, and ultimately, a celestial body, her lock immortalized as a star.

Alexander Pope
Image source: thoughtco

To analyze Belinda's "power" is to dissect the central satirical engine of Pope's work. Her power is not a stable, definable quality but a volatile, contradictory, and, in the end, illusory construct. She is the "sun" of her social world (SparkNotes), yet her entire identity is as fragile as the "slender" lock of hair by which the Baron holds her. A critical examination of Belinda reveals a character who is not one thing, but many things at once, often in direct opposition. She is at once the pinnacle of her society's values and the most profound victim of its limitations.

To truly understand Belinda's power, one must view her through the multiple critical lenses that her complex portrayal invites. A purely social reading, as offered by SparkNotes, frames her as the quintessential coquette, a "vain" but "sympathetic" figure trapped in a "misogynistic bind." This reading, however, is complicated by structural gender critiques, such as that of Ralph Cohen, who argues that the entire poem is a "world in which the sexes are backwards," positioning Belinda not as a "gentle Belle" but as a "dominant," "manly," and "superior" force (Cohen, p. 57, 60). This interpretation of Belinda as a powerful agent is, in turn, completely inverted by a post-colonial lens. Umme Salma argues that Belinda is, in fact, entirely passive, a "metaphorical female" who functions as a symbolic representation of the "female land-body" of the British Empire, "humiliated and appropriated" by a patriarchal, colonial male (Salma, p. 2, 13). Finally, a psychological reading, such as that of Jeffrey Meyers, bypasses the question of her intent and focuses on her effect. In this view, Belinda’s power is that of an unwitting catalyst; her "vain beauty and powerful attractions" (Meyers, p. 73) are not tools of agency but triggers for the Baron's "repressed abnormality" and "hair-fetishism" (Meyers, p. 71).

The Rape Of The Lock 

Image source

This essay will argue that these conflicting natures of Belinda social queen, masculine aggressor, passive symbol, and psychological trigger are not mutually exclusive. Instead, their coexistence is the very core of Pope's satire. Belinda's "power" is a performance, potent enough to "compel" a Lord (Meyers), dominant enough to "conquer" a card table (Cohen), and beautiful enough to represent an Empire (Salma), yet it is an illusion that provides her with no real agency, no protection, and no identity beyond the "social death" (SparkNotes) that follows the loss of a single lock of hair.

The Social Goddess and Her Performed Power

The most immediate and accessible form of Belinda's power is social. In the superficial, aristocratic world of Hampton Court, she is a deity. Pope’s mock-heroic style brilliantly satirizes this by elevating her social rituals to the level of epic grandeur. Her morning routine, the "Toilet" scene of Canto I, is not mere primping; it is a sacred "arming" of a hero for battle. She is a "Priestess" (I. 135), her "altar" (I. 136) is the dressing table, and her cosmetics are her sacred "rites" (I. 138). This ritual, aided by the "aerial" Sylphs, transforms her into a "Goddess" (I. 148). As SparkNotes observes, "Belinda is the sun of her social world," and her "primary trait" is a "vanity" that the poem both celebrates and critiques. This vanity is not simply a personal flaw; it is her profession. In a society where a woman's value is synonymous with her beauty and her ability to attract a noble husband, Belinda is at the height of her powers.

This power is explicitly a power over men. When she boards the barge on the Thames in Canto II, she is a radiant conqueror: "Bright as the Sun, her Eyes the Gazers strike, / And, like the Sun, they shine on all alike" (II. 13-14). Her beauty is a form of "tyranny" (SparkNotes), granting her the ability to "reject" a "Lord" (II. 12) and to hold the hearts of "Jews" and "Infidels" (II. 8). She is fully aware of this power and wields it with the practiced ease of a "coquette." She is, as SparkNotes terms her, a "coquette," a woman who "flirts" and "leads men on" but ultimately "denies them any real 'favors.'" This social maneuvering is her battlefield, and for the first half of the poem, she is victorious.

The game of Ombre in Canto III is the most explicit dramatization of this social power. Pope describes the card game as a literal war, with Belinda as the "Amazonian" general. She skillfully "leads" her "Forces" (III. 87), surveys the "field" (III. 45), and, in a moment of dramatic tension, "swells her Breast with Conquests yet to come" (III. 76). When she wins the game "The Nymph exulting fills with Shouts the Sky" (III. 99) she is, at that moment, an undisputed conqueror. Her power is absolute within the rules of this specific social game.

But this reading also reveals the profound fragility of her position. As SparkNotes notes, Belinda is ultimately trapped in a "misogynistic bind." Her society demands that she perform this "vanity" to be valuable, but it simultaneously condemns her for it. Her power is entirely dependent on her "ornamented" appearance (Salma, p. 2) and the "lock" that symbolizes it. This power is, as Meyers notes, a "vain beauty and powerful attraction" (Meyers, p. 73), but it is a power that invites its own destruction. It is a "power" that exists only so long as it is not truly challenged. The moment the Baron's "impulse" (II. 28) overrides the social contract, her "power" evaporates, replaced by "Screams" (III. 156) and "Hysteric" fits (IV. 99). This reading establishes her power as a superficial, performative construct, setting the stage for more radical interpretations.

The "Superior Force": Belinda as Masculine Dominator

While the social reading sees Belinda as a coquette performing power, critic Ralph Cohen, in "The Reversal of Gender in 'The Rape of the Lock'," argues for a more fundamental inversion. For Cohen, Belinda is not just acting powerful; she is the poem's dominant, "superior" force. His thesis is that Pope has created "a world in which the sexes are backwards" and this "reversal of roles" is a primary satirical device (Cohen, p. 57, 60).

According to this reading, Belinda and the other women in the poem "dominate the men as well as the poem itself." The men the Baron, Sir Plume, Dapperwit are not epic heroes but the "weaker sex," characterized by "posturing" and "mimicry." Cohen points to the "list of associations" Thalestris provides: "Men, Monkies, Lap-dogs, Parrots, perish all!" (IV. 120). It is the men who are trivialized and feminized. When Dapperwit is "demolished" by a lady's stare and "sunk beside his Chair" (V. 61-62), it is a literal depiction of the male as the weaker, more fragile vessel (Cohen, p. 57).

In this gender-reversed world, Belinda is the poem's de facto hero, and her "rape" is not the ravishing of a "gentle Belle." Cohen argues that Pope’s "heroic-comical poem" focuses "most of the attention... on its heroine rather than its hero." Her "Amazonian" generalship at Ombre is not just a metaphor for social flirtation; it is a literal demonstration of her "manly" superiority in strategy and aggression (Cohen, p. 57, 60).

Even the central "rape" is re-contextualized. Cohen notes that the Baron's act is "not a lusty, virile ravishing"; it is a "theft," a sneaky, "unmanly" act. The Baron's "triumph" is portrayed as weak, while Belinda's reaction is "an epic rage." In the final battle, Belinda "conquers" the Baron by throwing snuff in his face, an act that "mocks the traditional epic encounter" and reduces the male "hero" to a weeping, sneezing mess (Cohen, p. 59-60).

This reading powerfully recasts Belinda. She is not a victim of a misogynistic bind; she is the "superior" force in a world where men are the "weaker sex." Her power is not just social performance; it is a fundamental, "manly" dominance. This interpretation, however, stands in stark, almost irreconcilable, contrast to a post-colonial reading, which argues that Belinda is, in fact, the most passive and powerless figure in the entire poem: an object.

The Passive Prize: Belinda as Colonized Territory

Umme Salma’s "Woman and the Empire in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock: A rereading" offers a radical counter-perspective. Where Cohen sees a "dominant" female, Salma sees a "passively present... metaphorical female" (Salma, p. 2). This reading reframes the entire poem not as a "battle of the sexes," but as "a model for colonial domination" (Salma, p. 13).

Salma's argument begins with the poem's setting. The "Toilet" scene, which the social reading sees as an "arming" and Cohen might see as a "manly" preparation for battle, Salma reads as the decoration of a prize. Belinda is "laden with the prizes of the imperial excursions": "From India's fertile soil... the Gem" (I. 133, trans.), "Tortoise" and "Whale" (I. 134, trans.), "Arabia’s... perfumes" (I. 134). These are not her weapons; they are her "ornaments." Salma argues that "as Belinda becomes an object of desire because of her ornamented locks, so does the British Empire, the female land-body, because of her precious treasures" (Salma, p. 2).

In this reading, Belinda has no agency whatsoever. She is a symbol of the "colonised and controlled world." The central conflict is not between a "gentle Belle" and a "well-bred Lord," nor is it between a "dominant" woman and a "weak" man. It is between the "patriarchy and its by-product, imperialism" and the "metaphorical female" to be possessed. The Baron is the agent of this "patriarchal... dominance" (Salma, p. 2, 13).

The "rape" of the lock, therefore, becomes a "synecdoche," a part representing the whole. The act is symbolic of "the rape of the female landscape by the colonizers." Belinda’s "female body-scape" is equated with the "female land-body" of the Empire. She is "humiliated and appropriated," just as the "natural resources" of the colonies were "plundered." Her grief, then, is not the "epic rage" of Cohen's dominant hero; it is the cry of the "uprooted and humiliated" (Salma, p. 2, 13, citing Mnthali).

This interpretation completely shatters the notion of Belinda's power. Her "dominance" at the Ombre table is irrelevant. Her "social queen" status is just the "gorgeous setting" that makes the "metaphorical female" a more desirable "prize." Her beauty is not a weapon she wields... but the very quality that marks her for colonization. She is, in this light, entirely passive, an object to be "conquered, ransacked, and possessed" (Salma, p. 2, 13).

We are now faced with two irreconcilable poles: Belinda as the poem's "superior" and "dominant" agent (Cohen) and Belinda as its most "passive" and "humiliated" object (Salma). How can both be true? A psychological reading of the conflict provides a potential bridge, shifting the focus from Belinda's own power to the effect she has on the poem's true agent: the Baron.

The Unwitting Catalyst: Belinda as Psychological Trigger

The poem's opening question asks for the Baron's "strange motive." Jeffrey Meyers, in "The Personality of Belinda's Baron," provides an answer that redefines Belinda's power one final time. He argues that the conflict is not social, political, or (in Cohen's sense) gendered, but psychological. The motive is the Baron's "repressed abnormality" (Meyers, p. 71). Belinda's power, therefore, is not as an agent but as a catalyst.

Meyers argues that the Baron's "perverse behavior suggests hair-fetishism." He is a "hair despoiler" whose "fetishism is a substitute for normal sexual fulfillment." This is not a "well-bred Lord" engaging in a social ritual; this is a "pervert" acting on a "fetishistic compulsion" (Meyers, p. 71, 73).

In this light, Belinda's power is her "vain beauty and powerful attractions" which "elicit from the Baron" this "abnormal response." She is the unwitting trigger for his "perverse" desire. Meyers uses the famous couplet from Canto II to illustrate this: "On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore, / Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore" (II. 7-8). Meyers argues that this couplet "suggests the difference between the Baron's and a normal response." A "normal man," he claims, would be drawn to "Belinda's ivory breasts," which "express her sexuality." But for the Baron, the "phallic cross is more interesting." His compulsion fixates on the object (the Cross, the lock), not the person (Meyers, p. 73).

This reading synthesizes the other interpretations in a new light. Belinda's "social power" (SparkNotes) and "vain beauty" are the fuel for the Baron's "abnormality." The "gender-reversal" that Cohen (p. 60) observes is also explained: the Baron's act is "unmanly" (Cohen, p. 59) precisely because it is not a "virile" act of "normal sexual fulfillment," but the "perverse" and "sneaky" act of a fetishist (Meyers, p. 71).

Furthermore, Meyers's reading can even coexist with Salma's. The "patriarchal" drive to "conquer" the "female land-body" (Salma, p. 13) can be read as a societal-level "perversion" or "fetishism," a substitution of object (land, treasure, locks) for "normal" human relations.

In this final view, Belinda's power is perhaps at its most insidious and most passive. She has the "power" to drive a man to "abnormal" action, but she is completely unaware of it and has no control over it. She is, as Meyers suggests, "unhappy and ridiculous" because she is the "trigger" for a "conflict" that she does not understand, one that has nothing to do with her as a person and everything to do with her as a collection of desirable objects (Meyers, p. 73).

Conclusion: The Illusion of Power

The character of Belinda presents one of the central paradoxes of 18th-century satire: her "power" is a complex illusion, a social performance that provides her with no actual agency. An analysis of her "conflicting natures" reveals this contradiction as the poem's devastating satirical point. Her social power as a "coquette" (SparkNotes) is not strength but a "misogynistic bind"; her "masculine" dominance (Cohen) is a mock-heroic illusion confined to the "Amazonian" victory at a card game; her psychological power (Meyers) is not her own agency but the "unwitting" and "abnormal" ability to "trigger" the Baron’s hair-fetishism; and the post-colonial lens (Salma) strips away these performances to reveal her core status as a "passive," "metaphorical female", an "appropriated" object synonymous with the "humiliated" and "colonized" land (Salma, p. 2, 13). Pope’s satire is not aimed at Belinda herself but at the aristocratic society that constructs this paradox, forcing her to be a "Goddess" while treating her as a "prize" (Salma). Belinda is the ultimate satirical victim: a "superior force" (Cohen, p. 57) who is, at her core, nothing more than a "humiliated and appropriated" (Salma, p. 13) object.


References:



  • Meyers, Jeffrey. “The Personality of Belinda’s Baron: Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock.’” American Imago, vol. 26, no. 1, 1969, pp. 71–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26302506. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.