Allusions, Allusions Everywhere

     Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is full of drama, satire, and allusions. The first time I really picked up on this was near the end with Pope’s reference to Othello. In The Rape of the Lock, Belinda cries out to the Baron “Restore the Lock” just as Othello “in so loud a strain/ Roared for the handkerchief that caused his pain”. Both Belinda and Othello have lost something important to them. The lock of hair and the handkerchief also lead to the over dramatic downfall of the character. For Belinda, this is a loss of part of her beauty. For Othello, this is death.

      There are also references to Homer’s poems, The Iliad and the  Odyssey. The first example is that this piece is written in the form of an epic poem. This piece is an epic poem.Of course there are more specific allusions. Pope mentions “Homer’s tripod” which is an allusion to the Iliad. In the Iliad, Vulcan creates tripods for the gods. Soon after that, a “wondrous bag” is compared to the one “where once Ulysses held the winds”. Ulysses, or Odysseus, was given a bag by Aeolus. The bag contains the west winds to guide them home, however his Odysseus’ men are greedy and open the bag. They are expecting gold and instead find the winds which sail them farther from their destination. These allusions show Belinda's greed. She took for granted what she had and this cost her. She values her looks, but now they have been compromised. 

      Historical references are also easy to spot. Pope makes a reference to “Galileo’s eyes”, or as we would say, Galileo’s telescopes. In this is also an allusion to astrologer John Partridge who was often satirized. It was a common belief that Partridge was a quack and would not last long. In this piece, he is using a telescope to tell the "fate of Louis, and the fall of Rome". Pope is saying that Partridge can tell the future by looking at the stars, an idea that was not common and still seems a little unrealistic today. Yet another crazy exclamation, it shows the ridiculousness of Belinda's reaction. 

     Alexander Pope has several other allusions throughout this piece, but it took footnotes and extra research to notice these. He calls on different literary greats and historical moments to create a very satirical piece. Pope chooses some of the craziest times in literature and in history to show just how dramatic this experience is for Belinda and just how crazy it is that she reacted in such a way. He uses The Rape of the Lock, and all its allusions, to make fun of vanity and to show how it unimportant it truly is.