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The Rape of the Lock

179 statements
34 feature instances
23 referencing feature instances

The Rape of the Lock	type	TVTItem
The Rape of the Lock	label	The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock	page	TheRapeOfTheLock
The Rape of the Lock	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })The definitive Mock-Heroic epic, penned by Alexander Pope. The title isn't what you think it means: "Rape" here refers to the word's older meaning as "kidnap", and "lock" refers to a lock of a woman's hair, here taken unwillingly. So get your snickers out of the way now.In a World… where the flirts, coquettes, and heartbreakers are protected by airy Sylphs, Belinda is the queen bee of her little court, with suitors at her every hand — and none as persistent as the Baron. However, one day Ariel, the chief guard of Belinda's honour, gets a premonition that some calamity will strike. Guards are set on all objects of import — earrings, fans, curls, and petticoats (especially the petticoats) — but, in an unguarded moment over a coffee cup, the sylphs fail to stop the Baron from stealing a lock of hair — the lock of hair that made Belinda's symmetrical coiffure perfect. And so, the Battle of the Sexes ensues. Will Belinda be reconciled to the Baron? Or will ill humor and temper tantrums carry the day?Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Regardless, prepare to laugh and be impressed. The Rape of the Lock is considered to be one of the most important works of literature in the English language — important enough that only it and the works of William Shakespeare himself are allowed to provide names for the moons of Uranus according to the International Astronomical Union.Based on a True Story — in fact, the engagement of Arabella Fermor, a good friend of Pope's, was broken off (and never reconciled) for precisely this reason. Pope was attempting to get her to reconcile to the man who had stolen her hair by both mocking all the Serious Business made about a bit of a curl, and by warning of the unhappiness that comes of being vain and stubborn. He didn't quite get that the problem wasn't about her being "vain and stubborn" but about her intended being a Jerkass who led all his friends to mock, belittle, and ridicule her.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })Being over 300 years old, The Rape of the Lock is in the public domain. Wikisource has full text, as does Project Gutenberg.
The Rape of the Lock	fetched	2022-08-20T18:41:43Z
The Rape of the Lock	parsed	2022-08-20T18:41:43Z
The Rape of the Lock	processingComment	Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
The Rape of the Lock	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Rape of the Lock / int_2d88e42c	type	Gender Bender
The Rape of the Lock / int_2d88e42c	comment	Gender Bender: Ariel must have been a woman in life, but is a male sylph in the afterlife. This may be because Sylphs are modeled after elemental spirits, who do not necessarily have genders.
The Rape of the Lock / int_2d88e42c	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Rape of the Lock / int_310bb947	type	Whoopi Epiphany Speech
The Rape of the Lock / int_310bb947	comment	Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Clarissa explains it all, in a brilliant soliloquy that nails the entire superficiality and foolishness of the court through the heart, and praising the value of good humour and virtue over appearances and vanity. However, nobody listens to her.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_366dfa01	type	Silly Reason for War
The Rape of the Lock / int_366dfa01	comment	Silly Reason for War: A haircut.
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The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	The Rape of the Lock / int_366dfa01
The Rape of the Lock / int_36ae9f5d	type	Traumatic Haircut
The Rape of the Lock / int_36ae9f5d	comment	Traumatic Haircut: Much of the biting satire is built around exaggerating this trope; the "haircut" took a lock of hair about the size of your thumb, yet it's treated like a full-blown Traumatic Scalp-Shaving.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_3e0c302	type	Regal Ringlets
The Rape of the Lock / int_3e0c302	comment	Regal Ringlets: Of course! Tumbling symmetrically down the back of Belinda's neck.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_433396da	type	Long Hair Is Feminine
The Rape of the Lock / int_433396da	comment	Long Hair Is Feminine: Attacking Belinda's hair counts as attacking Belinda's beauty and person—even though her hair is still mostly intact. Justified in that time, as mentioned in the accompanying letter, women were supposed to be decorative rather than rational.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_443774b4	type	Narrative Poem
The Rape of the Lock / int_443774b4	comment	Narrative Poem: Rhyming iambic pentameter, with cantos and everything.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_454bda24	type	Ancestral Weapon
The Rape of the Lock / int_454bda24	comment	Ancestral Weapon: Belinda's hair-pin, passed down from her great-great-grandfather.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_6509bb9f	type	Non-Indicative Name
The Rape of the Lock / int_6509bb9f	comment	Nonindicative Name: Thanks to Have a Gay Old Time, this leaves us with one awkward title.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_663b80bf	type	Law of Disproportionate Response
The Rape of the Lock / int_663b80bf	comment	Law of Disproportionate Response: Actually addressed. The narrator contrasts the oh-so-superficial and hedonistic world of the court against the realities of crime, punishment, and illness that are happening to the unwashed masses at the same time as a Serious Business card game is underway. And then, when Belinda's hair is cut, she pretty much treats it as The End of the World as We Know It, as do all her sympathizers. This is no coincidence, as this story mocks the classical Epic, applying all its tropes to mundane situations.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_6977c45e	type	Purple Prose
The Rape of the Lock / int_6977c45e	comment	Purple Prose: Such talk is the meat and drink of this poem. And the oxygen. And the sunlight. And the metabolic enzymes necessary to break down said meat and drink so as to combust them with said oxygen. You get the picture.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_6b35bdff	type	Serious Business
The Rape of the Lock / int_6b35bdff	comment	Serious Business: Morning beauty rituals, coffee, card games, and taking someone's hair without asking permission.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_6bda9a30	type	Meaningful Name
The Rape of the Lock / int_6bda9a30	comment	Meaningful Name: Umbriel, the gnome who accomplishes much mischief, has a name which suggests "umbrage," or anger [from Latin umbra, shade or shadow]. And Ariel, the "airiest" of sylphs
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The Rape of the Lock / int_808cbaeb	type	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
The Rape of the Lock / int_808cbaeb	comment	Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ariel the sylph's reaction to the premonition of Belinda's Bad Day is to send equal numbers of sylphs to guard her dress, her handkerchief, and her gloves, as her heart, her honor, and her chastity.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_813afa05	type	Defiled Forever
The Rape of the Lock / int_813afa05	comment	Defiled Forever: Not nearly so grim as usual, but this is how Belinda reacts when her hair is cut. Then again, no one blames her for losing it — it's only her reaction that makes this a horrible breach of her honour.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_986bd638	type	This Is a Work of Fiction
The Rape of the Lock / int_986bd638	comment	This Is a Work of Fiction: In an introductory letter attached to later editions, Pope assures Miss Fermor that of course he didn't base the main character on her, it's just a silly story for young ladies with a sense of humor.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_ae853f28	type	Parody
The Rape of the Lock / int_ae853f28	comment	Parody: Pope carefully mirrors all the conventions of the Epic genre, but uses them to depict trivialities.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_b2f58d22	type	Peeve Goblins
The Rape of the Lock / int_b2f58d22	comment	Peeve Goblins: A gnome upsets a bag of ill humor over Belinda's head, causing her even more distress over the theft of her hair and leading to a massive battle of the sexes.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
The Rape of the Lock / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: In Belinda's case, it's taking her hair and ruining her elaborate coiffure.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_bd2812b5	type	Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
The Rape of the Lock / int_bd2812b5	comment	Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The Lock itself—it turns into a star at the end, unseen by all but the Muse who inspires Pope.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_be38c5d3	type	Water Is Womanly
The Rape of the Lock / int_be38c5d3	comment	Water Is Womanly: When young women die, the romantic, emotional girls become water nymphs, in contrast to stuffy prudes becoming gnomes, hot-tempered girls turning into salamanders, and light-hearted girls becoming sylphs.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_c59cfa2e	type	Felony Misdemeanor
The Rape of the Lock / int_c59cfa2e	comment	Felony Misdemeanor: The lock! Being Based on a True Story and all, yes, a family really did consider it that big of a deal.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_d0bf8a6d	type	No Periods, Period
The Rape of the Lock / int_d0bf8a6d	comment	No Periods, Period: Alexander Pope would probably roll over in his grave note with laughter if he knew we were discussing this, but look: when the narration took us down the Cave of Spleen and described all the ailments and afflictions that pursue exclusively women, we all know exactly what he's talking about.
The Rape of the Lock / int_d0bf8a6d	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Rape of the Lock / int_d148b019	type	Mundane Made Awesome
The Rape of the Lock / int_d148b019	comment	Mundane Made Awesome: Have we mentioned this? Because the poem is made of this trope. Never mind the actual hair-cutting—the protagonist getting up in the morning and putting her makeup on is described as if it's some kind of epic (pardon the pun) Lock-and-Load Montage.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_e1799b03	type	Alchemic Elementals
The Rape of the Lock / int_e1799b03	comment	Alchemic Elementals: Women's souls, after death, become elementals tied to whichever element they were most aligned to in life — fiery and aggressive ones become salamanders, soft-willed, yielding ones become nymphs, stuffy prudes become gnomes, and airy coquettes become sylphs.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_e2d457	type	The Ditz
The Rape of the Lock / int_e2d457	comment	The Ditz: Sir Plume, as exemplified in his incoherent speech to the Baron.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_e44da6cc	type	Makeup Is Evil
The Rape of the Lock / int_e44da6cc	comment	Makeup Is Evil: Downplayed, but Belinda's use of make-up is definitely tweaked. Possibly because fashionable make-up was really extreme at the time—the ideal look was an impossibly-coloured and proportioned caricature of a woman's face.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_e4b69188	type	Very Loosely Based on a True Story
The Rape of the Lock / int_e4b69188	comment	Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The events of the people are all true, but the sylphs and gnomes and the Cave of Spleen? Not so much.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_e5448c9	type	Pimped-Out Dress
The Rape of the Lock / int_e5448c9	comment	Pimped-Out Dress: Pope knows better than to insert lavish descriptions of Belinda's outfits... however, considering that her petticoat alone, with its fifty-sylph guard of honour, is described in terms of which Achilles himself would have been proud, it simply follows that the dress that goes over it is equally sumptuous.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_eea93c96	type	Blow You Away
The Rape of the Lock / int_eea93c96	comment	Blow You Away: The sylph's greatest power in the physical world. Unfortunately, they aren't that powerful at even that, seeing as how Belinda barely notices the light breeze on her neck when her hair is about to be cut Doom is NIGH.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_f1d2c779	type	Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
The Rape of the Lock / int_f1d2c779	comment	Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Pale skin was de rigeur back then for beauty, and Belinda's hair is described as "sable."
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The Rape of the Lock / int_fa6bfde9	type	Have a Gay Old Time
The Rape of the Lock / int_fa6bfde9	comment	Have a Gay Old Time: As mentioned in the description, the word "rape" in the title is used in the older, more general sense of carrying something off by force against someone's will.
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The Rape of the Lock / int_fcdbeaca	type	Elemental Personalities
The Rape of the Lock / int_fcdbeaca	comment	Elemental Personalities: If a (rich) young lady has been a scornful prude, she becomes an earthy gnome after death. Hot-tempered girls become salamanders, and emotional, weepy ones become nymphs, while light-hearted damsels turn into sylphs. Afterwards, they spend pretty much their entire afterlives encouraging the living to indulge in their respective behaviors. Ariel, a sylph, exists to help Belinda be even more of a flirt and heartbreaker than she already is. However, when Belinda's hair is stolen and she declares war on the race of men, Ariel can no longer influence her, and she falls under the power of the gnomes.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Alchemic Elementals / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Bathos / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Blow You Away / int_9f21027d
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The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Defiled Forever / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	18th Century Literature / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Elemental Embodiment / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Elemental Personalities / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	English Literature / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Hair Memento / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Long Hair Is Feminine / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Makeup Is Evil / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Narrative Poem / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Peeve Goblins / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Personality Powers / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Princess Classic / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Regal Ringlets / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Satire / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Simple-Minded Wisdom / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	The Muse / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Traumatic Haircut / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	Water Is Womanly / int_9f21027d
The Rape of the Lock	hasFeature	World of Ham / int_9f21027d

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