The short answer is yes. Pope portrays Belinda largely as superficial and coquettish in a way that he judges detrimental to men:
This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
Nourish'd two locks, which graceful hung behind.
The use of the word "destruction" is a typically mock-heroic exaggeration, but underlying this one can sense a subtle resentment by Pope of an attractive woman.
On the surface the misogyny, such as it is, comes off as playful, and Belinda is redeemed by the fact of her having inspired Pope to write what he self-consciously (and as it turns out, correctly) assumes will be remembered as a great poetic work:
This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,
And midst the stars inscribe Belinda's name.
Here, Pope has none of the seething anger his friend Swift portrays in poetry about women. But elsewhere in his works, Pope would later much more acerbically depict women. He fell in love with the writer Mary Wortley Montagu, and at first alluded indirectly to his feelings for her in the closing lines of Eloisa to Abelard. But when she later evidently rejected him, Pope scathingly ridiculed her, referring to her as "Sappho" and using language that was demeaning and crude. We can partly excuse Pope not so much because the standards of his time were far different from our own, but because his criticisms of other men were, in general, at least as bad as those he directed against women.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Do you find elements of misoginy in Pope's portrait of Belinda?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
No comments:
Post a Comment