1. "What mighty contests rise from trivial things." The Rape of the Lock is, above all else, a mock-heroic poem-in its trivialization of epic topoi such as the arming of the hero and the descent into the underworld, the frequency and range of epic references, and, especially, its elevated, epic language. Much of the wit of the poem lies in Pope's application of epic techniques to less-than-epic topics. But what is the effect of the mock-heroic? Does Pope make fun of his epic sources? Does he make fun of the characters and situations to which the epic is applied, or does his use of the epic give them a kind of heroic dignity? Does Pope's elaborate mock-epic submerge the poem?
2. An addition to Pope's mock-heroic is his use of Rosicrucian imagery-his sylphs, gnomes, salamanders, and nymphs, as well as the speeches and actions attached to them. In fact, none of this appeared in the first, two-canto version of the poem, and some of Pope's friends urged him not to add it to a piece that was already successful and, they said, delicately balanced. What does the Rosicrucian material add to the poem? Were Pope's friends right?
3. Is Belinda's story an effective vehicle for broader satire on the superficialities of eighteenth-century high society? What exactly is Pope satirizing? How is it connected to his mock-heroic and to the story of Belinda? To answer the question one may have to distinguish between several layers of satire. Some of the satirized characters (e.g., Sir Plume) just seem silly, but beyond them may lie broader and more significant targets.
4. How are we supposed to read the character of Belinda? Is she a wronged heroine? A lovable and sympathetic young lady? A pretty but silly and superficial girl? Or does she combine both positive and negative readings? What, actually, is a coquette, and does Belinda get into trouble for breaking the rules for a coquette? The situation is complicated by the fact that she is more-or-less based on the historical Arabella Fermor. What is the effect of that complication? Is Belinda a satiric object or a satiric vehicle?
5. We are aware that throughout the poem there is a stream of sexual imagery, some of it quite funny. Is this merely incidental humor of the nudge-nudge type, or is sexuality an important subject of the poem? If it is an important subject, what does the poem have to say about it? In particular, what is and should be the role of sexuality in the life of a young woman of the eighteenth century such as Belinda?
6. At the end of the poem Belinda's lock, the battle over it, and perhaps the poem itself seem to disappear into airy nothingness. What do you make of the ending of the poem? Does it drive home the satiric point or merely suggest the irresolution of the situation from which the poem originally sprung?
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
7. Pope projects a number of images of himself in the poem, from besieged poet through heroic satirist to dutiful friend and son. Are these images credible? (That is, even if we do not believe them, do we believe that Pope believes them?) Are they consistent? What picture do they combine to form of Pope as a poet, as a public figure, and as a human being?
8. These images of Pope are interspersed with images of other literary figures-Atticus, Bufo, and Sporus in particular-whom Pope attacks with what might be described as cunning force. These images are complex and, to some degree, ambiguous in themselves and certainly deserve and even require careful analysis. But how are they related to the self-presentation of Pope? Do they reflect literary alternatives, or do they allow Pope to vent his bile at people he hates? Some of them (particularly the portrait of Atticus/Addison) were composed independently of this poem. Do they have a double function within the poem as independent of it? What is their function in the argument of the poem?
9. What does the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot reveal about Pope's social, cultural, and literary roles? What does Pope think that the role of the poet ought to be in society? What is his own situation? To what degree does he suggest that he has fulfilled that role? What are the obstacles he has to overcome, and to what degree do they serve as the target of his satire?
10. Pope put together Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot as a tribute to his friend, who was dying. (He died about six weeks after the poem was published.) Although the poem is titled "Epistle," it does not seem very epistolary, and Arbuthnot is generally considered to interlocutor who raises questions in the course of the poem and makes comments to which Pope responds. What is Arbuthnot's role in the poem? How would you characterize his attitudes towards both satire and Pope? How would you compare Arbuthnot's role in this poem to that of Trebatius in Horace's Satire 2.1?
11. One of the practices Arbuthnot warned Pope against was the naming of names in satire, and Pope accordingly claims (in his "Advertisement" for the poem) that he has "for the most part spared their names." He does indeed invent fictional names for Atticus (Addison) and Sporus (Hervey) and others, but he manages to work in a number of actual names for satiric victims as well. Why is naming names an issue, and is the mixture of actual and fictional names a successful response to the problem?
12. Where do our sympathies lie in the poem? Admittedly they do not lie with the victims, who seem worth attacking if Pope is to be believed. But what about our attitude towards Pope himself? Do we see him as the properly moral poet he pretends to be, or does he come across as inconsistent, self-serving, and arrogant? For that matter, are those alternatives themselves inconsistent?
13. Epistle to Arbuthnot is a good example of a programmatic satire, like Horace's Satires 1.4, 1.10, and 2.1 and Juvenal's Satire 1. What are the key elements of Horace's program? How does he defend his work as a satirist? Is he caught up in personal squabbles and in attacks and counter-attacks, or is his satire based on a more significant foundation?
The Dunciad, Book the Fourth
14. The fourth book of The Dunciad seems to have begun as a poem about education, and that topic does seems to occupy at least the first half of the poem. What are the characteristics of bad education-in schools (specifically Westminster), in the university (specifically Cambridge) and on the grand tour? Do the features of miseducation build on one another (as education should), or is one feature of miseducation its fragmented, unconnected nature? In what senses is miseducation both cause an symptom of the ills of society and culture generally, and hence a fit topic for Dulness to review?
15. Colley Cibber replaced Lewis Theobald to become the hero of the final Dunciad, but in the fourth book he does not have much to do but fall asleep. Nonetheless, his presence raises the question of how important the mock-heroic, dominant in the first three books, is in Book Four. What are the mock-heroic elements of Book Four, and what is their significance? How would you compare the mock-heroic in The Dunciad to the mock-heroic in The Rape of the Lock?
16. There seem to be (among others) two particular difficulties for readers, especially modern readers, in The Dunciad: Pope's incessant use of abstractions, and his even more incessant use of specific characters and events (not always well-explained by Rogers' notes). What are the problems created by each of the difficulties, but what also are the advantages that Pope gains by abstractions and specific names? Do the abstract and the specific somehow modify each other to create a meaning in between?
17. Who is Dulness, the principle abstraction of the poem? What does Pope mean by the word? Does it have a definable meaning, or does it function like an algebraic symbol on which one can project almost any value? To what degree is Dulness defined by the characters who parade before her in Book Four, and what do they say about her meaning? Since Dulness brings both the world and the poem to their ends, what is the source and nature of her power?
18. In addition to its treatment of education, the poem addresses the arts (writing, operas, plays), religion, and politics-the last two particularly in the last sections of the poem. What connects these three targets? What do they have in common? What do they tell us about the force of the poem? How do they contribute to the final catastrophe?
19. The poem comes to an apocalyptic conclusion, as the entire intellectual order collapses under the (negative) force of Dulness. How seriously are we to take this conclusion? What is the relation of the conclusion to the fact that the poem is written at all and to the way it is written? After all, if Dulness were inevitable, there would hardly be any point in writing the poem, would there?
20. Although Pope is the master of the heroic couplet, the way in which he uses the form, and his general poetic style seems to shift in the course of his career. How would you compare the characteristics of Pope's couplet form and diction in The Rape of the Lock to the form and language of Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and The Dunciad?