The Rape of The Lock Canto 5 by Alexander Pope | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Canto 5 of The Rape of The Lock begins as Belinda ends her highly emotional lament for the loss of her lock. Everyone present at the Hampton court could feel her loss and pain. Despite the Baron’s attack on her reputation, she wins everybody’s sympathy. Thus, Clarissa rises to offer a moralizing retort suggesting that Belinda and society shouldn’t care much for external beauty that is sure to diminish with time. Instead, one should value good behavior, good humor, virtues, and merit more. Clarissa tries to calm Belinda and Thalestris down by offering a moral lecture that appears more like a hypocritical speech considering she aided the Baron in mutilating Belinda’s lock which was neither good humor nor an act of merit or virtue. She fails to calm Belinda and Thalesris who demand the Baron must return the Lock. The Baron being adamant refuses and declares his intention to encase the hair in a ring and wear it forever. This enrages Belinda and Thalestrist and they declare a battle against the Baron and his folks. Pope describes a party scuffle in an epic war manner. The Baron’s side is obviously more powerful and aided by god’s favor. Yet, Belinda manages to subdue the Baron and demands the lock back. But the Baron fails to do so because, during the haphazardous battle, the Lock goes missing for good. The Baron, Thalestris, Belinda, and others try to locate it everywhere possible but fail to find it.

Summary of The Rape of The Lock Canto 5:

Lines 1-34

As Belinda finishes her tearful emotional lament at the loss of her lock, everyone present at the party feels for her except the Baron. He insists that the lock is now the cherished trophy that he will entrap in a ring with diamonds and wear it until he breathes. This further enrages Belinda and Thalestris. ‘Fate and Jove’ prevents the Baron from listening to reason. Pope offers an allusion suggesting that gods interfere with humans to bring upon such crisis and compares the Baron with Aeneas, the Trojan Hero from Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. Jove is the Roman god Jupiter who forces Aeneas to leave Carthage despite his lover Dido doing everything possible to stop him and be with him. Dido’s sister Anna too tries to stop Aeneas but he doesn’t stop. Ultimately, Dido commits suicide. While the case of Aeneas, Dido, and Anna involved very high stakes, it is a mock element. Pope’s situation of a war over the lock appears to be ridiculous. Dido was tricked to fall in love with Aeneas by Cupid, and here Umbriel is doing the stuff. One can observe the pervasive supernatural influence over mortals in the poem right from the beginning. Belinda is compared to Dido while Thalestris appears to be Anna.

Clarrisa, whose name literally means ‘clarity’ observes the situation. She aided the Baron in mutilating the lock and humiliating Belinda to make her lose her honor. Now when she listens to the reproaches of Thalestris and observes that everyone is sympathetic towards Belinda, she plays the moral card. She notes that men often call women angels and worship them as such without assessing their moral character. She observes that beauty is ephemeral: “Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to gray; / Since Painted, or not painted all shall fade.” Clarissa argues that “frail beauty must decay” and thus, women should stress more on other qualities like virtues, merit, and good sense in particular. She says that if vain activities, such as dancing all night and dressing oneself all day, warded off smallpox or stopped one from aging, it would make sense to ignore duty and never to learn anything, and it would actively be moral to take pleasure in beautifying oneself. She addresses Belinda and says that when her tantrums (“airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding”) will fail to restore her beauty so she must value ‘good humor’ more because that will make her win again. Pope uses Anaphora again (lines 11, 12, 13, & 14 begin with ‘Why’ during Clarissa’s speech.)

Lines 35-70

Nobody offers any thoughts to Clarissa’s reasonable speech as they could sense the hypocrisy behind all that. Belinda ignores her while Thalestris calls her ‘prude’ who is jealous as Belinda is sexually superior. Belinda calls for “To arms, to arms!” and declares a courtly war against the Baron and his folks. The narrator is observing all this as he calls Thalestris a Virago, a woman who fights like a man. All friends of Belinda start attacking the Baron and his friends. The narrator describes the battle in a mock-epic manner and compares the courtly fight of Belinda and Thalestris against the Baron and Clarissa with a battle between “Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes” and Jove and Neptune. Pallas is Athena or Minerva, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, strategy, and defense. Mars is the god of war, Latona is the mother of Apollo and Diana, while Hermes is mercury, the god of thieves and tricksters, and the guide to the underworld. Jove is Jupiter, the king of all gods, lord of the sky while Neptune is Poseidon, the god of sea and earthquakes, tsunamis.

It’s an all-round riot at the Hampton court where Belinda’s gang and the Baron’s flock jump at each other with fans, canes, and snuffboxes, or simply wound each other with mean glances and sarcasm. Umbriel observes all this gleefully as he sees the success of Queen of the Spleen.

The fiercest warrior is Thalestris who “scatters death from both her eyes.” Sir Dapperwit and Sir Fopling perish as she throws her frowning glances over them. Dapper and Fop indicate male vanity. Pope makes it all satirically hilarious because, despite their supposed intellectual and moral authority over women, the men in this poem appear especially foolish. Other names used for males are “Beau” and “Witling.”

Pope uses ‘frown’ as a metaphor for a deathly blow and thus equates the struggle at Hampton court with that of godly wars of classic literature. While it appears juxtaposition, the idea is that the Holmer’s classical gods and their interference with human matters were equally silly and ridiculous as what is going on on the campus of Hampton court.

And then, Pope introduces eroticism within the boundaries of the battlefield and strengthens his sexual allegory. The battlefield is filled with erotic sounds of “Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; Heroes’ and heroines’ shouts confusedly rise/ bass and treble voices strike the skies.” The petticoats made of whalebones were torn down. Pope uses ‘death’ and “perish” as a metaphor for orgasm. Sir Plume jumps on Clarissa and brings her down, winning over her but soon, another girl named Chloe from the Baron’s gang frowns at Sir Plume and he “dies.” As Chloe smiles to cherish her win, Sir Plume revives again and admires her beauty, while still atop Clarissa.

Lines 71-102

Jove, who openly favored the Baron, observes that Belinda’s gang is gaining an upper hand and thus, decides to intervene. Soon ‘Men’s wits’ start overpowering ‘Lady’s hair.’ As the whalebones of petticoats have already been cracked, one can guess what hair is being overpowered. But Belinda is in no mood to accept defeat. As she observes the “Wits mount up, the Hairs subside,” she decides it’s no time for her to ‘die’ and jumps on the Baron with excessive lightning in her eyes. She easily overpowers the Baron and “sits” over him. However, the Baron is unafraid because he “sought no more than on his foe to die.” His goal right from the start has been sexual gratification for which he ‘raped’ the lock. Pope’s parody smoothly reverses the role and presents females as aggressors. Thalestris fights as a Virago and easily overcomes many men while Belinda abandons all pretexts of lady-like grace. She pinches the Baron’s nose and throws some snuff powder on him before releasing his nose. As he breathes the snuff power in, he is forced to sneeze loudly. He promised that he won’t return the lock until he breathes, so Belinda makes sure that his breath is broken for a while.

After that, she takes her bodkin out but this is no ordinary hairpin. Once the metal was in the form of three seal rings of Belinda’s great-great-grandfather. After his death, it was melted and turned into a buckle for his widow who passed it to her grandmother as a child in the form of a whistle, and then was turned into a bodkin for her mother, and then finally passed down to Belinda herself. It is another mock-epic element as Pope creates the history of an ordinary hairpin and imbues it with the same significance as Agamemnon’s scepter or Achilles’ shield in The Iliad.

Belinda then threatens the Baron with the Bodkin who succumbs and accepts defeat. He says that one day Belinda will also be brought down like him (sexual allegory again) but wishes to be allowed to live. He says that he doesn’t fear death (metaphor) but doesn’t wish to be separated from Belinda as she is sitting on him in unison. He wishes to remain alive in this position while being burnt and tortured by the flames of Cupid.

Lines 103-150

Mounted over the Baron, Belinda feels no emotions, no remorse, the only thing on her mind is her lock and she demands and shouts “Restore the Lock!” Her fierceness and intensity are no less than Othello searching for the handkerchief of his wife Desdemona to ascertain her infidelity before killing her. Pope brings another allusion to Shakespeare’s famous tragedy of Othello, the Moor, and presents a juxtaposition between an incredibly tense and dramatic situation and a silly situation. Pope equates Belinda's lock of hair with the handkerchief which causes Othello's jealousy and his eventual murder of Desdemona. Satire cuts both ways, so Pope is mocking Othello’s lack of trust too.

Now when the Baron has been forced to break his breath and sneeze by Belinda, he is not bound by any promise and thus, he accepts defeat and decides to return the lock to Belinda. But then he realizes that during the haphazard struggle, he has lost the lock. Everybody stops fighting and starts searching for the lock which is nowhere to be found. The narrator then suggests that the lock was perhaps too “blest” for any mortal to possess. Some of her friends soothe Belinda by saying that the lock has been passed to the “lunar sphere” where things lost on earth can supposedly be found. The narrator informs that the moon’s realm is the place where everything is lost, from “broken vows” to “lovers’ hearts” to “Cages for gnats” to “the courtier’s promises” to “sick man’s prayers” to “dried butterflies” can be found.

However, the narrator doesn’t agree with these people as he claims that only his Muse, the goddess of art and poetry is witness to the fact that Belinda’s lost lock rose to the heights of the sky just like Romulus’ ascent to the heavens was seen only by Proculus. "Trust the Muse—she saw it upward rise" and the "quick Poetic Eyes" of the narrator were able to see it too. Pope makes another allusion to the greatness of Belinda’s lock and equates it to Romulus, the founder of Rome, whom Proculus the second saw in his vision, ascending to heaven after his death. The narrator doesn’t stop at that and claims that the lock attained greater heights aided by the Sylphs who saw it rise like a shooting star and shine more brightly than Berenice’s locks. This is the ultimate allusion that Pope makes in honor of Arabella Fermor, the historical inspiration for Belinda. The allusion is to the Ancient Egyptian mythical queen Berenice who sacrificed her marvelous long hair to save her husband's life. The gods honored her sacrifice and placed the locks into the sky as a constellation that we now know as the constellation Coma Berenices.

The narrator then affirms his statement and says that now the beau monde (or the fashionable high society people) who spend their time at prosperous and fashionable places of London like the Mall and the Rosamunda’s Lake at St. James’s Park can see the shining lock in the sky. The narrator further weighs in and says that “Partridge” will be able to spot Belinda’s lock through “Galileo’s eyes”. John Partridge was an English astrologer infamous for hoax prediction and quackery. Pope satirizes him here while “Galileo’s eyes” are an allusion to the Galilean telescope.

The narrator then addresses Belinda directly and tells her not to be sad as now her lock will outlive her and will remain young, lovely, and shining beautiful forever. Her lock will inspire the Muse to write Belinda’s name among the stars like Berenice’s was written. Pope ends the poem here with all praises to beautiful Belinda, despite all her follies.

While Clarrisa’s speech mentioned that beauty is ephemeral, “Curled or uncurled, since locks will turn to gray; / Since Painted, or not painted all shall fade,” the narrator and the poet himself offer a counterpoint. The narrator agrees that beauty is transient but suggests that beauty is yet valuable and it may achieve a degree of immorality with the aid of the Muse, the goddess of art and poetry. Because a poet may raise things above the trivial world and into the world of eternal literary fame the Pope does with the lock of Belinda. Thus, Pope ends The Rape of The Lock in the manner of a Horatian satire that gently and humorously points out the evils of high-class society but keeps a sympathetic attitude towards the characters despite their follies.

So this is it for today. We will continue to Discuss the History of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

The Rape of The Lock Canto 4 by Alexander Pope | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Baron ‘half’ succeeds in his mission to rob the locks of Belinda and keep them as a trophy of his victory over the nymph in his collection of trophies. Canto 4 discusses the aftermath of this robbery. One may find it ridiculous enough, but despite being a satire, The Rape of The Lock offers a serious outlook on the struggles of genders that continues even now.

The Baron’s sexual jealousy and lust for Belinda were the reason behind his motive to steal the lock of hair. The Baron is no different than an unrequited lover of the 21^st century, obsessed and deeply infatuated by a girl who doesn’t permit him to breach her reputation. What he does in return is to throw a bottle of acid on her, ruining her beauty, her charm and boasting his victory that if you can’t be mine, you cannot be of anybody else’s. As per ASTI, on average, 1500 cases of acid attack are reported every year and 80% of them are against women. Violence against women and girls is the most widespread form of systematic abuse worldwide and what Belinda faced was violence. Pope’s 794 lines long mock-epic was published in 1714 as a social satire but it would be hard to say that situations have improved even a bit.

Summary of The Rape of The Lock Canto 4 :

Lines 1-16

Pope begins Canto 4 with the description of Belinda’s sorrow over her fall of reputation and loss of a lock of hair. She is languishing in “rage, resentment, and despair.” Pope makes excellent use of Anaphora (Lines 3-8 begin with ‘Not’) while mentioning that Belinda’s “anxious cares” and “secret passions” after the loss of her lock exceeds the sorrow of imprisoned kings to unhappy women who outlive their looks, from lovers losing their beloveds to old women who want to be kissed, from tyrants dying to a woman named Cynthia whose scarf won't go straight. The Juxtaposition and comparison between Belinda’s melodramatic despair and the despair of people enduring much greater suffering than a bad haircut once again emphasize the ridiculousness of the situation. Pope accentuates the excess and impropriety of Belinda’s grief after the theft of her hair, which is a minor setback. On the other hand, he clarifies the depth of the deed done by the Baron by mentioning that the Sylphs are not protecting or consoling Belinda. She is no more a coquette, no more a virgin to be protected and revered by the Sylphs. In a sense, the Baron has metaphorically sexually violated her, making her no longer a virgin, and thus the term ‘rape’ in the title. The narrator addresses Belinda as a “sad Virgin” with “ravished hair.” Symbolism has been used here to address the depth of the Baron’s act.

As Ariel and his minion Sylphs have left Belinda to her fate, Gnomes, the other spirits much lower in the hierarchy than the Sylphs, sense their chance and Umbriel, a ‘dusky’ gnome decides to play his mischief. He immediately heads to the “Cave of Spleen.” In those times, the spleen was considered responsible for all kinds of physical diseases and problems, especially depression, moodiness, and sadness. The Cave of Spleen is somewhere “down the Central Earth.” it is a mock-epic element. Most of the classical epics including Virgil’s Aeneid and Holmer’s Odyssey mention a descent into the underworld. Pope makes use of it.

Lines 17-54

These lines are full of personification. As Umbriel descends to the subterranean Cave of Spleen, he sees the wind East languishing on a bed in a dark closed grotto where no fresh air and no glittering sunray can ever reach. East is suffering pain at her side and migraine. He enters deeper and sees two handmaids, waiting for the throne. These are Ill-Nature, and Affection, the personification of the conditions that are their names. Ill-Nature appears like an ‘ancient maid.’ She is a withered old woman in a dress of black and white, like an old nun with no sense of humor or spiritedness for life. Her heart is full of spite for others. Affectation is young and appears beautiful, but sick. She speaks with a lisp and deliberately hangs her head to the side. She is richly dressed, languishing on expensive bedding. She represents the worst excesses of put-on femininity, a belle gone too far. She pretends to be a vulnerable damsel, though she isn’t. She enjoys all comforts of wealth yet, pretends to be sickly.

Umbriel continues further down through the Cave and encounters a strange vapor through which, strange shapes arise out of nothing and then vanish. In these vapors, Umbriel sees women who are “expiring,” “glaring fiends,” “snakes,” “Pale spectres,” “gaping tombs,” “lakes of liquid gold” and “angels in machines.” The narrator says that the magical vapors are like the “Elysian Scene” and contrast compares this grotesque, horrible place with Elysian Fields, the Ancient Greek version of Heaven. Umbriel sees talking teapots and small clay jars (Pipkin). There Umbriel sees ‘Homer’s Tripod’, pregnant men. And “maids turned bottles,” women who have been transformed into bottles and call out for corks. There are intense sexual innuendos in these lines. The cave includes women with distinctly unladylike sexual appetites. The term ‘expiring’ can be used to denote both, death and orgasm. The women metamorphosized into bottles craving phallic-shaped corks. And there are pregnant men. All the masculine and feminine rules of the world have been turned upside down in the underworld. There are snakes, and angels forced into labor machines. Another allusion to Satan’s underworld from Paradise Lost by Milton. Is the Queen of Spleen, the Sin, daughter, and lover of the fallen angel? Homer’s Illiad mentions magical walking three-legged tables that are also present here.

Lines 55-88

Even the mischievous Gnome couldn’t bear all this madness of the underworld but he had aid and hence Umbriel passes along safely, holding a piece of “spleenwort” in his hand. Then he reaches the depth of the Underworld where the Queen of Spleen resides in all her glory. Umbriel is humbled, he hails her as the goddess of all women between the ages of 15 and 50, making them either hysterical and ill or making them frantically attempt to compose poetry and plays. Remember Aphra Behn who wrote Oroonoko and The Rover? Her pen name was Astrea.

Then Umbriel complains to The Queen of Spleen about Belinda, the beautiful woman who hasn’t yet succumbed to the Queen’s power. She enjoys herself too much and is so proud. And he complains that there are thousands more like her. He then cajoles the Queen and says how he has always served her with utmost devotion and mentions how he ruins women’s complexions, brings about cuckoldry, and rumps up petticoats and bedding to make it seem like illicit sexual encounters have taken place where they haven’t, messes up a prude’s headdress, and even kills a beloved lapdog. Umbriel says that he spoils the grace of the proud girls “Or raise a pimple on a beauteous face.”

Umbriel addresses the queen as the ruler of “the sex to fifty from fifteen.” He means the Queen rules all girls and women between ages 15-55, which is the general age of menstruation periods. This suggests that the spleen is closely related to sexual dysfunction and erratic behavior. Thus, though society frowns upon ugly women and those who are adulterous, the real culprit is Umbriel and the Queen of Spleen. Umbriel then requests the Queen of Spleen to affect Belinda with “chagrin.”

Initially, it appears as if the Queen is disinterested but then she grants him his wish and binds together a bag of gifts for him which appears no different than the bag which once Ulysses held to contain the winds. It is an allusion to Homer’s Odyssey in which Ulysses, the protagonist was given a bag full of all winds except the west wind, as the west wind was assigned the task to blow his ship home from the Trojan War. However, as Ullyses’ ship reaches the shore, his men accidentally open up the bag and all the captured winds come out of the bag. As a result, their ship is blown far away. It takes them ten years to get home again. Umbriel’s bag contains “the force of female lungs, / Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.” The Queen also grants Umbriel a vial that holds “fainting fears, / Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.” Entire Canto 4 appears to be an allusion to Aeneas’s trip to the Underworld in the Book 4 of Virgil’s Aeneid.

Lines 89-140

As Umbriel returns with the gifts of Queen of Spleen, he sees that Belinda is distraught, with her disheveled open hair that was so beautifully combed and threaded a little while ago before the Baron ravaged her. She is being consoled by Thalestris who laments at Belinda’s loss of lock. Thalestris’s name and her personality are other allusions to Greek mythology. In ancient Greece, there lived a Queen of the Amazons, a tough female warrior who was more than a match for Alexander the Great, her name was Thalestris. Umbriel could have no better moment than this to open his bag and let the magic of Queen of Spleen bring more discord. As he opens the bag, all the “Furies” get out. This is another allusion to Greek mythology. The Furies were always angry and vengeful creatures unleashed by the gods to punish criminals. Umbriel’s Furies fan the anger and ‘mortal ire’ of Belinda and “fierce Thalestris raise the fire.” She was quietly consoling just a while ago but suddenly, she loudly cries "Oh wretched maid!" and grasps Belinda in her arms.

She reminds Belinda of all the pains she took for that splendid lock of hair from “torturing irons” to straining her “tender head” with “fillets.” How she nourished them with “bodkin, comb, and essence.” Thalestris is worried that the Baron will make good use of the robbed lock for humiliating Belinda by displaying it for everyone to see how he breached her reputation. Thalestris says that once Belinda does lose her honor, even she herself won't want to be Belinda's friend, as everyone will talk about her too.

Then Thalestris brings upon the symbolism that suggests that the lost lock wasn’t just simple hair. She is horrified that now when the Baron has Belinda’s lock, he will place it in the center of a ring and display it on his hand for the rest of time. Could it be the marriage ring? Firstly, Belinda was metaphorically sexually ravaged and now, the Baron may force marriage on her for further humiliation and marital sexual exploitation and she wouldn’t be able to say no to such a situation once she loses her reputation. Thalestris makes Belinda imagine all this horror as “the fops envy” (at the Baron’s victory trophy), and “the ladies stare” (at Belinda’s fate)!

Thus, Thalestris is adamant that they must do everything possible to bring back the hair of the lock that the Baron cut down and kept as a trophy of his victory over Belinda. All this further burns Belinda in anger and shame. Thalestris says that the rumormongering has already begun and compares Belinda with a “degraded toast.” Thalestris then wonders what she can do to protect her friend’s honor. She must do something quick enough before the “rapacious” Baron completely disgraces Belinda and force her to marry heat his terms. She decides to get back the lost lock of hair before the Baron decides to set it in the center of a ring and adorn it in his hand to display the glory of Belinda’s lock of hair “heighten'd by the diamond's circling rays,” to the world. Thus, Thalestris asks help from her beau, her suitor Lord Plume, who is a fop with an expensive snuff box and fashionable cane. Lord Plume goes to face the Baron and demandsssss the lock of Belinda back. The Baron says that though Lord Plume speaks so nicely, it's all in vain because he will never return the lock of hair he gained while cherishing the smell of hair that Belinda nourished with essence. He then declares, “This hand, which won it, shall forever wear." Thus, Thalestris’s fears prove to be true.

Lines 141-176

Umbriel was observing the whole event while marveling at the effect of the furies on Thalestris and Belinda’s heads. Yet, he was net, satisfied, and didn’t wish to go slack. He diligently opens up the vial from which Sorrow starts to flow and that vial directly affects Belinda who appears disillusioned, languishing, crying with tears flowing out of her eyes. She cries about her fate and says that she wishes she hadn’t visited the court and stayed at home instead. She now remembers the whole day was full of bad omens, offering warnings to her about what might happen. She remembers how she dropped her “patch box” three times and how she observed, “The tottering china shook without a wind.” She further says that even her lapdog Shock was behaving unusually as if the dog had some inkling of the impending attack on her. Then she mentions the Sylph that came in her dream and warned her. She laments that she ignored the warnings of the Sylph, she couldn’t understand him until it was too late. She is sad about the loss of her hair, but she is more disgusted by the feel of the hand of the Baron on her. She wishes to tear off the remaining lock, feeling that it “tempts once more” the Baron’s “sacrilegious hands.”

Yet, her real worry is that it is open for all to see that now she has a lonely lock on her head. She confronts the Baron and asks why did you take my lock whose loss is so obvious. She says that if the Baron was so obsessed with her hair, he could have taken “Hairs less in sight, or any Hairs but these.” She meant her pubic hair. She says that it might have been much crueler but wouldn’t have caused public humiliation to her. It further suggests the pretense of Belinda who admits that she would rather compromise her virtue than suffer damage to her looks. Thus, Pope shows the misplaced significance and value that society places on external appearances.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The Rape of The Lock Canto 3 by Alexander Pope | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The first two parts of The Rape of The Lock were published in May 1712 and then, two years later, Alexander Pope republished The Rape of The Lock as a five-canto version with 794 lines in total. A Canto is defined as a major division of an epic. Pope wrote The Rape of The Lock as a mock epic and hence, his long narrative poem was written in Heroic couplets. Canto three contains 178 lines most of which are written in iambic pentameter. The irony, juxtaposition, zeugma, simile, allusions to Greek mythology, and to Milton’s Paradise Lost, and personification, are the major literary devices used in this metaphorical satire by Alexander Pope.

Summary of The Rape of The Lock Canto 3 :

Lines 1-24

The third Canto begins as Belinda’s boat arrives at Hampton Court. Pope describes Hampton Court as the prime location where Queen Anne “Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.” It is a majestic place of political importance where “Britain’s statesmen” deal with matters at home and abroad. The first 8 lines are suffused with zeugma, offering two parallel worlds existing side by side. It is the place where the Queen and her couriers often discuss the most serious issues involving the world’s politics, businesses, and wars. It is the same place where Belinda visits to attend the party, which is the hunting ground for her to enslave men. At Hampton Court, Queen Anne sometimes takes counsel and makes decisions “foredooming" the fall of "Foreign Tyrants," some other times, she enjoys teas and parties. There’s hardly any difference between the two for the politicians of England. The British statesman, Pope says considers both equally important. Pope is much more respectful towards Queen Anne while he ridicules the statesmen who appear to be more indulgent in nymphs of home, like Belinda. The nobles and gentry who hang around the Queen's court are partying, ogling, flirting, eating, and generally making intrigue. Pope describes the court as the epicenter of rumourmongering and gossiping and says, at “every word a reputation dies.”

Belinda is part of this gentry. While all this is going on in the Hampton court, the governmental functions of the court continue, somewhat hurriedly, as they are about to halt for lunch. The “hungry judges” quickly sign sentences and people condemned to death are hanged at the gallows so their jurors can eat sooner. This is a place of corruption. ‘Hungry’ is a metaphor demonstrating that this is a place in which personal greed is placed above justice or empathy. The judges, juries, merchants, and the idle rich get ready for dining, ogling, and flirting, within time as they finish their work at their "Toilette" or dressing table. Their jobs and duties matter little against the charms of the Nymphs looking to hunt them at the party.

Lines 25-100

Lines 25 to 100 describe the card game "Ombre," which was a very popular card game of Pope's day, where players win by taking tricks. Pope uses personification to enliven the cards as they represent the armies fighting each other in mock-epic combat with the opposing players as the general-in-chief, and that is the extended metaphor presented in these 75 lines. The face cards seem like living Kings, Queens, and Jacks commanding an army of numbered cards.

Classical epical poetries always depict spectacular battles between clashing civilizations involving both mortals and gods. The battle at Hampton court involves cards, humans, and Sylphs.

As the Velvet Plain is prepared for the battle of cards, Belinda feels confident and believes she is invincible “And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.” Aerial and his minion Syphs take their place on each of the important cards to help Belinda win all games. These Sylphs used to be coquettes like Belinda who loved Ombre when they were alive.

Belinda’s cards “Draw forth to combat,” and she declares that spades will be trumps. She continues to win initial games. Her first conquerer is “Spadillo.” He “Led off two captive trumps and swept the board.” Her second card is Manilo which again makes a big win. But her third card, ‘Basto’, struggles, yet wins. She then sends the King of Spades to the battleground and makes a huge win.

The Baron, with the blessings of Love, is the strong opponent. Despite the anxious help of Sylphs, Belinda faces struggles against the opponent general. The Baron’s Queen of Spades beats her King of Clubs, and then he plays his high diamond cards, which proves to be a brilliant move that “pierced battalions dis-united fall.” Belinda loses her Queen of Hearts to his Knave of Spades, and she fears she is about to lose. But when he plays his Ace, Belinda surprises her and plays the King of Hearts, and wins again. As the invincible warrior, Belinda roars and celebrates her success.

Lines 101-124

The narrator then laments that these thoughtless mortals know so little of the future. Belinda is careless and unaware of the impending disaster that will come on this “victorious day” and Belinda’s “honors” will be “snatched away.”

A girl’s virginity and chastity are often compared with her reputation or honor. Pope continues the sexual innuendos and makes it sound as if Belinda will lose her virginity forcibly, though it is not clear yet what lies in her fate.

The ‘Ombre’ ends with a thumping win of Belinda and then the party guests gather around the coffee and tea tables. Before the ‘Age of Exploration’ the main drinks of Britain were water, wine, and beer. But the conquests in America, China, and India made the Europeans aware of the tastes of coffee and tea. These were exotic and very precious items back then. Pope makes use of Periphrasis to indirectly refer to these exotic items meant for the highly rich party at Hampton court. "Berries crackle" are roasting coffee beans, and the "grateful liquors" are coffee and tea. Pope introduces irony as the party members enjoy some rare, exotic things, they feel they control all the “altars of Japan” and “China’s earth,” suggesting the expansion of colonies under the British Empire. Pope continues to use zeugma or parallel construction while mentioning the really important things along with the ridiculousness of the party at Hampton court. “Coffee, (which makes the Politician wise,/ And see thro' all things with his half shut Eyes)” suggests the British trade that was blooming. The same Coffee reminds the Baron of his real intentions. He is here to add another trophy to his huge collection. All he could see now is the radiant glittering locks of Belinda. He starts thinking of a plan to act and achieve his most precious desire. The narrator fears that the Baron may meet the fate of Scyla, the daughter of Nisus. It is an allusion to the VIII Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis which tells the story of King Nisus who had purple hair that made him invincible. His daughter Scyla fell in love with a rival king. She couldn’t marry her lover until her father is defeated in the war. So Scylla decided to cut her father’s purple hair so that her lover may defeat him. This treachery against her own father disgusted her lover and he decided to leave her. The gods then punished her by turning her into a seagull.

Lines 125-146

Pope introduces Clarissa in line 127. She is a friend of Belinda and an accomplice of the Baron. She pulls out a pair of scissors and offers them to the Baron. Pope juxtaposes the scissor with the sword of a knight and offers a simile for Clarissa likening her to ‘Ladies in romance’ who prepare the knight with his weapon before he goes to the battleground. The contrast is that a knight of King Arthur would remain ready to give up his life to defend a woman, but the Baron seeks to steal from and humiliate a woman.

The Baron moves to the back of Belinda, aiming at one of her locks that he desires. However, he couldn’t escape the careful eyes of the Sylphs protecting Belinda. They try to warn and save Belinda by fiddling with her hair and twisting her earring three times, but each time, when Belinda turned and looked back, the Baron expertly got away from her eyes to come back and aim at her lock again. Sylphs couldn’t tell a word to Belinda, as their voices were no more than singing zephyrs.

Clarissa’s assistance to the Baron in his nefarious task shows the rivalry among the women that Pope explores in the poem’s sexual allegory. Clarissa willingly participates in the ‘metaphoric’ rape of Belinda despite being her friend. Pope satirizes the women folk by mentioning that rather than a sisterhood united against male sexual advances, women seek to undermine each other in the competition to find a suitable husband. The metaphoric’ rape of Belinda will ascertain her loss of reputation and honor. Her sexual fall would remove her from the marriage market, ensuring less competition for rich or titled young men such as the Baron.

Hampton Court is a place of rumormongering and gossiping where “At every word a reputation dies.” Thus, Belinda doesn’t need to compromise her virtue to lose her honor. A Blatant attack on her reputation will be enough to make her fall forever and that is what Clarissa wishes. And why these women are unkind and unsympathetic towards each other? It is a further criticism of British society with a sexual double standard in which a woman must attract a husband without compromising her virtue.

Meanwhile, Ariel is adamant to protect Belinda against all possible dangers and thus, he decides to go to her mind and warn her again. As he accesses Belinda’s inner thoughts, but—to his shock—finds “An earthly lover lurking there.” As he observes, he sighs and resigns, leaving Belinda to her fate. She is no more the invincible Nymph. Ariel observes that Belinda has already accepted defeat against that man. She either deserves or wishes to be violated, by that earthly lover, who happens to be the Baron.

Lines 147-174

While Ariel has resigned and accepted his defeat and fall of his coquette, the other Sylphs are still attentive to their posts for protecting Belinda. As the Baron attempts the fourth time, a Sylph comes forward to protect Belinda and faces the scissor. The Sylph is immediately cut into two pieces and he fails to protect the lock of Belinda that the Baron cuts down in the fourth attempt. The Sylph immediately recovers as “airy substance soon unites again”. The final attempt by the Sylph to protect Belinda’s lock is again an allusion to the Book VI of The Paradise Lost by Milton, depicting the battle of archangels against Satan. Pope contrasts the incredibly high-stakes battle and the relatively low-stakes hair snipping, satirizing the triviality of Hampton court.

Belinda’s loss is irreparable. It’s not just hair, her reputation, and her honor has been attacked, and downtrodden. She cries out in horror while the Baron shouts his victory song. Belinda’s cries could tremble the heavens. She cries so loud as women cry when their “Husbands” dies, or their “lapdogs.”

The Baron continues to exalt his victory and claims that his reputation for ‘raping the lock of Belinda will remain forever, or at least till the people will read The New Atlantis, a political satire by Delariver Manly that was published in 1709. In The New Atlantis, a parallel is drawn between the exploitation of females and the political deception of the public. Pope aptly mentions it as his mock epic as the Baron exploits Belinda, the frail.

As Belinda cries inconsolably, the narrator offers consolation by mentioning ‘Steel’ as the apostrophe. The weapons made of steel became the reason for the fall of Troy. The Baron also used a weapon made of steel. If steel could steel weapons bring down the city of Troy, how could Belinda possibly have protected her lock of hair from it? The narrator tries to console Belinda in the last lines.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The Rape of The Lock Canto 2 by Alexander Pope | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Rape of the Lock Canto 2 is by far the most important part of this mock-heroic epic. Pope introduces The Locks of Hair and their power. Canto 2 focuses on three major episodes, Belinda's river cruise, the Baron's altar of love, and Ariel's instructions to his troops. Most epic poems include a sea voyage, so Belinda’s traveling by boat emphasizes her role as a parody of an epic hero.

Canto 2 is 142 lines long, full of ironies, metaphors, and juxtapositions, and it contains enough mock-heroic elements. It clarifies that the meager act of stealing a lock of hair wasn’t just a playful mischievous act, rather, it represented a more explicit sexual conquest. Pope added sexually metaphorical words like ‘force’, ‘ravish’, and ‘betray’, which offer deeper meaning to the term ‘rape’ mentioned in the title.

Summary of The Rape of The Lock Canto 2

Lines 1-18

Pope begins by depicting Belinda’s beauty as brighter than the sunshine itself. In Canto I, Pope personifies Sol (the sun) who was so shy about peeping through Belinda's window curtains because Belinda's very eyes would rival his beams for beauty. The first three lines of Canto II continue the metaphor relating Belinda to the sun and mention her as "the Rival of his Beams." She is traveling on the silvery white waters of the river Thames on her way to a party at Hampton Court, a few miles upriver from her house. There are many other well-dressed beautiful women and men on the boat but Belinda outshines them all. She is the most beautiful and everyone acknowledges it. She is adorning the jeweled shining cross on her necklace that is resting on her ‘white breasts.’ Obviously, nobody is noticing the cross. Pope sexualizes the religious symbol and suggests that the cross can be adored by “Jews” and “Infidels” as readily as by Christians because that is hardly the centerpiece of attraction. Pope satirizes the societal trend of valuing carnal pleasure more than a moral lifestyle.

Belinda is socially good and charming for all, like the superficial sun, she shines her smile for everyone but shows no deep endearment to anyone. She often rejects the eye-contact with others but she hardly offends anyone because she is so beautiful that everyone forgives her if she accidentally hurts someone's feelings. Belinda values her looks but she is so graceful that she easily hides any pride with her sweetness. And even if she had some errors: "Look on her Face, and you'll forget 'em all".
Lines 19-28

A nymph is a mythological figure, a spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting river. In Canto 1, Pope described Belinda as a coquette, a woman who must attract a suitable husband but simultaneously refrain from so great an attraction that she compromises her virtue. In line 19, he addresses Belinda as a Nymph as the coquette is on the river Thames. This nymph is on a mission to destroy the man folk and enslave them. And to achieve her goal, she has nourished two locks of curled hair that hang at her back. Both hair locks have an equal number of curls that hide the shiny ivory-colored skin of the back of her neck. The party at Hampton Court appears to be a hunting trip for Bellinda who is all prepared for her hunt. Her hunting tools are those two locks of curled hair, the main subject of the poem.
These curled locks are not natural, rather, they are strategically planned and ‘nourished’. Belinda knows the importance of such niceties and how to use them. These curly locks are no less than unsolvable labyrinths where her loves often find themselves imprisoned and enslaved. And the men who are mighty enough to avoid the entrapment are chained by the locks. Pope offers metaphors for the locks which are "slender Chains" with the power to enslave. These locks are strategic tools for catching admirers, much like "Sprindges" (snares) or fishing lines that might catch a bird or a fish.

Lines 29-46

The Baron is introduced in these lines. He is one of the admirers of Belinda who is aware of the powers of her locks. He is the adventurous one who hopes to win those locks as a winning trophy. He has contemplated this task and knows it won’t be easy. However, he is determined to win Belinda anyhow, by hook or crook. And the way to win her is, he knows, to win her locks, her weapons. He has made up his mind to get those hairs as his and for this, he is willing to use ‘force’ to ‘ravish’ or ‘fraud’ to ‘betray.’ The Baron is planning to steal those locks for a long time and to add them to his collection of ‘trophies’ of his former loves’. The Baron isn’t a lover, he is rather a nymph hunter, a trophy collector. He has used force or fraud in past too as he has many trophies of former loves. But now he desires Belinda more than anything else. For him, means don’t matter as nobody asks if the success came through fraud or force.

Pope compares the Baron with Phoebus imploring Propitious for success in his endeavor. But as the war is of love, he makes an altar for Love and prays for his success. The baron has kept 12 French Romances thinly gilded with gold. Belinda had Bible and ‘billet doux’ on her dressing table, and the Baron has these 12 french Romances, trophies, and love letters from his former loves. Pope adds the ritual sacrifice scene to his mock epic as the Baron sacrifices three of the ‘billet-doux’ from his former loves and burns them to light a fire to please Love. His prayers are halfway granted. Belinda's doom is sealed.

Lines 47-72

Belinda’s vessel is gliding on the river Thames and it is perfectly secured at present. Ariel, the guardian sylph warned Belinda in her dream and requested her not to meet any men during this cautious period but she ignored his advice. She is en route to attend the party at Hampton court where there will be many men, along with the Baron. Ariel doesn’t know when and from where the danger will appear, but he knows it will and he is devoted to safeguarding Belinda. For this, he has summoned a huge army of Sylphs and Sylphids. These magical figures are no more in Belinda’s dream, but they are in the real presence. Yet, none other than Ariel can observe them because they are in so tiny and beautiful demeanor. When Ariel talks to these sylphs and they respond, it appears a light breeze is blowing. They are the ‘Denizens of Air,’ so light, translucent, or bright in color. Metaphorically, Pope gives these Sylphs the figure of butterflies and other beautiful colorful insects that surround the boat of Belinda. Ariel addresses all of them and they encircle their leader in the air, above the mast of the boat. The Sylphs are beautiful, colorful, and delicate, like a lot of butterflies.

Lines 73-100

These lines are full of inflation and juxtaposition. Ariels address all his minions Sylphs and Sylphids and inform them about the hierarchy of magical figures including Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Daemons. One may find traces of a satirical take on Mlton's Paradise Lost. Ariel says that the purest Spirits top of the hierarchy remain in the aether and glitter in sunlight while some other have the job to regulate the celestial bodies. Some less refined spirits are assigned the job of hovering and catching the shooting stars in the moonlight. They remove the mists and pinup the rainbows, or bring fierce tempests, and bring rains. Some less refined spirits are tasked with observing the human race and guiding them in their actions. Of these lesser refined spirits, the top in the hierarchy have the job to take care of Great Britain and guard the British monarch, In comparison, Ariel and Syphs have got a humble job of tending and helping the fair sex. Ariel mentions that it is a pleasing task but it has no glory. He gives details: Sylphs help with hairstyles, makeup, and fashion, without the beautiful coquettes ever knowing it. Thus, Ariel and his Sylphs are assigned the realm of ridiculous.

Lines 101-122

In these lines, Ariel informs the Sylphs of the reason why they have gathered on the boat near Belinda. He warns "black Omens" threaten their Belinda, and that they all have to pull together to guard her against whatever terrible thing is about to happen to her. Pope introduces his sexual innuendos in these lines, "Whether the Nymph shall break Diana's law,/ Or some frail China jar receives a Flaw." Diana’s law is an allusion to the Roman Goddess of chastity, breaking Diana’s law suggests loss of virginity. Similarly, broken pottery is also used literally to indicate loss of virginity. However, it can be taken as a juxtaposition too, as if forcibly losing virginity is equivalent to breaking of a China jar. Ariel’s final anxiety is that Belinda might “stain her honor or her new brocade”. While the staining of Belinda’s honor is overtly sexual, the staining of her dress likewise has sexual implications, alluding both to female sexual maturity (menstruation) and to the tearing of the hymen (loss of virginity). Again, it can be seen as a juxtaposition, comparing the loss of honor with a stain on a new dress. Ariel’s other fear is Belinda’s lapdog whom she loves so much. It is a satirical commentary on the priorities of the society Pope lived in.

After expressing his worries, Ariel assigns various tasks to his minions for ensuring protection of Belinda. Ariel assigns to watch Belinda's fan to a Sylph named "Zephiretta.""Brillante" is assigned the task to keep an eye on her diamonds, and "Momentilla" will guard her watch. Another Sylphide is named Crispissa, a play on the Latin word meaning curl. Her job is to guard Belinda’s favorite locks while Ariel himself will protect Shock.

Ariel’s main worry is Belinda breaking Diana’s law and thus he assigns 50 sylphs of special notes, the job of protecting Belinda’s petticoat. Belinda is already careful about it as her petticoat is exceptionally strong and is made with hoops and whalebone. Yet, 50-strong Sylphs must protect it as Ariel has an inkling that someone will try to ‘ravage’ it forcefully and all of that construction might not be enough to keep out a persistent suitor. This part is full of double meanings. The guardian Sylph does know that something untoward is coming but he isn’t aware of what it might be and when, and he assigns an army of 50 sylphs to guard the petticoat of Belinda, which suggests that the two hair locks could be Belinda’s pubic hair, and thus, the theft of the lock represents a greater threat to Belinda’s virtue than the theft of her hair would suggest.

Lines 123-142

In these lines, Ariel warns the Sylphs of bitter consequences if they slack and fail in their jobs to ensure the protection of Belinda. Any spirit careless of her charge might find themselves stuck in small glass jars or poked with pins, dunked in cosmetic "Washes" (imagine someone drowned in liquid facewash), or stuck in a hairpin. A bodkin’s eye means a hairpin. Such a careless sylph may also get punished for being good up in hair gel and lotion (Gums and Pomatums), or they will shrink into nothingness. They will be punished so severely that even an astringnet-like alum won’t stop their bleeding. Such a slacking Sylph may also be drowned in a sea of hot chocolate, or imprisoned in a coffee grinder. There’s an allusion to the Classical Greek character Ixion, who was doomed to revolve on a wheel in Hades for eternity.

All Sylphs vow to be attentive for the protection of Belinda to avoid any such punishment and they move towards their posts. Some of the sylphs go to her petticoat while some others go to her curls and earrings. All of them are anxious and careful as they wait for the unknown danger to appear so that they may protect Belinda against it.

Pope begins Canto II with a description of Belinda’s beauty and vanity, parodying it as frivolous. He describes the mysteries of Belinda’s dressing table as an art, but then he draws a parallel between the Baron’s frivolous pyre and Belinda’s dressing table altar and suggests that the two as being morally equivalent in their frivolity. In Pope’s time, men were expected to be morally and intellectually superior to women. Pope suggests that Belinda’s beauty evens the playing field a bit at the patriarchal court. He further suggests that she is so careful about cultivating her beauty to escape unfair moral scrutiny.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. 'Fire and Ice' is a short poem written by Robert Frost that was first published in 1920 and then republished in his poetry collection titled New Hampshire in 1923. Frost won the 1924 Pulitzer prize for poetry for New Hampshire.

Fire and Ice talk about the ways the world may end. Frost wrote this time in 1920, just two years after the end of the First World War, when revolution, apocalypse, and social and political chaos were on many people’s minds. Aristotelian or classical elements of nature are water, fire, air, and earth. Frost mentions the first two in the title and the content of his poem. Though he mentions water as ice, that is the water is frost, which happened to be his surname.

In early 1920, Robert Frost met the astronomer Harlow Shapley and asked him how the world will end. Shapley answered that either the sun will swallow and engulf the earth, incinerating it, or the earth will escape and become a rouge planet, slowly freezing in deep space. Robert Frost published Fire and Ice the same year later.

In 1922, Russian scientist and mathematician Alexander Friedmann offered some genuine equations negating the idea that the universe is stable and proved that either the universe could either expand or contract. With enough matter, gravity could stop the universe's expansion and eventually reverse it. This reversal would result in the universe collapsing on itself, not too dissimilar to a black hole, death by fire, or the expansion of the universe will continue, leading it to Heat death, or death by freezing. In 1923, "Fire and Ice" was republished.

Robert Frost expressed these scientific ideas in human and social terms through this poem.

Structure of Fire and Ice :

The poem is composed of a single nine-line stanza irregularly written in iambic trimeter and iambic dimeter. There is no rhyming scheme though it appears as a mix of three rhyming schemes as each line ends either with an -ire, -ice, or -ate rhyme which offers a euphonic symmetry. Enjambment has been used in the 7^th line to a great effect. The poem is strongly metaphorical. The language is simple with a great effect of aphorism.

Summary of Fire and Ice :

Lines 1-4

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

The poet distinguishes fire and ice as different entities. He mentions that the people are divided into two groups. While one group believes that the world will end in fire, the other says it will end in ice. Frost used ‘some’ to represent the two sides of the debate instead of using ‘I’ or an Individual. This offers a universal assertion to the two opposing ideas of the world ending in fire, or ice, instead of presenting it as an idea promoted by an individual.
In these two lines, the poet declares that the world is mortal that will definitely end in either fire or ice, though it is still debatable how it will end. Thus, the world will definitely end and there is no other way. Then the poet relates fire with the desires and emotions of individuals and claims that personally, he supports the group claiming the world will end in fire. First World War ended just a couple of years ago, and a war is often a result of irrational desires, greed, emotions, and interests.

Lines 5-9
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

The narrator then suggests that the argument offered by the other group is also worth mentioning and he believes that if the world has to perish twice then even the ice has enough capability to bring the world to the end. The narrator equates ice with hatred and alienation. The speaker determines that either option would achieve its purpose sufficiently well. Within this metaphorical view of the two elements, the “world” can be recognized as a metaphor for a relationship. Too much fire and passion can quickly consume a relationship, while cold indifference and hate can be equally destructive. The narrator ultimately admits that the world could just as easily end in ice; fire and ice, it seems, are strikingly similar. Frost’s short 1920 poem ‘Fire and Ice' has been named by George R. R. Martin as part of the inspiration behind the title A Song of Ice and Fire.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Mowing by Robert Frost | Structure, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mowing was one of the earliest poems by Robert Frost he wrote in 1913. It was the first poem in which Frost experimented with the “sound of sense” technique. The ‘sound of sense’ technique implies the usage of such words in the verse that offers specific sounds and syllables to construct an aural feeling of the subject and narrative intention. The poem is about the importance of hard work and how enjoyable it can be. What sound does the scythe make? Frost concludes that it is ‘the sweetest dream that labor knows’ – the scythe ‘whispers’ as it performs its work.

Structure of the poem Mowing:

Frost wrote this poem in form of a sonnet as it contains 14 lines. However, it does not conform to any traditional rhyme scheme of a sonnet. Frost rather wrote it as an amalgamation of the Petrarchan sonnet (ABBAABBA CDECDE) and Shakespearean sonnet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) and created his own rhyming scheme ABC ABD ECD FEG FG for Mowing. The poem contains 3 quatrains and a couplet. Robert Frost repeatedly used the word ‘whispers’ and employed swaying motion of meter in certain lines (like “Perhaps it was something…/ Something perhaps) to offer a visceral sense of the to-and-fro movement of the scythe as it cuts the hay in a field. The personification of the scythe is apparent in the term ‘whisper.’ Contrast has also been used. The poem offers the philosophical viewpoint of the scythe about labor that the farmer using it may or may not agree with. Metaphor is used as the poet equates ‘Pale orchises’ and the “bright green snake” with the highs and lows, beauty and horror, and troubles in general life.

Summary of Mowing :

Lines 1-4

There was never a sound beside the wood but one,

And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.

What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;

Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,

In the first line, the poet describes himself as the lone farmer working in his field beside the wood. He says that it is complete silence with no sound but just one. The poet then personifies his tool, the scythe that he is using to cut hay on his field, and says that the only discernible sound is that of his scythe ‘whispering’ to the ground. This conversation in whispers between the scythe and the ground attracts the poet and he tries to understand it. As they are whispering in low voice, the talks of scythe aren’t clear to him. He surmises that perhaps, the scythe is complaining about the heat of the sun as he is disturbed by it. He thinks that the scythe is feeling delusional as the sun is beating down on him.

Lines 5-8

Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound—

And that was why it whispered and did not speak.

It was no dream of the gift of idle hours,

Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:

The poet again guesses what the scythe is whispering and says that maybe the scythe is whispering about the silence that engulfs the field. Maybe, the scythe is astounded by this much silence and as he doesn’t want to disturb or break the silence, he whispers in low voice. The other reason for the scythe to make a low sound whisper and not a loud voice is that the scythe is busy doing his work, he isn’t sharing some dream of his idle hours. Nor the scythe is talking about the easy gold or money that one gets through magic. Here, the poet uses metaphor and suggests that sometimes, the things that seem so simple, like thinking about and writing a poem, are not so simple, rather they are products of hard labor and the poet is continuously working, like the scythe to produce and get results. The poet says that his poems don’t come through magic.

Lines 9-12

Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak

To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,

Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers

(Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.

The poet continues to express the hard labor in poetry and says that anything fanciful and delusional about the world would appear weak in a poem. He says that if he dresses up his poem in fake, magical pretense, it will dissolute and diminish the worth of the real world. Instead, the poet wants his readers to focus on the highs and lows of work, as well as the beauty and horror that lay in wait in life and that is what he prefers to write about. The poet expresses beauty as ‘Pale orchises’ and horror or troubles, difficulties, and failures as ‘bright green snake’. The poet suggests that whenever a person decides to work hard, he faces difficulties and/or distractions and he is often tempted to give up the hard work. But, one should not get distracted by and/or disturbed by the many troubles that will come as one is aspiring to work hard and trying to make something of their day.

Lines 13-14

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

In the last two lines, the poet again brings the scythe upfront as now, the scythe speaks. The poet has finally made up his mind about what the scythe was whispering. He already ascertained that it was not talking of fantasies or fancy dreams of idleness, nor it talked about the magical things and worlds. The poet says that the scythe, who is working so hard, whispered to the ground that the sweetest dream a hard worker engaged in labor can have is the fact or reality. The poet assumes that the scythe whispered that one should know what they’re working for and why they are working, and that is enough. They don’t need to think of any other thing, issue, or consequence. They shouldn’t worry about the rewards or criticism. A hard worker, like a scythe, or the farmer, or the poet, should remain focussed on his hard work and he should be aware of the truth, his true intentions, and goals regarding that work, and that is the most beautiful thing. As the narrator assumes that this is what the scythe whispered, he stops attempting to analyze the scythe’s whispering within his imagination and has resorted to simple, honest work.

The philosophical aspect of the poem can be compared with the mentality of Robert Frost as a poet. He always preferred writing poetry about everyday life on the farms of New England and often was criticized for this. Frost answers all such criticism and points out in “Mowing,” truth and fact are far more significant than imaginative fancies of gold and elves. And thus, his emphasis on reality and the real-life struggles and situations of people in his poetry are more beautiful and effective than any traditional sonnet that narrates love stories or describes lands of fairytales.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The English Teacher by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The English Teacher was the fourth novel by R. K. Narayan, the third of his Malgudi series that was published in the year 1945. The novel is a tragic love story that eventually leads to self-realization and hence, the major theme of the novels are love and existentialism or self-realization. It is a fictional autobiographical novel in which Narayan expressed his own experiences and love for his wife and daughter and his feelings after the death of his wife in 1939. The other themes of the novel include parental love and educational reforms.

Characters of The English Teacher :

Krishna is the protagonist of the novel. He is an English teacher and lecturer at Albert Mission College. It is a lucrative job but Krishna doesn’t like teaching and would rather prefer to be a poet. He leads a monotonous and uninteresting life until his wife Sushila comes with their daughter Leela to live with him. Krishna is a committed loyal husband who loves his wife. He is a doting father who understands his responsibilities toward his child. Sushila is a caring housewife who is conscious of her family. She is not a submissive woman and takes hold of the family budget while Krishna earns. She is a beautiful lady who cares about her appearance. She is a caring mother. Krishna and Sushila offer shades of autobiographical elements as the character of Krishna is based on Narayan himself while the character of Sushila is based on his wife Rajam who died of typhoid in 1939. The character of Leela is based on Narayan’s daughter Hema. The Headmaster is an eccentric man who runs a private school for young kids. Unlike Krishna, he is very focused on his vocation and loves to teach. He experiments with new ways of education and tries everything possible to make children take more interest in education. He inspires Krishna to reinvent himself and realize what he is meant to do. The Sage is another important yet small character in the novel. He becomes the medium of communication between Krishna and the soul of his dead wife Sushila. Shashtri is a colleague of Krishna at Albert Mission College and Dr. Shankar is the most successful physician of Malgudi.

Summary of The English Teacher :

The novel is divided into eight chapters. The story begins at the hostel of Albert Mission College of Malgudi where Krishna lives. He is a teacher and lecturer of English at the same college from where he completed his education. He is not very social and finds his job and life tiresome and uninteresting. He dreams of becoming a poet but fails to write enough as he would prefer because the job as a teacher also demands a lot of energy and time. He is a dedicated lecturer though he doesn’t like teaching the job is lucrative and he gets a regular salary of Rs 100 per month. However, he is uninterested in his students and is happy to hear the bell ring at the end of the class. He is very academic in nature and prefers his students to cram up the books to pass exams. He is very frustrated by himself and often compares himself with a cow doing nothing but grazing on grass. Despite all his frustrations, he has a good sense of humor and he uses it to spread cheer in college among his students. While the major reason for his frustration is his inability to make his dream of becoming a poet come true, he is also frustrated because he misses his lovely wife Sushila, and daughter Leela who are living in another city with Krishna’s parents. This is so because he doesn’t have enough money to buy a house in Malgudi and his hostel room is too small for his family. One day, he gets a letter from his father informing him that Sushila and Leela are visiting Malgudi to live with him. Sushila and Leela visit Malgudi along with Krishna’s mother and they all start living in a small hostel apartment of Krishna. Despite the lack of space, Krishna is very happy as he is near to his daughter and a loving wife whom he loves too much. Sushila is a very beautiful and intelligent woman. She immediately takes hold of the house and budget and Krishna willingly offers her all the financial management. Sushila starts taking control of his whole salary as she runs the family while Krishna gets more time for his poetry.

On Leela's third birthday, Krishna’s father offers him money to buy his own home in Malgudi so that he may live with his family as he works there. Krishna and Sushila then start looking for a viable home that they can buy in the allocated budget. One of Krishna’s colleagues is Shashtri who is a logic teacher and also works as a builder. He suggests him some ready-to-move houses at Lawley Extension. Sushila is very happy about the prospect of buying her own house. She gets ready to inspect the houses and choose one. She wears her favorite indigo saree and applies some jasmine perfume. Krishna is totally enchanted by her and sees her as if she is a ‘phantom of delight.’ He says that from now on he will call her Jasmine and they will name their house the Jasmine Home. Before visiting Lawley's extension, he takes Sushila to Bombay Anand Bhawan, a restaurant, to take breakfast. Then he takes Sushila to the banks of the Sarayu river to wash their feet before they visit their future adobe. They visit many homes and then they decide on a house that Sushila liked most. As Krishna negotiates with Shashtri about the price of the house, Sushila goes to the backyard of the house where she sees a lavatory. She decides to inspect it too and enters. The lavatory is too filthy and it shocks Sushila. A fly suddenly jumps upon Sushila and stings her. She cries in fear and somehow she locks herself in the lavatory. Krishna reaches for her help and kicks open the door. He finds Sushila very distraught and tries to console her as they go back to the hostel.

Sushila fails to take any food as she cannot forget her experience in the filthy lavatory and soon he falls ill and suffer a high fever. She remains bedridden for 4 days but doesn’t improve. Krishna then consults Dr. Shankar of Krishna Medical Hall. Dr. Shankar inspects Sushila and suspects that she is suffering from Malaria. He offers some medicines but they don’t help. Finally, he takes a blood sample of Sushila and sends it for further inquiry. Soon it is revealed that Sushila is suffering from typhoid and it has been too late. Typhoid is contagious but Krishna is dedicated and optimistic, he continues to serve Sushila and take care of her. Meanwhile, Leela is kept away from Sushila and Krishna’s mother takes care of her. However, Krishna’s optimism fails and Sushila dies leaving him ‘blind, dumb, and dazed.’ She is cremated on the banks of the Saryu river according to Hindu rites.

After Sushila’s death, Krishna is too shocked and grief-ridden. He thinks of committing suicide but then he hears the cries of Leela and decides to take care of her. Sushila’s father asks Krishna to let him take Leela with him to which he denies and says that Leela is the only reason why he is still living. He becomes disenchanted with his job and personal life. His only refuge and reason to live is his baby daughter. Therefore, he spends all his energy and affection on her as she becomes the center of his world.

One day, after his lecture at the college, a student approaches him and gives him a letter. When he sees it, he finds that the writing matches that of Sushila. He is astounded. He asks the student where he got the letter. The student takes him to a Sage. The sage tells Krishna that he can converse with people after their death. He says that Sushila came into his contact and told him to contact Krishna. Krishna is too excited about this as it offers him a chance to be in touch with the woman he loved more than himself. The sage becomes the medium between Sushila and Krishna. Krishna soon becomes too dependent on the sage. Meanwhile, he starts ignoring Leela as his whole focus is on Sushila who is already dead. One day, the sage goes away to visit some other city and Krishna finds himself distraught and lost. Not knowing what to do, he decides to find a way to converse with Sushila directly. As he loiters around the banks of the Sarayu river, he sits down and meditates. Soon the soul of Sushila approaches him and he successfully communicates with her. Sushila reminds him of his duties towards Leela and tells him to get her admitted to a good school. Krishna realizes his mistake and decides to take proper care of Leela. He is no more dependent on the sage or the soul of Sushila.

As he returns home, he finds that Leela is not at home. He searches for her and finds her near the gate of a kid’s school in the neighborhood. He takes Leela inside and talks to the Headmaster. Krishna finds that the headmaster of the school is an eccentric person. When Krishna asks him his name, he says, “Just Headmaster will do...” Krishna observes that the headmaster is very dedicated to his students and enrolls Leela in the same school. Krishna observes that the headmaster has divided the main hall into several rooms with partition screens that are filled with glittering alphabets and pictures made by the students. He sees that the headmaster has turned the process of learning into a fun activity for the students. He gets too impressed by the headmaster and decides to follow a few of his techniques of teaching at his own college. On a Sunday, Leela insists to go to school while it is a holiday of Krishna. As he takes her to the school, he finds that the school is open. When he asks the Headmaster, the headmaster says that he hasn’t taken leave for the last 15 years. The school is open at all times without any timetable and the students can come and go anytime they wish. Leela is too happy in her new school. One day, she asks Krishna why cannot he teach at the same school which is so near to their home while the school where Krishna is currently teaching is so far.

Krishna makes a close friendship with the headmaster. One day, he visits his house and sees that his wife is a quarrelsome lady and his three children are uncouth and wild. The headmaster says that his wife doesn’t allow his children to visit his school. He says, “I could sooner get the Emperor’s children. My school is for all the children except my own.” The headmaster says that he believes in an astrologer his life has gone precisely according to what the astrologer had told him. The astrologer has given the precise date and time of his death, which the headmaster is convinced will turn out to be true. One night, the headmaster visits Krishna’s house and tells him that it is the day he will die. Krishna tells him that he is perfectly fine and nothing will happen to him but the headmaster is adamant. He says that he is going home to spend his last night with his wife and children. The next day, Krishna visits his home and finds that the headmaster never reached his home. Krishna gets deeply disturbed and sad and informs the wife that the headmaster is dead. His wife starts crying but the headmaster appears at the same time. He informs that the prediction of the astrologer proved wrong. He says that the prediction kept him under the burden of fear of death but now, he will live his life freely. He decides to leave his wife and children forever and never visit his home again. He makes teaching kids in innovative ways in his school with utmost dedication. Observing all this, Krishna too feels a change in himself. He decides to resign from his lucrative job at Albert Mission College and joins the headmaster’s expanding school as the new English teacher at a quarter of the salary he was getting in college to seek inner satisfaction.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.