Analyze how your topic is comedic or satiric
The piece that I have for this prompt is Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope satires the lives of the aristocratic men and women of the 18th century. Pope starts off by depicting the 18th century by describing Belinda’s morning. He mentions that Belinda wakes up at noon but won’t wake up unless someone wakes her. She was given a divine warning but forgot about it when her eyes landed on a love letter. By making Belinda forget about her divine warning, Pope is showing that all women worry about in the 18th century is love interests. This section is quite amusing because it implies that the divine warning and Belinda’s flirtatiousness are incompatible. Pope also goes on to make fun of how serious women are when it comes to makeup. He uses words such as heavenly, priestess and sacred rites to describe Belinda getting dressed for the day. He even goes as far as calling Belinda a goddess. It is almost as if Belinda was anointed by the cosmetics and became a religious figure. By using words related to religion, Pope is putting Belinda’s dressing table events on the same level as a religion. What makes it funny is how bizarre that comparison is. There is no possible way that religion and cosmetics could hold the same level of importance in everyday life.
Pope takes his time to make fun of the lives of men through the knights at the coffeehouse and the judges. Pope talks about aristocrats of the 18th century spend their time at clubs and coffeehouses. One would think that they would have serious conversation but they would actually share gossip and flirt just like the women would. Pope create irony by introducing the clubs and coffeehouses. It is normal to think that the men would be doing something important at those places but they are actually just laughing and gossiping like Belinda and her friends. Pope even mentions how the women and men make a game out of flirting with one another. Instead of being serious, they would only flirt to see who could get the best responses out of the person they’re flirting with.
Pope did a wonderful job with his piece. I believe that it was a very entertaining and witty satire. He managed to get his point across without having to offend anyone.
Witty Satire 