Here we will discuss the Belinda Character Sketch in The Rape of the Lock with her Physical Beauty, Vanity and Social Status, Vulnerability and Innocence, Resilience and Resurgence.
Introduction
Belinda is the central character in Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock.” She is a young woman who embodies beauty, charm, and social status within the aristocratic society depicted in the poem. Here is an analysis of Belinda’s character:
Physical Beauty:
Belinda is described as a stunningly beautiful young woman with captivating features. Her most significant physical attribute is her luxuriant lock of hair, which becomes the narrative’s focal point. Her physical beauty symbolizes her desirability and the admiration she receives from others.
Vanity and Social Status:
Belinda is conscious of her beauty and the attention it garners. She takes pride in her appearance and actively participates in the social scene of the elite society. Belinda’s preoccupation with her external image reflects the values of the society she inhabits, which places a high emphasis on superficiality and outward appearances.
Vulnerability and Innocence:
Belinda’s character also portrays vulnerability and innocence. Despite her beauty and social standing, she is depicted as naive and easily swayed by the flattery and attention of others, particularly men. Her innocence is highlighted by her obliviousness to the theft of her lock of hair, which serves as an exaggeration of her detachment from the consequences of her vanity.
The object of Desire:
Belinda’s lock of hair becomes a coveted object of desire for the Baron. It is through this incident that the poem explores the power dynamics and objectification of women in the society of the time. Belinda’s character represents the object of male desire, and her loss of the lock symbolizes the violation of her boundaries.
Resilience and Resurgence:
Despite the violation of her personal space and the loss of her lock, Belinda exhibits resilience and a determination to regain her agency. She seeks solace from her female companions and relies on the support of the sylphs to retrieve her stolen hair. Belinda’s character demonstrates a spirit of resilience and an ability to overcome adversity.
Belinda’s character in “The Rape of the Lock” embodies the contradictions and complexities of the society in which she exists. She represents the ideals of beauty, vanity, vulnerability, and resilience, serving as a vehicle through which Pope satirizes the superficiality and social dynamics of the aristocratic world.
Belinda as a Main Character:
Belinda is an ambiguous character and plays the role of ambivalent in “The Rape of the Lock”. This paradox in the character of Belinda is explained by the fact that Pope looks upon her as a charming butterfly, an embodiment of physical beauty and laudable qualities of head and heart and at the same time he presents her as the type of figure of the coquettes of the time and the butt of his social satire.
There are times when even the praise of Belinda’s attractions seems to be a mere mask for Pope’s satiric attack on her, as the representative of her degenerate, unscrupulous class. One of Pope’s contemporaries John Denies tried to undermine Belinda’s character by saying that she is a ‘chimera and not a character.
Belinda represents Miss Arabella Fermor of real life whom Lord Petre offended by stealing a lock of her hair. Pope wrote this poem to patch up the quarrel between the Fermors and Petres on a trivial matter. To achieve his objective he has to present Belinda as a good individual. He treats her satirically only when she represents the type of the pleasure-loving, unscrupulous and spineless aristocracy.
The moralist in Pope was aware of the decadence of values in the fashionable society and so he is critical of Belinda to the extent that she tries to follow all the decadent values of the society despite her natural beauty, youth and charm. So the portrayal of Belinda is at once despicable and endearing.
“The Rape of the Lock” is a mock epic poem depicting a social drama of the 18th century fashionable society. Belinda is the main target of satire in the poem. She embodies all the vanities, follies, and lack of moral scruples typical of upper-class ladies at the time. She is a late riser, wakes up at twelve falls asleep again and is roused from her sleep by the licking tongue of her pet dog, Shock.
When Belinda is engaged in her toilet, her beauty and charm are laid and stressed open. She is assisted by her servant Betty, in decorating and embellishing herself with cosmetics and jewellery. She is here compared to a warrior as she dresses herself:
“Now awful beauty puts all its arms; The fair each moment rises in her charms.”
(line-149-140, Canto-1)
She wears a sparkling cross, her looks are lively and she smiles at everyone, but does not show any special favour towards anyone:
“Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.”
(line-149-140, Canto-1)
Her faults, if any are hidden by her graceful ease and sweetness. She has a thirst for fame which leads to her encounter with two “adventurous knights” at the game of cards known as Ombre. She is jubilant and shouts exultantly when she is victorious in the game of Ombre. Her jubilation and exultation at her victory show that she is vain and is rather superficial in her mind.
In the dedicatory epistle, Pope mentions the unscrupulous beauty of Belinda. There is ample evidence to suggest that Belinda did indeed possess an ineffable beauty and charm, because of which she is the cynosure of her fashionable society. She has exquisite charm, Belinda is not only exceptionally beautiful but also the cause of joy and brightness in the world where she figures, Pope describes her as the “fair nymph”, “virgin” and even a “Goddess”.
Belinda is not only beautiful, but she is also keen to display her beauty. Her pleasure ride in a boat on the Thames is a part of this programme. With her repaired smiles and artistically heightened and purified blush, Belinda is playing a role most of the time. Her role is that of an amiable beautiful maid who rejects without causing any offence and scatters her smiles on all, even at her grief after the snipping off the Lock of her hair, which is a studied art. As Pope puts it:
“Then seen the nymph in beauteous grief appears, Her eyes half-langu, half-drawned in tears.”
These lines evoke the picture of a highly self-conscious actress who knows the kind of histrionics the particular roles as the moment demands. Court is the very place she can kill with her eyes and for which she dresses herself so deliberately. She knows in her heart of heart that the cutting of her Lock is a compliment to her beauty. But she knows that the event will make her a ‘degraded toast’. Privately she has enjoyed the adoration of the Baron but publicly she must condemn his action:
“On hadst thou cruel! Been content to seize Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!”
As a representative of the 18th century, English aristocratic ladies, Belinda has all the vanities, frivolities and fashions of her social type. Pope stresses Belinda’s divinity, he also stresses her spiritual shallowness.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that Belinda in “The Rape of the Lock” is seen in many different lights- as coquette, injured, innocent, sweet-charmer, society belle, rival of the sun ad murderer of millions. This Cleopatra lie variety indicates simultaneously her charm and lack of character. At one point the praise of her attraction may be a mere mark for Pope’s satiric attack on the type figure of the coquette; at another point it is praise no irony can fully undermine. The part that Belinda plays in the elaborate social drama is at once despicable, ridiculous, endearing, precarious, poignant and petty.