SOCIAL VANITY IN “THE RAPE OF THE LOCK “BY ALEXANDER POPE

Abstract

When Robert Lord Petre cut off a lock of Arabella hermor's hair one fateful day early in the eighteenth century , he did not
know that the deed would gain worldwide fame attracting attention over several centuries. Nor, perhaps did he foresee the
ill feeling his act would create between the Petre and Fermor families. The story would probably have been soon lost amid
the trivia of family drama, had not John Caryll asked his good friend the poet Alexander Pope to write a little poem about
the episode, one that would show the comic element of the quarrel and thus help heal it.
What began as a trivial event became, under the guidance of Pope's hand, one of the most famous poems in the English
language, and perhaps the best example of burlesque we have. The Rape of the Lock was begun at Caryll's behest in 1711
, Pope spent about two weeks on it and needed a much shorter version than the one he wrote two years later ; making more
additions in 1717, he then developed the final draft of the poem as it now stands.