I must say, I was not impressed by this story. I read the introduction to it and expected it to be all sorts of humorous, which it may have been, but the way it was written was just so slow and dry that i did not catch it the first time around. I suppose the main reason why is because I have never been a fan of British Literature so I wasn't very interested in the story in the first place. I did have a few questions, though:
Who is Clarissa? Why did she cut Belinda's hair? Out of jealousy?
What is the significance of the Baron? Is he a/the love interest of Belinda?
The last verse of Canto 3 is talking about how steel has destroyed all matter of things and the lines couple of lines are talking about Belinda's severed hair. Does this mean that Belinda has been destroyed by the loss of her beauty via her cut hair?
I also found some stuff on that "Ombre" card game Belinda and the Baron are playing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombre
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Look at the poem again, with the idea of "machinery" in mind. Remember that humans in the poem are being driven by fairies, gnomes, etc. Considering how steel will factor into the industrial revolution and the consequent change in British life and society, it seems rather prescient of Pope to allude to the destruction it causes. In this case, he is explicitly referring to Belinda's hair being chopped, and the loss of beauty she suffers as a result of this incident.
ReplyDeleteThe Baron is one of Belinda's love interests.
The stuff on Ombre is exactly the kind of great stuff I like to see posted on the Commonplace.