UNIVERSITY OF TURBUT

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

BY: MASHREEN HAMEED

Title: Psychoanalytic study of Alexander pop’s Rape of the lock

Introduction

Psychoanalysis of literary texts evolved near the development of psychology in earlier 20th century.
Such ultimate analysis rose from the father of psychology Sigmund Freud. Freud developed this theory
as a mean of therapy for neurosis. Soon it expanded to the account of civilizations including warfare,
mythology, religion, literature and other arts. In particular, psychoanalysis is widely applicable in
written literature where it deals with the literary text as the expression of the secret unconscious
desires and anxieties of the author himself. Every author beneath his pen discloses a true picture of
himself, his sufferings, desires, unfulfilled dreams and so forth. Freud believed that events in our
childhood have a great influence on our adult life. As anxieties originating from traumatic experience
in a person’s past is hidden from consciousness but do cause problems in adulthood. Thus, when one
shows up his behavior to others ,he gives a true account of his motivations. Simultaneously, an author
beyond the content of his text in many ways expresses his inner self and what he had gone through.
There are multiple theories relying on human psychoanalysis delivered by Freud but the theory of
“The psyche” and his book “The interpretation of dreams” better clarify the analysis of a text.
According to first theory mind is structured into two main parts: the conscious mind and the
unconscious mind. The conscious mind revolves around one’s awareness, logics and reasons whereas
the unconscious mind includes all the things outside awareness: the wishes, desires, hopes, urges and
memories. The components of unconscious mind are Id, Ego and Superego(psychic apparatus)
responsible for the mood of life.However,Id is the pleasure principle that does not see morals,
rationality and restriction when yearns for a desire whether sexual or biological whereas superego is
the store house of ethics and morals. Ego then emerges as a referee to satisfy both. An author of a
text briefly shows the conflict of his Id and Superego through the characters he brings in his work.

The other part played, is the book: the interpretation of dreams. Freud described dreams as the
royal road of unconscious arguing that dreams provide us with the understanding of our repressed
selves. What one sees in dream is always symbolic and the latent meaning is something. The urges
of Id are often accomplished in dreams. Similarly, the text of an author is treated like a dream.
The text expresses the real (latent) contents behind the obvious (manifested) contents.

Alexander pop belongs to Augustan age: the age of classical removal where pop’s hand is the
major one in its creation by his works. His childhood passed through various thorns: social thorns,
religious thorns physical thorns and as well thorns of his love failure. He faced criticism in
composing his works. Because of health he had physical defects making him ugly with a
hunchback resulting abuses and decline in love. This grew much hatred in Pop’s behaviors and
 irritation in his life. Rape of the Lock in one way or other is the exposure of Pop’s repressed
thoughts and his repressed desires.

Problem of statement

Alexander Pop had attempted a showcase to his society in his mock epic: Rape of the lock but
psychoanalytically it is the manifestation of his deeply dug desires and long repressed urges.

Research objective

It is to analyze the unconscious mind of Alexander Pop and untangle his veiled urges in Rape of the
Lock.

Research questions

1. How Rape of the Lock unfolds the hidden impulses of Alexander pop?

2. What are the unconscious urges of Pop behind the content of Rape of the Lock?

Research significance

The data provided aim to deal with the interior world of writer often hidden from readers to grasp.
The study of this text psychoanalytically contributes to the learning of the antique of classical texts
mainly to determine the motivational drives of pop’s life. It will further contribute to the readers to
conduct researches on the prior subject.

Analysis

In Rape of the Lock, there is a sharp blink of Alexander pop’s unconscious mind and its apparatus: ID,
ego and super ego. What had remained to be accomplished in his life had sharply been depicted and
revenged in this piece. Pop had no happy experience with women .He was a hunchbacked short and
sickly boy as a result he could not expect to win love and respect of any women. He made his suit to a
lady called Mary Wortley Montague, but she rejected him. This insult and his unaccomplished love is
seen through the character of Baron in the poem “All that I dared is leaving you behind, Rather than
alive so, ah let me still survive, And burn in Cupid’s flames but burnt”. Baron is rejected and insulted as
pop. The women of his age had not appreciated his intellectual power or the poetic talents, because
of what Pop had bore a grudge against the fair sex. His grudge is seen in the lines when he criticizes
Belinda in the poem “This nymph, to the destruction of mankind, nourished two locks which hung
behind”

There is a dominance of Id leading to libidinal desire in the poem too where there is a glimpse of
sexual urges of Pop.Alaxander pop had never married and met a deadly failure in love. Thus soft
bosom there are various sexual implication in the poem in the phrases “soft bosom”, wiring lip”,
“white breast” and melting maids etc.The unfulfilled gender desire of Pop might had been fulfilled in
the poem through Belinda and in cutting her hair which might had symbolized her private hair “Oh
hadst thou, cruel been content to seize, Hairless in sight, or any hair but not these”. In addition the
game of Ombre also suggests the game of sexes where every card and every move in the game
indicates the sexual implications, “clubs, diamonds, and hearts in wild disorder seen

With throngs promiscuous strew the level green”. On the other hand, the description and the use of
bodkin is another apparent tool that Belinda uses to revenge his lost chastity. Pop intentionally
brought the bodkin not other instrument because bodkin is the tool of hair too.

There is another mingling of Id and the super ego in shape of sylphs present in the poem. The sylphs
which motivate Belinda to mischief and pleasure are true shape of ID whereas the sylph preventing
her to danger is the superego which always brings logics for its sake, “ Teach infant cheeks a bidden
blush to know, and little hearts to flutter at a beau” One side sylphs contrive her to the excitement of
life and other side it prevents her “Heavens reveals not what, or where, warned by sylph oh pious
maid beware”. Super ego emerges on the way to Id to prevent it from wrong doings and remind it of
its moral standers. Similar compassion is drawn in the poem to get it void of mischief. Moreover,
there is another exposure of Freudian theory in Rape of the lock namely defense mechanism. It is a
mechanism used by ego to calm the Id from being very regressive. It includes many components but
one of the components used in the poem is called intellectualization. Intellectualization is a defense
mechanism used to defend Id from turning vulgar. It is a mechanism which emphasizes right doings
being void of immoral need and vices. This mechanism can be seen in the speech of Clarissa in the
poem where she dominants righteousness “how vain are all these glories, all our pains, unless good
sense preserve what beauty gains” and she remarks “Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the
soul”. The defense mechanism had genuinely been used by pop for the security of his Id from turning
flashy and he succeeded in it.

Conclusion

To sum up, driven by the unconscious mind, pop though beautifully fulfilled the need of his artistic
genuine in the poem but he had as well disclosed his inner self. A poet is an exquite craftsman and his
poetry is a supremely sufficient mechanism containing fear, anxieties, trauma and sensations in a few
chosen words. It is hard to understand the manifested meanings behind these dramatic events which
are deeply dug in a hidden corner of mind. As per the interpretation of dream, the interpretation of
texts can possibly assist one to catch the hidden meanings. The sexual drives of Pop with his
mechanical motives and the fulfillment of his yearns through the construction of his characters in the
poem had brought the latent meanings from the manifested portrait. In particular the unconscious his
with the contradiction of Id and super ego and at middle the defense of ego had been revealed.