THE USE OF SUSPERNATURAL

MACHINERY IN THE RAPE OF LOCK

INTRODUCTION:
Alexander Pope occupies a unique place in the history of 18 th
century literature. He was recognized as a poet of great nation
for a gestation. He was born in 1688 the year of the glorious
revaluating theAugusten Age of literature Pope is the representative
kaput of the classical age. Pope in a letter to Miss Arabella Fermore,
asserts his notion about the supernatural machinery
in this mockepic,’’The Machinery, Madam is a term invented by
the critic to signify that part which theDeities,Angles and
Demons are made to act in a poem.” Pope implies Supernatural-
Beings the way they were added in the ancient epic like
Paradise Lost, Iliad Odyssey, and The Faerie Queene. Thus
Pope added the supernatural machinery to shape his mock-epic like
a typical epic because supernatural elements arean
essential parts of an epic.

Ariel machinery is the second name of supernatural machinery, Pope

takes inspiration from Shakespare’s The Tempest, the play in which
a” brave spirit’’ named Ariel works miracles under
prospero through his magic and other spirits under his order.
Similarly,We find Aeriel commanding a host of Sylphs to protect
Belinda. Speaking of Sylphs, their concept is also borrowed from the
book of a French writer Abb-de-Villars.The Book, Le Comte
de Gabalis, gives an account of Rosicrucian mythology of
spirits.

The Elements of Aerial Machinery:

According to mythology,There are four elements of supernatural
machinery which are inhabited by Sylphs, Nymphs, Gnomes, And
Salamanders.The Sylphs live in the air.Pope mixed it with the Platonic
conception that soul never dies, but continues to live on in a changed
form as spirits.Thus Pope’s Sylphs are the souls of
beautiful women, still having many of their former vanities and
frivolities.Pope tells us in the first Canto that beautiful ladies
return after death.Violent tempered women become salamanders of
spirits of fire.Women of pleasant and pleasing nature become
nymphs or water spirits. Light hearted coquettes are changed in to
sylphs or spirits of air.Proud women become gnomes or earth spirits.

USE SUPERNATURAL MACHINERY IN A RAPE OF

LOCK:
Alexander Pope wrote the theme of the rape of The lock is the
cutting off a lock of a lady’s hair this subject is too trivial and too low
to find any epical of a heroic treatment what is there to be
heroically about me cutting off a lady’s hair?Out of this trivial
theme, Pope spills out in a mock-heroic style a poem which
Hazlet called ‘’The perfection of the supernatural machinery’’.
The use of supernatural machinery is the common feature of the epic
of homer and vigil. Pope introduces aerial spirits in the rape of the
lock. His supernatural machinery is suitable to his mock
heroic style.Sylphs were added to the poem not simply as
shinning trinkets and three penny- bits to a Christmas pudding
but to develop andflavour the whole. They improve the literary
and human mockery. The machinery of Sylphs is the principal
symbol of the triviality of Belinda’s world.The Sylphsare presented as
tiny good spirit with wings. They can change their shape
and sex. They can see the future can inspect the heart of human
beings.They are airy and invisible to the human eyes.These
good spirits try to protect Belinda. There had Sylph isariel.In the first
Canto The Sylph causes a dream to Belinda, The Heroine of the
Poem. The Sylph appears in the form of a handsome young man in
her dreams at the noon time. The guardian Sylph
addresses Belindaas ‘the fairest of mortals’ and she is told that she is
protected by thousands of spirits who wanders in airy
regions. THE Sylph has caused sleep and dream to Belinda with a
special purpose as he wants to convey certain secret truths.

‘‘Fairest of mortals, thou

Distinguished care of thousand

Bright inhabitants of air’’

Again in the lines we get:

‘‘Know then, unnumbered

Spirits round thee fly,

The light militia of the lower sky’’

‘The light militia of the lower sky’ is a parody of both Homeric

deities, and Miltonic guardian angles. These increase dramatic
suspense and story depth. They help to universalize the whole
action. They are in binding symbolism of the little drama.

Detailed Description:
Pope gives a detailed description of race of supernatural beings and
their relationship to human beings. This is done through the tow
mock heroic speeches of Ariel. The spirits hover in the air.
They are invisible to human beings but always guide their
destiny. Their chief function is to protect virgins from being
spelt by lusty men. Pope, though Ariel, reveals that the spirits of the
vain glorious and fashionable women only become he
legitimate denizens of the air.The spirits of the puritanical
women go to the down worked and become the miscues spirits.
Pope calls them gnomes while he callsthe spirits of the light
heated flirts as Sylphs all the spirits live in the atmosphere close to
the earth and protect the virgin maidens.

The power to acquire any shape:

It is the special characteristic of spirits that they can acquire any
shape and any sex which they like fly anywhere but are always in the
serve of the young virgins. They have strange ways of
protecting the young one. For example if a man desires to dance with
a women in order to seduce her, the spirits send another
more handsome man with more alluring offer and the former
man is thus rejected.A Ariel is the head of these spirits. He within his
fore knowledge of the futures warns Belinda to be carefull about the
impending disaster. We see Ariel ordering the various sylphs to
protect Belinda from the future calamity.

Their Function:
In the Second Canto, Ariel elaborates the comic function of the
various spirits.The spirits have been assigned different functions to
perform. Some of them are highest up in the pure regions of
ether.These spirits control the movements of the stars,the moonand
otherplannets. Others guide shooting stars and control the rainbows.
They also control the storms and the destiny of the
human race. Arielhimsels belongs to that group of spirits who
have the charge of protecting the fashionable and beautiful
young women.
Conclusion:
In this way we can say that ‘’ The rape of the lock’’ is a mock heroic
epic. Canto 1 begins with invocation to the muse. The supernatural
machinery is introduced in this Canto.Ariel describes the four
different catagories of spirits. Slamandar’s nymph’S gnom’S and
Sylphs. The machinery of sylphs in this poem is vastly
superior to the allegorical personages of representative mock-
epic. It allows Pope to show his awareness of the absurdities
which nevertheless is charming, delightful and filled with a real
poetry. Machinery serves the various purposes in the poem. It
impartssplendour and wonder to the actors and the actions in
the story.

Despite the nagetive criticism, pope’s use of Ariel machinery was

essential to create a mock- epic effort. It not only mimics the
epic ‘grandeur’ ofMilton and Homer, but also provide some
moments of a silent laughter for a modern reader.