The Rape of the Lock

While revered for his poetic mastery and witticism, Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” continues to be a subject of contemporary scholarship. Many feminist theorists have examined the gender politics of the poem, and there is much scholarship exploring Pope’s interpreted misogyny. “The Rape of the Lock” has been influential in this field of inquiry, as the poem posits that female writers are inferior. Umbriel implies this opinion in his speech to the Queen of Spleen in Canto 4:

Parent of vapours and of female wit,

Who give th’ hysteric, or poetic fit, 

On various tempers act by various ways, 

Make some take physic, others scribble plays (Lines 60-63).

Theorists have read the lines as a condemnation of women’s writing—that it cannot be taken seriously. Pope’s critical gender politics found within this single poem can also be read across his work, and many contemporary feminist critics have challenged his works based on this lens alone.

Recently, “The Rape of the Lock” has been analyzed through the lens of Colonialism. Scholars have argued that the poem is in fact an Imperialist poem, and the card playing scene in Canto 3 is largely used in support of this theory.