Summary Rape of the curl
Alexander Pope
Stealing curl
The work is preceded by the author’s introduction, which is a dedication to a certain Arabella Fermor. Pope warns Arabella that she is too serious about his creation, explaining that it pursues “the only goal: to entertain a few young ladies” endowed with sufficient common sense and sense of humor. The author warns that in his poem everything is incredible, except for the only real fact – “the loss of your curl” – and the image of the main character is not likened to Arabella Fermor anything, “except beauty.” I know how smart words are inappropriate in the presence of a lady, the author further writes, but the poet is so peculiar to strive for understanding. Therefore, he precedes the text with a few more explanations. The four elements, in the space of which the action of the poem unfolds, are inhabited by spirits: sylphs, gnomes, nymphs and salamanders. Gnomes – or demons of the earth
Thus, elegantly denoting the rules of the literary game, Pope introduces the reader into the multi-layered fantastic world of his poem, where a funny everyday incident – an ardent admirer on a high-society party cut a curl in an impregnable beauty – acquires a universal scale.
The poem consists of five songs. In the first song, the leader of the Sylphs Ariel watches the dream of the beautiful Belinda. In a dream, he whispers to her words about how sacred her integrity is, giving the right to the constant protection of good spirits. After all, the secular life is full of temptations, to which the evil dignitaries incline the lovers. “So the dwarves of the enchantresses are taught to look coquettishly from beneath the eyelashes, reddish, be embarrassed by the parade, and deceive with the play of hearts and
Belinda wakes up. She runs through the eye of another love message. Then he looks in the mirror and begins to perform a priesthood before him, as before the altar, giving his beauty an even more dazzling brilliance. Delicate sylphs are invisibly present in this exciting procedure of the morning toilet.
The second song begins with the anthem of Belinda’s blossoming beauty, which even surpasses even the radiance of the flaming summer day. The beauty goes for a walk along the Thames, riveting the eyes of all those on the way. In it everything is perfection itself, but the crown of delights are two dark curls that adorn the marble of the neck. Belinda’s admirer, the Baron, was flushed with the desire to take away these magnificent strands-like a love trophy. That morning, at the dawn, he burnt the gloves and garters of the old lovers, and from this sacrificial fire he asked the sky for only one treasure – Belinda’s curl.
Faithful Ariel, sensing the danger, collected all the army of good spirits under his control and appealed to them with an appeal to protect and protect the beauty. It reminds of the Sylphs, the Sylphs, the Elves and the Fairies, how important and important their work is and how many dangers are hidden every moment. “Will innocence touch the shame, will there be a crack in porcelain, honor will suffer or brocade, suddenly the nymph will lose the heat of a bracelet or a heart at a ball…” Ariel entrusts each spirit the care of one thing Belinda’s toilet – earrings, fan, watch, curls. He himself undertakes to follow the dog of a beautiful woman named Shock. To the skirt – this “silver border” of purity – fifty sylphs are put right away. At the end of the speech, Ariel threatens that the spirit, convicted of negligence, will be imprisoned in a vial and pierced with pins.
In the third song comes the culmination – Belinda loses the treasured curl. This happens in the palace, where the courtmen are hovering around Queen Anne, who is indulgently paying attention to advice and eating tea. Belinda is in this great circle. Here she sits down to the card table and masterfully plays with two partners, one of whom is the baron in love with her. After that, the loser of a nobleman wants revenge. During the coffee ritual, when Belinda bows over a porcelain cup, the baron sneaks up to her – and… No, he does not immediately succeed in carrying out his blasphemous plan. Alert elves thrice, pulling the earrings, make Belinda look back, but the fourth time they miss the moment. The faithful Ariel is lost too – “he looked in the heart of the nymph through the bouquet, suddenly a secret appeared in his heart; saw the Sylph an object of earthly love and before this secret guilt despaired, caught unawares, and disappeared, giving a deep sigh… “So, this moment – when Ariel left Belinda protected by him, having seen in her soul love (not really to himself “The Baron is experiencing a triumph, Belinda is annoyed and angry.” This central song of the poem is the peak, the intensity of the intense confrontation: as if continuing the just-completed Lombard Party, where suits waged war against each other, and kings, aces, ladies and other cards conducted complex hidden maneuvers – human passions are boiling under the arches of the palace. Belinda and the baron now designate two hostile and irreconcilable poles – male and female. “So, exactly this moment – when Ariel left the Belinda protected by him, when she saw love in her soul (not to that of the baron himself?), It became fatal.” The scissors cut off the feud in silence, and the curl broke away forever. “The Baron is experiencing a triumph, Belinda is a vexation and anger, this central song of the poem is the peak, the intensity of the intense confrontation: as if continuing the newly completed sealed lot, where the suits waged war against each other, and the kings, aces, ladies and other cards conducted complex hidden maneuvers – under the arches The palace is filled with human passions. Ron is now represent two hostile and irreconcilable poles – male and female. “So, exactly this moment – when Ariel left the Belinda protected by him, when she saw love in her soul (not to that of the baron himself?), It became fatal.” The scissors cut off the feud in silence, and the curl broke away forever. “The Baron is experiencing a triumph, Belinda is a vexation and anger, this central song of the poem is the peak, the intensity of the intense confrontation: as if continuing the newly completed sealed lot, where the suits waged war against each other, and the kings, aces, ladies and other cards conducted complex hidden maneuvers – under the arches The palace is filled with human passions. Ron is now represent two hostile and irreconcilable poles – male and female.
In the fourth song, evil spirits enter into action, deciding to take advantage of the moment. Belinda’s grief over the stolen curl is so deep and great that the malicious dwarf Umbriel has a hope: to infect her with gloom the whole world. Here this gloomy spirit goes – “on the sooty wings” – into the underground worlds, where the hideous Khandra hides in the cave. At her head, no less grim Migraine is huddled. Having greeted the mistress and politely recalling her services (“you own every woman, inspiring you whims, dreams, you call in ladies interest in medicine, then in writing songs, you make me proud to pious, you teach pious ones to pamper…”) , the dwarf urged the hostess of the cave to sow mortal longing in Belinda’s soul – “then half the world will be affected by the spleen”!
Handra gets a bag of sobbing and wailing, as well as a bottle of sorrows, sorrows and tears. The dwarf happily takes it with him to immediately spread among the people. As a result, Belinda is getting more and more desperate. The loss of a lock of hair entails a chain of inconsolable experiences and bitter unanswered questions. In fact, judge, “why forceps, hairpins, scallops?” Why in captivity do you have to keep your hair, iron with hot iron? .. Why do we need papillot, finally? .. “. This misanthropy ends with a recognition of indifference to the destiny of the entire universe – from room dogs to humans. Attempts to return the curl back to nothing lead. The Baron admires the trophy, caresses him, brags him in society and intends to keep the prey forever. “My enemy is cruel!” Belinda exclaims in his heart at his address,
In the last, fifth part of the poem, heated passions lead to an open war of the sexes. In vain, some sober voices try to appeal to the female mind, reasonably assuring that the loss of the curl is not the end of the world, and that “remember must be in the midst of vanity, that virtue is superior to beauty.” It is also said that the curls sooner or later turn gray and in general the beauty is not eternal, and also that it is dangerous to despise men, since in such a case it is possible to die a girl. Finally, do not ever lose heart. However, the offended pride of Belinda and her confidantes announces similar reasons to hypocrisy. Ladies shout: “To arms!” And now the battle is starting, the cries of heroes and heroines are heard, and the whale of corsets is cracking. The evil dwarf Umbriel, sitting on the candelabrum, “looked at the battle with pleasure.”
Belinda attacked the baron, but he did not fear it. “He was attracted by a single passion – in her arms, the death of the brave jaws…” He would have preferred to burn alive in cupid fire. In a fervent fight again revealed the truth that men and women are necessary to each other and created for each other. And it is better for them to listen to the voice of their own feelings than to the whispers of the spirits. Well, curl? alas, he, meanwhile, disappeared, disappeared, imperceptibly for everyone, apparently, at the behest of the heavens, who decided that it was not worthy of mortals to own this treasure. In all likelihood, the author of the poem is convinced, the curl reached the lunar sphere, where there is a cluster of lost objects, a collection of broken vows, etc. Lokon soared to be the object of worship and chanting of the poet. He is a herd of stars and will shine and send his light to the earth.
Let the human life of a beauty be limited and fleeting, and all its charms and locks destined to fall into the dust – this, the only, stolen curl will always remain intact.
“He sings a Muse, and inscribed Belinda in the starlight.”
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