The Rape of the Lock Theme of Men and Masculinity

What makes a man a man, anyway? If you were raised on reading classical Greek and Roman literature, like Pope and so many of his upper-class, educated male peers, but you lived in a more modern age, you might find this a hard question to answer. Those Greek and Roman guys—Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Aeneas, and all of their ilk—were heroes. Armor-wearin', battle-tested, butt-kickin', honorable heroes (they probably had six-pack abs, too… although maybe that's just in the movies).

So many of the hip men of the upper classes in Pope's day seemed to have fallen woefully short of that heroic, manly ideal. They drank tea. They took snuff. They wore silk and satin. (Sometimes pastel silk and satin—have you seen Wolfgang Mozart's ensembles in the movie Amadeus? Check it out.) They wore wigs.

And as for honor—they seemed to care more about gossip, backstabbing, and personal gain than the good of society, or of their country. It's not surprising that when, in The Rape of the Lock, Pope juxtaposes the heroic classical ideal of manhood from the ancient epics, with the reality of the beaus who moved through his own society, that he found the latter sadly lacking.

1. Why do you think the Baron is so obsessed with dishonorably getting his hands on a lock of Belinda's hair, rather than gaining the girl, honorably, herself? Do any of the other characters seem to demonstrate the same kind of desire for things instead of persons? Who? What? And how do you know?
2. What sort of a role does Sir Plume play in the poem? Why does Thalestris go to him to ask for help in recovering the lock? What is the Baron's response to his request to return it, and what might that response tell you about Sir Plume's own masculinity?
3. How would you characterize the other men at the party (Dapperwit, for instance, or Fopling)? Why? What does their conduct in the middle of the battle tell you about them?

Pope portrays the men in his poem as just as caught up in the world of superficial appearances and material objects as the women.

The Baron is really in love with Belinda, but has to express his love through a warped desire for a lock of her hair, because their society squelches any expressions of true feeling.