May 6th, 2017
Raúl Macías Mosqueira
An Analysis of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock – Canto I
according to Widdowson’s Stylistics
In H. G. Widdowson’s article, Stylistics1, the author explains how stylistics analysis deals with the way
resources in a language code are used in the production of messages. He points out that, although the
message is the product of social convention, this message in literature is solely text-contained, and as
such it does not conform to normal communication conventions. In literature, meaning is provided
through patterns set by the writer, which are not a byproduct of social constructs. Such non-conventional
means (i.e., items that deviate from language conventions – code) are arranged to express a reality
alternate to that represented by the conventional language code. This focus on the message, “the message
for its own sake” (Jakobson) is the basis for poetry, and the poetic function of language.
Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock is considered by many to be the perfection of the mock-
heroic in English.2 In the poem, Pope intertwines two familiar realms; the divine machinery, that is,
ethereal beings such as the sylphs and the nymphs, and the real, polite, world, to produce a sort of satire,
aggrandizing otherwise ineffectual social issues to epic heights.
The end of Canto I shows Belinda, the owner of the lock of hair at issue, sitting at her toilet, about to
begin her beautification ritual, with the aid of her inferior priestess, her maid Betty. Below I will provide
a brief analysis of the language used at the end of Canto I, as per Widdowson’s (et al) stylistics.
Geoffrey Leech posits that literature contains dimensions of meaning additional to those operating in
other types of discourse. One of such dimensions is called foregrounding. Foregrounding refers to a
deliberate deviation from language conventions which is foregrounded, that is, stands out, from a
1
Widdowson, H. G., from The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics (Oxford University Press, 1974) 202-231
2
Sowerby, Robin, Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose, (Routledge, 1988) 229
background of normal use. A different type of foregrounding is its contrary: where variety and deviation
is expected, the writer provides uniformity. Canto I provides an instance of this unexpected uniformity
amidst variety in line 126:
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Another of Leech’s dimensions of meaning is cohesion: intra-textual grammatical and lexical relations
that provide unity to the discourse to convey the meaning of a text as a whole. This cohesion is presented
throughout Pope’s poem, and it is depicted in Canto I, in lines 127-132:
The inferior priestess, at her altar’s side,
Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride.
Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil.
Words such as priestess, altar, sacred rites, offerings, goddess, provide unity to the discourse by
building a temple-like atmosphere that transmogrifies the every-day act of beautification into an arcane
ritual.
According to Samuel R. Levin, Jakobson’s Principle of Equivalence 3 operates at the phonological,
syntactic and semantic levels to create features that distinguish poetry from other kinds of discourse. In
line 138 of Canto I,
Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux.
3
Innis, Robert E., Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology (Indiana University Press, 1985) 146.
we see Levin’s natural equivalence in the phonological cohesion provided by the alliteration in the items.
A similar effect is provided in line 145:
The busy sylphs surround their darling care,
Widdowson further suggests that the complexity in a text’s syntactic patterning reflects the writer’s
complex view of perceptible reality. The mock-heroic nature of Pope’s poem engages in this complexity
to create a “tempest in a teapot” out of a trivial event, effectively imbuing his perceived reality with
baffling elements that drive the reader away from the simplicity of conventional communication.
