Use of mock-epic style in The Rape of the Lock"The Baron's Rape Triumph is in exactly the same high language as it would be if it Hector In The Rape of the Lock, Pope uses the mock-epic style to satirize the seriousness with which a trivial crime (the theft of a few locks of hair) and the lifestyles of a gender-polarized society. can be exaggerated beyond any sense of proportion the male mentality, through the Baron, is depicted as lacking depth or personality beyond what is necessary to achieve its goals men objectify and conceive of “ strategies” (4 120) to overcome their feminine obsessions; they are “victors” (4 162) who congratulate themselves with importance on having deserved “crowns of triumph” (4 161) when they have grasped what they have grasped desired the Baron claims that the “glorious prize” belongs to him in perpetuity, while many conditions which will never be fulfilled (“while the fish in the streams or the birds rejoice in the air” 4 163) remain unsatisfied. . In this satire of the epic mold, such insignificant events are substituted for truly fantastic possibilities (mighty cities falling, for example) in an attempt to place the breaking of the lock in a more realistic perspective - this is made even more explicit in the next song. (4.8 "[no one has ever] felt as much rage, resentment and despair / as you, sad virgin! for your delighted hair" - which perhaps means that Belinda is overreacting, from l (Pope's opinion, just very slightly.) He also reinforces his satire with an expansion of humor and an attempt at the then popular culture: in particular, "Atalanta" (4 165) was not a great piece of writing. enduring but a cheap and scandalous work of fiction, "famous for its barely concealed allusions to contemporary scandals", middle of paper ...... order of life.") Obviously the ultimate aim of the poem is to mitigate the gravity of the freedom taken during the theft. of the lock (as seen in the minds of those involved in the family conflict.) The mock epic helps Pope achieve this without appearing to trivialize the victim's assaulted feelings - the haughty language and drama of his work s accord with the act of the lock cuts a grossly exaggerated meaning, which retains enough of its epic origins not to be taken as mocking sarcasm. As a satirist, Pope therefore presents for the appreciation of his readership the idea that the loss of the lock did not deserve the intensity of resentment that resulted from it.BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Norton Anthology of English Literature 6th Edition, Volume 1 , 1993A Choice Of Pope's Verse, edited by Peter Porter, Faber & Faber, 1971