A Scene from The Rape of the Lock, Engraving for the lid of a snuffbox (n.d)
The scene depicted in the engraving takes place in Canto IV, line 121 (Burke and Caldwell n. 17) after Belinda’s lock has been cut. The man on the left is the Baron, who is holding the sheared lock in his right hand. The man he is conversing with is Sir plume, who is clutching “a clouded Cane, just like Pope describes. At Thalestris’ insistence, Sir Plume approaches the Baron to demand for the return of the lock, however he is unsuccessful. Belinda is in the back with four other female companions in front of a tea table. The table is an important indication of the aristocratic status of the characters, and the frivolity of the conflict is highlighted by the presence of exquisite paintings and fine tea.
An interpretation offered by J. B. Nichols of the engraving is that it is a commentary on gender stereotypes. Belinda, for example, is represented with “the utmost flexibility, and yielding softness” (91). The men in the engraving are unmoved and unaltered (91). David Porter offers another interpretation: the act of Belinda and her female companions engaging in their afternoon tea is a representation of the infatuation of the foreign and exotic discernible in the commercial activity of the wealthy (83). Women, he notes, are closely associated with the ritual of tea drinking, which is what fives foreign tea from the East its value in society. Porter argues that association with empire this is one of the ways in which women were vilified as causing the downfall of men and societal righteousness (83). These critics read Hogarth’s print as reifying Pope’s satire on the upper classes. The wealthy have become a public nuisance on society with their obsession over frivolous matters. Hogarth uses the public sphere, print, to call attention to an issue that takes place in the interior private lives of the upper classes.
Works Cited
Burke, Joseph and Colin Caldwell, eds. Hogarth: The Complete Engravings. New York: Abrams, 1988. Print.
Hogarth, William. “Criticisms on Hogarth.” Anecdotes of William Hogarth, Written by Himself. London: J.B. Nichols and Son, 1833. Print.
Nichols, John. “Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth; And a Catalogue of his Works Chronologically Arranged; With Occasional Remarks. London: ?, 1781. Web. 17 July 2014.
Porter, David. The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.
An interpretation offered by J. B. Nichols of the engraving is that it is a commentary on gender stereotypes. Belinda, for example, is represented with “the utmost flexibility, and yielding softness” (91). The men in the engraving are unmoved and unaltered (91). David Porter offers another interpretation: the act of Belinda and her female companions engaging in their afternoon tea is a representation of the infatuation of the foreign and exotic discernible in the commercial activity of the wealthy (83). Women, he notes, are closely associated with the ritual of tea drinking, which is what fives foreign tea from the East its value in society. Porter argues that association with empire this is one of the ways in which women were vilified as causing the downfall of men and societal righteousness (83). These critics read Hogarth’s print as reifying Pope’s satire on the upper classes. The wealthy have become a public nuisance on society with their obsession over frivolous matters. Hogarth uses the public sphere, print, to call attention to an issue that takes place in the interior private lives of the upper classes.
Works Cited
Burke, Joseph and Colin Caldwell, eds. Hogarth: The Complete Engravings. New York: Abrams, 1988. Print.
Hogarth, William. “Criticisms on Hogarth.” Anecdotes of William Hogarth, Written by Himself. London: J.B. Nichols and Son, 1833. Print.
Nichols, John. “Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth; And a Catalogue of his Works Chronologically Arranged; With Occasional Remarks. London: ?, 1781. Web. 17 July 2014.
Porter, David. The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.