Critical Analysis of the "Rape of the Lock" by Pope

The destruction of the grand style of the epic is just what Pope was after in his mock epic, 'The Rape of the Lock.' Pope had no such universal goal, or moral pronouncements to make as did Milton. His purpose was merely to expose the life of the nobility of his time. While Milton chose blank verse to express the immensity of the landscape of his epic, Pope chose to utilize the heroic couplet to trivialize this grandeur. Pope's quick wit bounces the reader along his detailed description of his parlor-room epic. His content is purposefully trivial, his scope purposefully thin, his st…