Subtle Resistance and Public Hysterics: Female Agency in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock

Author Bio:

Sanika Prakash is an incoming third-year student of History of Art and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, and Publication Manager at the ESLJ. Her literary interests greatly revolve around Western historical fiction and works-in-translation across a variety of genres. With a strong passion for poetry, she particularly likes transcendentalism and realism in literature, as well as the exploration of interpersonal relationships (she's also a sucker for a good mystery and political drama).

Essay Abstract:

'Subtle Resistance and Public Hysterics: Female Agency in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock' is an essay that views the texts investigated through a political lens; more specifically, the ways in which women characters exercise their ability to take actions led by an awareness of social rules and gender roles. Eve in Paradise Lost by John Milton gives the impression of a foolish woman that ruins Adam's place in Paradise, however upon closer inspection of her dialogue, the ways in which she navigates the patriarchal society that she has been placed into reveals her intelligence and cognisance. Similarly, Belinda in The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope appears to be an overdramatic and vain woman, but she rejects and refuses men, and constructs a set of values that she follows earnestly, even when mocked and derided for it. Understanding Paradise Lost and The Rape of the Lock as political is not challenging; the positioning of female characters within society and reactions to how they resist male domination are undoubtedly clear in a feminist lens.

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Subtle Resistance and Public Hysterics- Female Agency in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Pope’s.

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