Say, why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most, The Wise Man's Passion, and the Vain Man's Toast? (Pope ln. 9-10)
Cult: zealous obsession directed at a particular
figure or object; fetishized ideology;
irrational reverence
Pope asks, what is the cult of beauty doing to our world?
THE CULT OF BEAUTY
The cult of beauty is a social paradox because it simultaneously bestows and undermines the
power of people
THESIS
“Arming” Scene rife with ritual:
“The inferior priestess, at her altar’s side, / Trembling begins the sacred rites of
Pride.” (ln. 127-128)“Now awful Beauty puts on all its arms.”
(ln. 139)“Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-
doux.” (ln. 138)
BEAUTY BESTOWS POWER
“Fair nymphs and well-dressed youths around her shone, / But every eye was
fixed on her alone. / On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, / Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.” (Pope
Canto 2, ln. 5-8)
BEAUTY BESTOWS POWER
Cult:
“Methinks already I your tears survey, / Already hear the horrid things they
say, / Already see you a degraded toast, / And all your honor in a
whisper lost!” (Pope Canto 4, ln. 107-110)
Baron cutting lock undermines Belinda’s power:
Oh, had I rather unadmired remained / In some lone isle, or distant northern land; / Where
the gilt chariot never marks the way, / Where none learn ombre, none e’er taste bohea! /
There kept my charms concealed from mortal eye, / Like roses that in deserts bloom and die.
(Pope Canto 4, ln. 153-158)
BEAUTY UNDERMINES POWER
“Oh, hadst thou, cruel! Been content to seize / Hairs less in sight, or any
hairs but these!” (Pope Canto 5, 175-176)
Because beauty was what had defined her, she easily fell from her pedestal - her altar
- into devastation.
BEAUTY UNDERMINES POWER
• Not chronological (empower, then undermine)
• In “Arming scene,” Belinda empowers herself and undermines herself
simultaneously• Getting beautiful, but wasting time
• Power doesn’t come from self, but from outside
BEAUTY BESTOWS AND UNDERMINES AT THE SAME TIME