The rape of Helen of Troy and The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock and Helen of Troy. 

As you may know, Pope was educated by a private tutor, who influenced him with the classics Aeneid and Iliad. He was also interested in the classics because he translated them during his period as a translator. This influence is shown in his most famous poem, “The Rape of the Lock,” in which there are a great quantity of allusions to the classics. I am going to write about one of these allusions, which is the kidnapping or rape of Helen of Troy. 

First, I am going to deal with the story of the rape of Helen of  Troy. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and she was famous because of her beauty. When she was a child, she was kidnapped by Theseus, but she was returned to her mother to be educated. The “real” rape took place after Helen’s marriage with Menelaus. Aphrodite promised Paris that he will marry Helen; for that reason, he undertook a trip to Sparta with a small fleet. When Paris arrived at Sparta, Helen's husband, Menelaus was not there. There are several versions of the rape: the first one says that Helen was taken away by force by Paris, the other one says that he seduced Helen and they escaped from Sparta. It is also said that Aphrodite exerted a great influence and for that reason Helen was in love with Paris and they went away together. 

Now, I am going to compare the rape of Helen of Troy with the main theme or action of the poem “The Rape of the Lock”. Alexander Pope showed women at his time as a  symbol of beauty, but only beauty, not knowledge. He also showed the fragility that women’s beauty had. This can be seen in the way in which the Lord steals Belinda's lock. This fact can be compared with Helen of Troy's rape since both are produced in order to steal their beauty. In the case of Helen of Troy, Paris raped her because he wanted her at any price and I think it was the only way he could “own” her. He really wanted her and her beauty and she asked Aphrodite to make a kind of charm to get it. But in the case of the Lord, he only steals Belinda's lock by force, without doing any kind of damage. In the first case, I think Paris steals Helen's freedom literally and in the second one, the Lord steals Belinda's freedom as a woman , but he does it in a lighter way. We can also compare them in the way that the Lord does it with his proper hands and Paris appeals to a goddess to get it.

Oroonoko and Cinque

Hi guys!

I'm going to write about the movie we saw on Monday. The purpose of that post is show the parallelisms that Oroonoko has with the movie Amistad.

First of all, I'm going to inform you about the movie. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, as you may know, one of the best directors of Hollywood. The movie had its premiere in 1997. It was nominated in four different categories of the Oscar awards.

Now, I am going to compare both stories. I think Oroonoko has much to do with that movie because in a way, the story of Cinque is the same story as the Oronooko's. It is, Cinque in his tribe is quite popular, his countrymen love him and they treat him as a prince; in fact, he wears different clothes than “ordinary” people. This is the first parallelism in both stories, both characters are treated as slaves; but I think that they are not treated as “real” slaves, because Cinque is seen as one of the less hurted of his tribe and also Oroonoko in the plantation, together with Imoinda.

The second one is that some people of Cinque's tribe betray him and they capture them to be sold as a slave. This can be compared with the betrayal of the evil captain that “betrays” Oroonoko. The third similarity is the fact that both Cinque and Oroonoko try a revolt when they are treated as slaves.

To finish up, I think it was really useful because it has lots of parallelisms with Oroonoko, so we can reflect the book in the movie, that is always easier watching thing than reading it.

  

Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen!

The name of this blog is because kings in the time of the Restoration used to live in The Whitehall Palace. It is surrounded by Northumberland Avenue in the North, Downing Street and Derby Puerta in the South and the House Guards' road by the East. It is near the Thamesis River.

I have chosen this name because I want you to feel like kings and queens when visiting my blog, and I hope it will be a good place to discuss all the themes we find interesting in the lectures and it also can be a good instrument to help each other with some information of the English Restoration.