چکیده:
The present study aims to focus on Alexander Pope’s controversial mock epic, The Rape of the Lock, to investigate the effects of Repressive and Ideological State Apparatus on the formation of characters’ identities in this 18th century poem. It seeks to analyze the ideological atmosphere in The Rape of the Lock and discusses the complexities of notions such as materialism, virtue, womanhood and conciliation in characters’ actions, words and belief on the basis of Louis Althusser’s theories of interpellationand Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses. It analyses the details of the poem to determine Alexander Pope’s views as a social critic who tries to question the ideologies of his time by his satirical portrayal of the superficial social interactions, the corrupted political system and the process of women’s identity formation in this poem. The analysis reveals that Pope manages to resist being interpellated and avoids judgment of the characters by depicting the ambiguous nature of the sociopolitical ideologies and by resorting to the ideals of art instead.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Ideology, RSA, and ISA in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock 1 Zeinab Nikookar2 Mona Hoorvash*3 Received: 2018/09/02 | Revised: 2018/09/25 | Accepted: 2018/11/06 Abstract The present study aims to focus on Alexander Pope’s controversial mock epic, The Rape of the Lock, to investigate the effects of Repressive and Ideological State Apparatus on the formation of characters’ identities in this 18th century poem.
It seeks to analyze the ideological atmosphere in The Rape of the Lock and discusses the complexities of notions such as materialism, virtue, womanhood and conciliation in characters’ actions, words and belief on the basis of Louis Althusser’s theories of interpella- tion and Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses.
This paper investigates the role of the dominant ideological forces in the 18th century England on the formation of the characters’ identities in The Rape of the Lock and searches for the significance of the effect of interpellation on the characters.
Payne reflects the conflict in gender and class in her article by referring to the social rules and the accepted beliefs in Pope’s time, and also discusses the concerns of feminism by referring to the real person who inspired Belinda’s character, named Arabella Fermor, and her reactions after reading the work.
Watkins discusses Pope’s motivation as an outcast of the society due to his religion (belonging to the Catholic minority) in satirizing his contemporary social rules by avoiding any absolute moral judg- ment in the end of the poem and making the poem open to many interpreta- tions.