And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd, - The Rape Of The Lock - The Uncovered English

And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd, - The Rape Of The Lock - The Uncovered English

The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope

" And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd,"
How does Pope change the dressing - table into a shine of beauty?

In the concluding part of the canto I of 'The Rape Of The Lock,' Pope has described Belinda's dressing table routine in a mock-heroic manner. Leaving her bed, Belinda goes strait to the dressing table which lies uncovered. Robed in white and bare-headed. Belinda like a priestes worships piously the deities who presides over the toilet. While performing her toilet she acts as if she is performing some sacred religious rites. Betty stands by the side of toilet table represented to be the attar of a goddess. She is the inferior priests whose duty is to help Belinda in the sacred ceremony of toilet. Numerous caskets containing precious articles from all parts of the world are opened. From each casket Betty skillfully selected some bright and precious article to decorate goddess Belinda. There lie brilliant pearls and diamonds of India, perfume of Arabia, combs made of tortoise shell and ivory, pins, puffs, powders, patches, Binles and love letters in her toilet. In this way Pope changes the dressing table into a shrine of beauty. As Warburton points out, "Belinda first figures as the chief priests and then as the goddess herself."

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