Formative Assessment Essay Example for Free

Formative Assessment EssayThe entrancement of the bolt, written by Pope in response to a feud between two friends well-nigh the theft of a lock of hair, is revolutionary in its evolution of the comic satire genre into the heavens of high-flown poetry.Pope, an avid student of the Greek epics (he produced his own translations of some that provided much of his income during his life), takes the basic skeleton of an epic its structure, critical content and until now linguistic points and crafts around the skeleton a poem of wit and prank that is at its core epic, but excessively uses this very epic backbone to undermine its tales own impressiveness and to satirise the content that has been moulded around the form. This creation from Pope marks the offshoot of the epic genre, transforming it into taunt epic, an unconditional genre that bears many of the traits of its forebearer in a new light.The transformations to the epic that Pope undertakes in the Rape of the Lock to s atiric effect can be broadly split into transformations of undaunted content and transformations of heroic spoken communication. The motive can be clearly observed here Pope takes a staple of epic writing, heroic subdivision systemry, and twists its use to his satirical needs. The weapon itself is given, through the use of a similar description, equal place with smashing weapons like Agamemnons sceptre, whose lineage was used to reinforce Agamemnons dominance and power in the Iliad, organism forged by Hephaestus and owned by the Gods from Zeus to Kronos.Belindas weapons lineage is far less great. Instead of a scepter, the weapon of kings and priests in Homers writing, Belinda wields a bodkin, a hair needle. Even that difference itself is satirical Agamemnons kingship is of great import to the Iliad so the repeat with a bodkin, which links to the hair in question much like the scepter links with kingship, makes a clear statement on the relative importance of the quarrel in the Rape of the Lock.The lineage in addition satirises the pointlessness of dispute no claim of divinity (and thus righteousness) is made on the part of Belindas weapon in fact its lineage mainly consists of feminine objects with the only male mentioned in its lineage also being the only one to explicitly be mentioned dying. Perhaps Pope, lots accused of being more or less sexist, is using this business and development to imply that the whole issue is a womans trifle and nothing bordering to the male quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon.On top of this, the weapon is not the fixed centre of the lineage as in the Iliad, in which the weapon started as a divine weapon and stayed that way. Instead the object is mutable it starts as signet rings, develops into a buckle and then becomes a bodkin. Pope changes up the epic formula of the mighty weapon into something changeable and thus insignificant, paralleling with the argument he is satirising, the implication being that it is insignifica nt and will easily be forgotten. The weapon also shows another perversion of the epic poem that Pope uses.Protection, be it through armor or weaponry, tends to have a high place in the Greek epics. Heroes often wear famed suits of armour or use shields/weapons to survive insurmountable odds (for example the reflective shield in Perseus tale in Ovids Metamorphoses that slays Medusa). This element of protection, divine or otherwise, is a theme that Pope subverts consistently. From the slyph Ariel who is half dissolvd even by light to the Cosmetic powers of her dress and make-up, nothing effectively protects Belinda.The bodkin is no different, it fails to protect her locks from being cut in the initial case, and here, although she uses it to attack the Baron, it fails to return its charge, her hair, to her. Pope is modernising traditional epics, using these exemplary protections to mock high societies fixation on appearance. All of her outward facing beauty and quaint bodkins cannot protect her from the advances of a single man, so what, Pope asks, is the use of all this artifice? Pope also mutates generic language elements from epic literature for his satirical intentions.In this passage, the clearest example is in his use of the ten syllable rhyming heroic couplet. Pope takes the rhyme of the couplet and uses it to link together two separate words or ideas, often to a comical effect. Here, in the lines, Nor feared the chief the unequal fight to try, Who sought no more than on his foe to die. Pope has the first line of the couplet set up the Barons bravery by expound his fearlessness in fighting against Belinda in unequal combat (ironic in itself due to Belindas natural failing compared to his manly strength referred to in the next couplet) before defeating the heroic xpectancy with a sexual pun the vocalise to die holding at the time a dual meaning referring to sexual climax, and often premature climax at that. His heroism is built up and destroyed within a couplet with the contrast of noble bravery and base desire providing a humorous and satirical twist on the typical heroism of the heroic couplet by suggesting that the drive behind the Barons actions is, at its deepest level, sexual, rather than noble or courtly.