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Belinda
Belinda’s guardian sylph. At the opening of the narrative, he explains to Belinda through a dream that he is tasked with protecting her beauty and chastity. He feels that some great disaster is looming in the near future and warns her to “beware of man.” Later, as Belinda is sailing to Hampton Court, Ariel calls up an army of sylphs to defend various parts of her, from including her hair, her earrings, and her fan. In the vital moment before the Baron snips off Belinda’s lock of hair, however, Ariel gives up helping Belinda. When he gains access to her inner thoughts at this moment, Ariel spies “An earthly lover lurking at her heart,” meaning she is perhaps not as chaste as she ought to be. Even though Ariel seems to want to protect Belinda, there is definitely something a little sinister about him, too. If he is so interested in Belinda’s chastity, why does he choose to send her a dream at the beginning which includes a young man designed to sexually appeal to her, “A youth more glitt'ring than a birthnight beau”? Some critics have also drawn comparisons between his opening speech to Belinda, at which point he “Seem'd to her Ear his winning Lips to lay,” and Satan’s speech to Eve in Milton’s Paradise Lost in which he is “Squat like a Toad, close at the ear of Eve; / Assaying by his Devilish art to reach / The Organs of her Fancy.” Similarly, his name recalls Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, also a mischievous spirit. This allows Pope to suggest that there is something rather “tricksy” about the sylph, which in turn suggests rather a lot about the morality of the world of the poem. Ariel is, after all, meant to be regulating Belinda’s morality by ensuring her chastity, so his fickleness reinforces Pope’s satirical suggestion that good and bad are not as clear cut as they appear, especially not in such a vain setting as the court.
Ariel Quotes in The Rape of the Lock
The The Rape of the Lock quotes below are all either spoken by Ariel or refer to Ariel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Canto I
Quotes
For when the fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire:
The sprites of fiery termagants in flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander's name.
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip with Nymphs, their elemental tea.
The graver prude sinks downward to a Gnome,
In search of mischief still on earth to roam.
The light coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.
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Explanation and Analysis:
With varying vanities, from every part,
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart;
Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive,
Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
This erring mortals levity may call,
Oh blind to truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.
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Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning sun descend.
But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where:
Warned by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!
This to disclose is all thy guardian can:
Beware of all, but most beware of man!
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Canto II
Quotes
Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honor, or her new brocade,
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall.
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Canto III
Quotes
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin’s thought;
As, on the nosegay in her breast reclined,
He watched the ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he viewed, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amazed, confused, he found his power expired,
Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.
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The peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide,
To enclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.
Even then, before the fatal engine closed,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interposed;
Fate urged the shears, and cut the Sylph in twain
(But airy substance soon unites again),
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head, for ever and for ever!
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Ariel Quotes in The Rape of the Lock
The The Rape of the Lock quotes below are all either spoken by Ariel or refer to Ariel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Canto I
Quotes
For when the fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire:
The sprites of fiery termagants in flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander's name.
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip with Nymphs, their elemental tea.
The graver prude sinks downward to a Gnome,
In search of mischief still on earth to roam.
The light coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
With varying vanities, from every part,
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart;
Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive,
Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
This erring mortals levity may call,
Oh blind to truth! the Sylphs contrive it all.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning sun descend.
But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where:
Warned by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!
This to disclose is all thy guardian can:
Beware of all, but most beware of man!
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Canto II
Quotes
Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honor, or her new brocade,
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Canto III
Quotes
Just in that instant, anxious Ariel sought
The close recesses of the virgin’s thought;
As, on the nosegay in her breast reclined,
He watched the ideas rising in her mind,
Sudden he viewed, in spite of all her art,
An earthly lover lurking at her heart.
Amazed, confused, he found his power expired,
Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The peer now spreads the glittering forfex wide,
To enclose the lock; now joins it, to divide.
Even then, before the fatal engine closed,
A wretched Sylph too fondly interposed;
Fate urged the shears, and cut the Sylph in twain
(But airy substance soon unites again),
The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From the fair head, for ever and for ever!
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
