(II, 37-40) Other than displaying a lack of courteousness and civility, the desire for the lock seems more like a worshipping of the lock. The Baron even swears by the lock:But by this Lock, this sacred Lock I swear(Which never more shall join its parted hair;Which never more its honours shall renew,Clipped from the lovely head where late it grew),That while my nostrils draw the vital air,This hand, which won it, shall forever wear."He spoke, and speaking, in proud triumph spreadThe long-contended honours of her head. (IV, 132-139)The lock is now a "sacred" lock, which possesses "honours". It is a long sought after prize, indicating the Baron's mind has been on the frivolous and cruel prank of clipping Belinda's hair. Morally, the Baron should have been thinking of more spiritual, less flighty things. Yet, in worshipping the lock, the Baron makes it a spiritual thing, which goes against the ideals of Christianity. Material things are not intended to be worshipped as "sacred" objects.Pope takes the worship of materialism to a higher level earlier in the poem when Belinda, not just her beauty, is likened to a goddess with a priestess:The inferior priestess, at her altar's side,Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and hereThe various offerings of the world appear;From each she nicely culls with curious toil,And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil. (I, 127-132)The "priestess" in line 127 is Belinda's maid, and the "alter" is the dressing table, covered in "offerings" to the goddess Belinda. The "rites" are those of "Pride", which to Christians, is one of the deadly sins. Beauty is clearly worshipped in The Rape of the Lock, but so is Belinda herself. Belinda is so obsessed with material objects and beauty she prizes her hair, as does the Baron, above all else. She even wishes that he had cut "hairs less in sight" (V, 176), that he had not tampered with her visible beauty. If there was any dou...
