Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock and Joseph Addison's The Spectator are both satires that gently criticize the lives of the wealthy classes in the early eighteenth century. The mock epic narrates the uproar that results when the Baron cuts Belinda's lock of hair. The diarist in The Spectator chronicles his banal daily routine. The mock epic critiques young aristocrats while Addison mocks the life of a wealthy diarist.
Pope's mock epic creates Belinda and the Baron, the main characters, as epic heroes even though they are young and lounge around drinking tea all day. As Belinda is…
