Beginning of Essay
In Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve commit the first sin, and from this point on, all other sins are mere copies of this. Alexander Pope uses this to his benefit when he depicts the crime in The Rape of the Lock. By alluding to Milton’s work, Pope is able to c ....

Middle of Essay
.... and not a monumental fall from God’s graces. Pope goes on to pose the questions, “Say what strange motive, Goddess! Could compel/a well-bred Lord to assault a gentle Belle? / O say what stanger cause, yet unexplored, /could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?” (Pope, ll. 7-10). This is an allusion to Adam’s rejection of Eve in Paradise Lost when he laments, “ ‘Out of my sight, thou serpent!’ ” and to Eve’s crime against God (Milton, Bk. X, l. 867). The motives of Sir Plume’s actions are now seen as similar to that of Adam and Eve’s and it sets up the crime against Clarissa as one ....