Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock:

At the close of Canto 3, Pope writes about the power and strength of steel, in reference to the scissors that the Baron uses to chop off Belinda's lock of hair:

" 'What time would spare, from steel receives its date,
And monuments, like men, submit to fate!
Steel could the labor of the Gods destroy,
And strike to dust the imperial towers of Troy;
Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
And hew triumphal arches to the ground' " (Pope 3:171-176).

This description of the steel scissors echoes a resounding theme throughout the poem, which is to take things and ideas that most would consider rather trivial and assign to them great importance. Obviously the steel scissors are portrayed as powerful and highly significant; they can destroy what even time itself cannot, they can destroy things made my the hands of Gods, as well as reinforced towers, and they can even confuse the permanant and momentous pride of man. What have these scissors done with all this so-called great power then? They have snipped off a lock of Belinda's hair, which greatly upsets her and here signifies a sort of sexual desecration, but still isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. Comparing having some hair cut off your head to destruction of monuments, labor of the Gods, the towers of Troy, and mortal pride? It seems a little over the top.

Indeed, however, this seems to be Pope's whole point. Likewise, he compares a simple card game between Belinda, the Baron, and another player to a monumental battle. While all of these trivial goings-on occur, elsewhere "The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, / And wretches hang that jurymen may dine" (3:21-22). This is a striking contrast; these wretches are being hung to their death because the jury is tired of deliberating and ready to eat, and at the same time, Belinda is frivolously playing cards and shrieking over a small haircut. In this sense, Pope seems to see reason in the sense of "sound judgment; good sense" (www.dictionary.com); one must be sensible when considering everyday matters, in order to determine their importance and to act towards them accordingly. To take it a step further, though, reason in a philosophical sense is defined as "the power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought" (www.dictionary.com). Pope also seems to be urging for this kind of intellegent thought and the behavior that follows it through portraying the characters of his poem, particular Belinda, as so vapid and not particularly intellegent. The reader can scoff at the behavior of these characters and the importance they place on the trivialities of their lives. To take this scoffing a step further is to ponder and realize that this type of behavior arises from rash and selfish thought, rather than the acute and purposeful thought that both Pope and all advocates of the Enlightenment promoted.