How did Alexander Pope turn the story of a stolen lock of hair into a mock epic?

Alexander Pope transformed the trivial incident of a stolen lock of hair into a mock epic by applying the elevated, formal style of classical epic poetry to a contemporary social dispute. Originally written to reconcile two estranged families, The Rape of the Lock treats the theft as if it were a conflict of monumental significance, comparable to the Trojan War.123

Pope utilized traditional epic devices to achieve this satirical effect, including:

• Grandiloquent Tone: He described the event with the "pomp and circumstance" usually reserved for heroic deeds.3
• Literary Allusions: The poem is dense with references to classical verse and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, grounding the modern incident in ancient literary tradition.13
• Epic Conventions: He incorporated standard features such as invocations to the muse, supernatural interventions, and detailed descriptions of the protagonist’s activities.2

By juxtaposing the "glittering" but superficial values of 18th-century society with the gravity of the epic form, Pope highlighted the absurdity of the participants' priorities while simultaneously capturing the elegance of their world.3