Mock Epic or Mock Heroic

Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common
Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in
the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd. It is
a poem that plays with the conventions of the epic to comment on a topic using satire as a tool for
attack. In Mac Flecknoe John Dryden wittily flaunts his mastery of the epic genre to cut down a
literary rival. Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock recasts a petty high-society scandal as a
mythological battle for the virtue of an innocent.

As the name indicates, the Mock-Epic is a literary form that burlesques the Classical
epic by bringing the formulas characteristic of the epic — the invocation of a deity, a formal
statement of theme, the division of the work into books and cantos, grandiose speeches,
battles, supernatural machinery, and so on — to bear upon a trivial subject. The main effect
of thus employing techniques of the epic is, however, not so much to have fun with the epic
as to deflate a subject or characters that by contrast appear particularly trivial. For example,
Pope's Rape of the Lock uses its highly polished verses, mordantly satirical heroic couplets,
wit depth, and intelligence to satirize the fuss that results when an idle young lord cuts a
small lock of hair from the head of an idle young beauty.

By ludicrously overstating the importance of the whole affair (largely by parodying the epic,
which readers in Pope's day knew well), he succeeds, paradoxically enough, in making the
whole thing seem ridiculous and funny but also somehow tragic. As a result, Pope makes us
aware of the fact that not only the participants in the drama but also the rest of humanity,
including Pope himself and certainly his readers, are somehow ridiculous and funny — and
tragic — too. Here are a few of the ways in which the plot and structure of The Rape of the
Lock burlesques elements characteristic of the epic:

Epic Mock Epic

Iliad, Aeneid The Rape of the Lock

The Arming of the Hero Toilet [dressing] scene.

Battle Card Game.

The Stratagem(a plan to outwit

the opponent The Pinch of Snuff.
or achieve an end)

Meddling Gods and Goddesses Sylphs and Gnomes

The Journey to the Underworld The Cave of Spleen

Dream Dream