Mock- epic - Literary Terms
Mock- epic - Literary Terms
Mock-epic is a work in verse which employs the lofty manner, the high and serious tone and the supernatural machinery of epic to treat a trival subject and theme in such a way as to make both the subject and theme ridiculous. Pope's The Rape of the Lock is a famous mock-epic.
In it there are invocation to Muses, proposition of subject, battles, supernatural machinery, journey on water, underworld journey, long speeches, feasts (coffee houses), Homeric similes and grand style but all for a simple family dispute instead of a national struggle. The grand treatment of a low subject produces hilarious laughter and makes the story more ridiculous.
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