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The heroine of the poem, Belinda, is a young noblewoman who is proud of her beautiful hair. Although Pope modeled The Rape of the Lock on a real incident, there is no indication that Belinda takes after the real-life victim, Arabella Fermor. Instead, she appears to be an archetypical coquette in British high society. She sleeps late and then gets ready in an almost ritualistic fashion, all for a mere social gathering and a game of cards. She takes great pains to maintain her appearance. Indeed, when Thalestris commiserates with Belinda after the Baron cuts Belinda’s hair, Thalestris first notes how much time and effort Belinda spends on her hair. Pope portrays Belinda as fairly hollow inside, bound to the whims of her guardian sylphs and gnomes. It is the sylphs who take charge of her appearance, guard her chastity, and set her preferences (“they shift the moving toyshop of their heart”). Although Belinda is already upset about the loss of her hair, the gnome Umbriel journeys to the Cave of Spleen to worsen her mood. In this sense, Belinda, and all women by inference, operate in mysterious ways according to unearthly spirits, not reason or logic.
Despite the sexist undertones surrounding Belinda’s character, the poem does provide ways to read her sympathetically. Although the poem describes her curls as a trap to ensnare men, this serious comparison mirrors the other ways Pope describes trivial things with mock gravity throughout the poem. Just as cards are not soldiers, hair cannot truly ensnare a reasonable person. Furthermore, Thalestris’s warning that the Baron displaying Belinda’s hair could destroy her reputation has weight. The narrator observes that in the social scene at Hampton Court, “At ev'ry word a reputation dies.” Although the poem satirizes the values of this social sect, the reality remains that this incident, if told in a light unfavorable to Belinda, could destroy her reputation, which would mean social death. When Belinda laments the loss of her curl, she regrets going to Hampton Court at all because she now feels that men cannot be trusted. In essence, Belinda finds herself in a misogynistic bind. The beauty that bolsters her status can also be used against her through no action of her own.
