payment page
Umbriel is Ariel’s gnome counterpart. According to the mythology of the poem, women who are prudish and shun men their entire lives become gnomes, associated with the dark recesses of the earth. Umbriel’s name comes from “umbra,” the Latin word for shadow, and accordingly his primary role is to provoke Belinda into a gloomy temperament. He accomplishes this by journeying to the Cave of Spleen, or melancholy, to ask the goddess dwelling there for her aid, which she grants. Although not explicitly stated, given that Gnomes are the spirits of prudes, his goal appears to be to make Belinda as unappealing as possible to men and to in turn make her disdainful of men. Using a bag of sobs and a vial of tears, he causes Belinda to regret ever coming to court and wish she had stayed at home away from men’s eyes. Like the rest of Pope’s “machinery”—the supernatural characters in the poem—Umbriel serves as an explanation for Belinda’s behavior, causing her to behave more distressed than the poem implies the situation warrants.
