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Unnumber'd throngs on every side are seen, / Of bodies chang'd to various forms by Spleen. / Here living Tea-pots stand, one arm held out, / One bent; the handle this, and that the spout: / A Pipkin there, like Homer's Tripod walks; / Here sighs a Jar, and there a Goose-pie talks…
This quotation comes from Canto 4, during Umbriel’s journey to the Cave of Spleen, where these strange and impossible creatures dwell. The power of spleen, or melancholy, transforms everyday objects and people into nonsensical beings. Inanimate objects talk. Teapots no longer have a curved handle, rendering them useless. The overall message is that nothing reasonable or logical dwells in the Cave of Spleen, only the bizarre and fanciful. Strong emotion, like melancholy, is out of logic’s domain.
Sunk in Thalestris’ arms the nymph he found, / Her eyes dejected and her hair unbound. / Full o'er their heads the swelling bag he rent, / And all the Furies issu'd at the vent.
In Canto 4, Umbriel returns from the cave of Spleen with a bag of sorrows with which to provoke Belinda. He thus controls how upset Belinda is, unleashing furies to stir her up. Thalestris also encourages Belinda’s anger. Strong emotion in the poem does not appear to be within a woman’s control, instead at the whim those around her. In this framework, emotional outbursts have nothing to do with a person’s good sense or reason, and thus are not worth taking seriously.
So spoke the Dame, but no applause ensu'd; / Belinda frown'd, Thalestris call'd her Prude.
This quotation from Canto 5 describes the unenthusiastic response the other guests give to Clarissa’s very reasonable speech. Instead of taking her wise words seriously, they ignore her or insult her. Not long after this moment, the guests at Court get into a ridiculous fight, suggesting that part of the reason why they don’t want to listen to Clarissa is that they are too angry to acknowledge the sense of her words. Rational thought has no place in this argument and thus is swiftly rejected.
Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air, / Weighs the Men's wits against the Lady's hair; / The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; / At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.
This quotation comes from Canto 5 just before Belinda physically attacks the Baron. The way the men’s wits and better judgment apparently weigh less than Belinda’s hair emphasizes how irrational everyone is behaving. If these characters were thinking logically, the poem argues, they would understand that hair needn’t have this much importance. However, the social faux pas, Belinda’s beauty, and her distress all distract from good sense, making the argument worse and worse.
“Restore the Lock!” she cries; and all around / “Restore the Lock!” the vaulted roofs rebound.
This moment comes toward the very end of Canto 5 just after the Baron pleads for his life. Although “restore the lock,” may simply mean for the Baron to give the physical lock of hair back to Belinda, the phrasing could also mean for the Baron to put the hair back, an impossible task. Even if Belinda and the crowd mean the former, the request remains somewhat ridiculous. The chaotic and silly nature of the entire argument and fight emphasizes how anger makes people behave unreasonably and foolishly.
