The Dunciad: Analysis of Setting
"The Dunciad: Analysis of Setting" explores the rich and contrasting landscapes of London as a backdrop for Pope's mock-heroic poem. The poem is set against the backdrop of the 18th-century city, which was home to a diverse population approaching seven hundred thousand. The setting highlights the stark differences between the East End, known for its poverty and crime, and the West End, associated with aristocratic elegance and leisure. Key locations such as Smithfield, described as a lower-class bazaar, signify cultural degeneration, while the Guildhall represents the intersection of democracy, trade, and declining cultural standards.
The narrative follows the journey of the dunces from the East End to the West End, symbolizing the triumph of low culture over high cultural ideals. Streets like Fleet Street and the Strand reflect the encroachment of low life, with their associations to crime and degradation. The character of Goddess Dulnes guides this journey, parodying historic undertakings, and foreshadowing the eventual triumph of mediocrity over artistic integrity. By the conclusion, the poem paints a bleak picture where high culture is eclipsed, leading to a metaphorical "Universal Darkness." This analysis of setting serves to deepen the understanding of how physical spaces are intricately linked to the themes of cultural decline and societal critique within "The Dunciad."
The Dunciad: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1728-1743
Type of work: Poetry
Type of plot: Mock-heroic
Time of work: Eighteenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*London
*London. Capital and largest city of Great Britain. With a population of nearly seven hundred thousand people in the eighteenth century, London is the setting of the final campaign of “The War of the Dunces,” which culminates in the obliteration of high cultural standards. At the core of its East End is the old walled section, known as “the City,” center for the lower and middle classes, business, the trades, markets, counting houses, the Royal (stock) Exchange, jails, shanties, butcheries, shipping, coal wharves, and tanning factories. The East End was noted for its mobs, crime, jails, poverty, ugliness, dirt, sooty air, open sewers, and foul odors. London’s West End is associated with the royal court and aristocratic elegance, leisure, gardens, lovely parks, large squares, and beautiful houses. The mock-heroic journey of the dunces from the East End to the West End and back symbolizes the conquest of high culture by low standards.
*Smithfield
*Smithfield. Lower-class section of East London, site of a bazaar and the occasional dramatic entertainment “agreeable only to the Taste of the Rabble.” The mock-heroic invocation to the muse in the poem’s opening lines announces the theme of cultural degeneration: the bringing of “The Smithfield Muses to the Ear of Kings.”
*Rag-Fair
*Rag-Fair. Located near the Tower of London, a place where old clothes were sold to the poor. It is the site of the cave of Poverty and Poetry, mythical source of low standards and poor taste. References to Grub Street, a lane of unsuccessful authors who pandered to popular tastes, continue the linkage among poverty, crime, and low culture. From her sacred dome of Dulnes near the Tower, Goddess Dulnes and the dunces begin their evening movement through the City.
*Guildhall
*Guildhall. Historic city hall of the City of London. Goddess Dulnes’s home is her “Guild Hall,” literally the seat of the lord mayor, popular government, and trade. It symbolizes the triple alliance of democratic politics, commerce, and vulgar standards that threatens to overwhelm the landed aristocracy and its high culture.
*Ludsgate
*Ludsgate. Western entrance to the City of London. Tracing the route of the lord mayor’s parade, the dunces leave the City by this western gate, built by King Lud and carved with images of kings whose heads have been scored off by vandals, symbolizing the antiaristocratic and philistine temperament of the dunces. Their move west to found the empire of dullness parodies Aeneas’s voyage west to found the Roman Empire.
*Fleet Street
*Fleet Street. London street that was the traditional home of many printing houses that published newspapers and popular reading. Traveling on this street, the dunces pass two jails, Bridewell, for vagrants, prostitutes, and the disorderly, and the Fleet, for debtors. These prisons suggest the criminality of lowering standards.
*Strand
*Strand. Continuing Fleet Street and running parallel with the River Thames to its south, this street is the direct route of the dunces from the City to the West End and back. Places along it symbolize the encroachments of low life. They pass Drury Lane, noted for fighting and prostitution. At Fleet Ditch, a channel of sewage running into the Thames, the dunces hold their mock-heroic games, among them, contests of urinating, cat-calling, racing through slop, and diving in filth, symbolic of bad poetry, criticism, journalism, or unethical publishing.
*Elysian Shade
*Elysian Shade. The descent of Goddess Dulnes and the king of the Dunces parodies Aeneas’s descent to the underworld. While Aeneas learned of the greatness of the Roman Empire that he was to found, the king hears a prophecy that his dynasty of dullness will rule the world. By the poem’s apocalyptic end, this has come to pass, as the arts, learning, virtue, and religion have become imprisoned, have hidden, or have died, and “Universal Darkness Buries All.”
Bibliography
Clark, Donald B. Alexander Pope. New York: Twayne, 1967. Provides a thorough examination of all of Pope’s major works. Interpretations and criticisms of several individual poems comprise the bulk of this study. Historical and biographical information are also provided.
Regan, J. V. “The Mock-Epic Structure of the Dunciad.” Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 19, no. 3 (Summer, 1979): 459-473. Focuses on the structure of The Dunciad. To illustrate how Pope’s poem follows epic conventions, as well as how it departs from them, Regan draws parallels between The Dunciad and Vergil’s Aeneid.
Rogers, Robert. The Major Satires of Alexander Pope. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1955. Convincingly argues that each of Pope’s satires reflects his own moral concerns on the ethical dilemmas he faced himself. This comprehensive overview of Pope’s satiric poems is essential for any discussion pertaining to the poet’s use of irony and wit.
Sitter, John E. The Poetry of Pope’s “Dunciad.” Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971. This full-length study devoted to The Dunciad concentrates on the poem’s imagery, structure, and origins. Use of textual evidence makes the work an excellent starting place for critical analysis.
Williams, Aubrey L. Pope’s “Dunciad”: A Study of Its Meaning. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1955. In order to interpret Pope’s meaning and to comment on his imaginative powers, Williams examines the poem from every possible angle. Provides one of the most thorough treatments of The Dunciad.