Belinda has had a dream in which her guardian has told her that a disaster is coming but he says to her that hewill protect her with all his power and ability. When she wakes up, she prepares for her social activities of the day. She travels to Hampton court palace by crossing river Thames in order to throw a party. Everybody is playing cards and drinking coffee. In that place is where the baron is waiting for Belinda. He is deeply in love with her and with Clarissa's help, he steals a lock of her hair. Belinda gets really angry and looks for justice.
The reason of Alexander Pope to write this poem was to write a story about another real story about two people who belong to two aristocrat families. Arabella is the girl and Lord Petre is the boy. Lord Petre is in love with Arabella and he steals a lock of her hair making a big conflict between the two families.
This story reminds me a bit of Romeo and Juliet but in an opposite way because in Shakespeare's play the two families are set as odds and Romeo and Juliet by their death make that war between both families stop, meanwhile in the story of the rape of the lock, the two families are friends and they split up because of the baron and Belinda (Arabella and Lord Petre)
