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Analysis of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man

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Analysis of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man
ASSIBEY, ERIC ENG 215

Man is Never Satisfied

The essay of man is a philosophical poet, written,

characteristically in heroic couplet. It is an attempt to justify and vindicate

the ways of God to man. It's also a warning that man himself is not as in his

pride, he seems to believe the center of all things. Eventhough not truly

Christian, the essay makes implicit assumption that man has fallen and that

he must seek his own salvation. Pope sets out to demonstrate that no matter

how imperfect complex and disturbingly full evil the universe may appear to

be, it does function in a rational fashion, according to natural laws and is in

fact considered as a whole perfect work of God. It appears unsatisfy to us

only because our perceptions are limited by our feeble moral and intellectual

capacity. God is perfect and he created man is his image yet man is always

unsatisfied. We utter our body parts to make it look perfect to us. The use of

weak and blind in the essay tells how man is unsatisfied not be able to see

things his way and hence making him unhappy. If any misfortunes in our

life's we still think is the cause of God, as stated in the Essay of man,

"Rejudge his justice, be the God of God (Pope, 122). Life seems chaotic and

patternless to man when he is in the midst of it. Man has sun and forest

around him, which he takes advantage of for food shelter and nurturing but

on the other hand he blames the nature for destruction and other

cause. "From burning Sun where livid deaths descend" (Pope 142). This

line from the essay goes to extend how man questions God's justices. He has

never been satisfied with creation. Everything on this earth was meant to

make man happy. Man should learn that nature should take its cause and

must learn how to cope with it. God has ranked man

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