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Lines 87-90. Tis these that.....at a beau
Summary: In these lines Belinda's guardian sylph, Ariel continues to describe the pernicious influence of the gnomes on conceited women. They not only swell the heads of these women with inordinate pride and ambition so that they spurn all offers of love or marriage, but also infect them by instilling into their brains love of coquetry. From their very early years, these women learn to roll their eyes like a practiced flirt e.g. to apply rouge to their cheeks to bring on a false glow, and to feel excited at the sight of a beau.
Critical Analysis: Here again. Pope satirizes the follies and varieties of the fashionable women of his time, who learn the arts and tricks of coquetry even before they attain womanhood. Here we get a graphic picture of the society of the time and the frivolities of women of rank and fashion; a society that corrupts its womenfolk even before they attain adulthood.