An Essay on Man

Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man navigates the issue of theodicy articulately, concluding that man's situation is intended for him to have enough pleasure to enjoy life and enough ignorance to be unaware of larger worries that would detract from the joy of living. The issue with his argument is that it is predicated upon a universal creator, an assertion which is assumed but never proven. If we challenge the existence of a creator, the question of theodicy falls more to the uncaring aspect of nature. Death, deformity, pain, ailments--it all becomes less orderly without a larger creator and plan.

Pope begins his essay with the assertion "that man is not to be deemed imperfect, but a being suited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable to the general order of things, and conformable to ends and relations to him unknown, [...]. That it is partly upon his ignorance of future events, and partly upon the hope of a future state, that all his happiness in the present state depends" (90). Given his assertion, it is clear that Pope believes in larger order and plan, than man is created fittingly for his role, and that this status, along with lack of greater knowledge, is intended to enable man to enjoy the present (as the future is unknowable, and ultimately leads to death). Pope criticizes "the pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, the cause of man's error and misery," which refers to not only growing study in technical and medical sciences, but also relates back to the Garden of Eden, or as Pope writes, "Garden, tempting with forbidden fruit" (Pope 90). In reaching to know more, Pope argues that man is "presumptuous" and in lamenting one's state, we should "say not Man's imperfect, Heave in fault/ Say rather, Man's as perfect as he ought" (Pope 91-92). Continually Pope relies upon an unknown cosmic order as justification for being satisfied with one's status; questioning this role is offensive to the great creator and shows the small-sightedness of man. One could argue, contingent upon belief in a creator, that striving to know more of the world and our place is just striving to be closer to that creator, like Plato's focus on the realm of Forms.

Ultimately, Pope provides direction based upon a secular belief rather than logic. Contentedness is not based upon believing in God, but rather focusing on the positive. People do not have to be lambs protected from knowledge of slaughter; we are all aware of our mortality and thus strive to enjoy life as best we can. That we are unaware of when we die suggests the randomness of life, just as much as an unknowable creator's larger plan.