Eloisa to Abelard heroic epistle was Alexander Pope’s inspiration by the story of Héloïse d'Argenteuil’s secret affair with her teacher and famous philosopher Peter Abelard. The illicit love turns tragic when the relationship gets to public forcing Abelard to convince Eloisa to go to a convent. Eloisa’s uncle, Fulbert, interprets this as Abelard’s scheme to get rid of his niece leading her family to respond vengefully and have Abelard castrated making him become a monk. After Eloisa becomes a nun, she feels happy that her prayers have been answered by being able to lapse all the memories about her past events that bothered her. However, upon receiving a letter from Abelard, she confesses that it reawakened the suppressed love for him. Her bittersweet happiness is showcased when she can write to Abelard again, to have him back to her life, but she well knows they can never be together, thus the much thirsted for reunion can never be and she painfully resigns to this ugly fate (Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd?). The monastic life they both lead in the aftermath is utterly successful for each of them.
In the poem, Eloisa is referred to as a blameless vestal where she resolves to a solitary life of contemplation (a world forgetting), calm and prayerful and distant from the hectic and cruel world (the world forgot). Nuns are only dedicated to service to God and cut from the entire world, and here Pope tries to explain the meaning of ' Ignorance is Bliss' because these nuns were indeed blameless and therefore they were ‘happy’ (How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!). Pope uses the phrase ‘Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!’ to reinforce ‘Ignorance is a Bliss’ concept. A spotless mind never dwells on any feeling, events to any lasting connections and thus there is emotional calmness, and unhappy feelings can never be experienced.
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