Alexander Pope’s strongest motivation for writing The Dunciad was to highlight what he considered to be the dumbing down of literature in his time. Every individual named as or implied to be a Dunce in the poem was, in Pope’s view, somehow contributing to that decline. Some were active contributors, like publishers and authors, and others contributed through patronage or other means of support. It is the driving theme of the poem, appearing in virtually every line.

It is implied in Book 1 that Dulness’s first reign began to lose power once man invented written language. Pope sees her rising again, however, thanks to critics, political hacks, plagiarizers, and a dozen other devious actors. He criticizes the flash and excess of the stage and accuses dramatists of being less interested in art than in spectacle. He derides the poets who produce polemics on command without thought or care for what their own beliefs might be. He routinely bashes opera, which he considers to be the lowest of all art forms, though he implies that the German English composer George Frideric Handel may redeem it. All around he sees cheats, charlatans, liars, and thieves debasing the arts he loves.