Milton Born in London December 1608 Died November 1674 Wealthy welleducated including Christs Church at Cambridge multilingual Baptized Protestant with a Catholic background Ministrycaretakerpoet ID: 795450
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Slide1
Paradise Lost
John Milton, 1667
Slide2Milton
Born in London, December 1608. Died
November, 1674
Wealthy; well-educated (including Christ’s Church at Cambridge); multi-lingual
Baptized Protestant with a Catholic background
Ministry/caretaker/poet
Married 3 times
Vision problems: goes blind by 1652. He dictates
Paradise Lost
to his daughter, who serves as his scribe
Slide3Milton’s political and religious leanings
Career spans three eras: Stuart England; the English Civil War and Interregnum, including the Commonwealth and Protectorate; and the Restoration
Milton grows up listening to the sermons of John Donne. He experiences the strife between the Church of England and reformist groups (Puritans) and between the monarch and Parliament
He advocates for civil liberties against tyranny (ecclesiastical and governmental)
After Charles II is crowned, Milton is dismissed from governmental service, apprehended, and imprisoned. He’s released, but loses his money and his home
Slide4The Importance of his poetry
Milton’s impact as a prose writer was profound; but, he’s remembered for his poetry
Milton referred to his prose as the achievements of his “left hand”
Milton uses his poetry to address issues of religion and politics, the central concerns also of his prose. With Paradise Lost, Milton is attempting to make the workings of Providence understandable to mankind
This logic makes sense. In Milton’s personal life, he believed in advocating righteous causes-- and was attacked for it. Milton’s poetry allows him to question why, when he was a child of God, his adversaries triumphed and evil prevailed
Slide5Paradise Lost: Background
First published in 10 books; revised as 12 books for 1674 edition
~
11,000 lines long
Initially conceived as a drama (“Adam
Unparadised
”)
Morality drama (late Middle Ages) uses allegorical characters to present the conflict between the virtues and vices
After further deliberation Milton wrote a biblical epic that strives to “assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men”
Slide6Paradise Lost: an Overview
Slide7Epic Poem: standard conventions
Long, narrative in verse form (often book length) recounting a heroic journey of superhuman deeds and fabulous adventures. The poem itself begins in the middle of the story– in medias res
Language is highly stylized and includes extended similes, epithets, and a blending of lyrical and dramatic traditions
Greek and Roman epics: dactylic hexameter
Many of the world's oldest written narratives are in epic form:
The Epic of Gilgamesh
,
Iliad
and
Odyssey
, and the
Aeneid
Slide8PL begins in standard epic fashion
Milton begins PL in medias res, invoking a muse who inspired Moses. So far, we are on track: Milton is placing PL in the same epic category as religious texts and signals that he is writing an epic in the tradition of the ancient Greeks
Milton then echoes and mimics earlier Greek epics in his lengthy introduction and naming of all of the fallen angels in Hell
This resembles an epic catalogue, a long list of soldiers found in epics like
The Iliad
and
The Odyssey
Other than the fact it’s all in blank verse, we are so far, so good…
Slide9Epic Conventions
Convention #1: Intrusion by supernatural beings
Takes place throughout PL
E.g., Raphael warns Adam and Eve of the dangers of Satan; the Son descends to Eden as the judge of humankind after the fall; Adam has a vision of the future in which the Son assumes his role as the Incarnate Christ
Convention #2: a descent into the underworld
This occurs as early as book 1, which shows the punishment of the fallen angels in Hell
Slide10Epic Conventions, continued
Convention #3: the relationship between love and war
Love, easy example: The love of Adam and Eve before and after their expulsion from Eden (this is central to the epic)
Love, best example: the self-sacrifice of the Son on behalf of fallen humankind
War, easy example: good and evil angels clash and the Son expels Satan and his followers from Heaven;
War, best example: humankind’s struggle with temptation after Satan conceals his malice behind external friendliness and solicitude
Slide11The stylistic Convention
Convention #4: the use of extended similes and catalogues
In book 1 Satan, who had plummeted from Heaven into Hell, is prone on the fiery lake. Across several lines, the narrator compares Satan’s enormous size with that of the Titans.
Later in book 1, as the fallen angels file from the burning lake, an epic catalogue is used to cite their names as false gods whose idols were worshiped in infidel cultures, particularly in Asia Minor
Diction is based on Roman epics
Milton also uses periodic sentence structure, which when accommodated to blank verse create a majestic rhythm, a sense of grandeur, and at times sublimity
Slide12however
Rather than tell the tales of heroic men, Milton is dealing with issues of Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, and the fall of man: issues in which most Christians believe as absolute truth
He also draws a distinct parallel between Satan's rebellion against God and man's disobedience to God (that’s not going to make people feel uncomfortable, is it?)
So, Milton turns the epic on its head
Slide13The deviation of Milton’s Epic
Convention #5: Heroism
Earlier epics celebrate heroism with takes of military valor, intense passions such as wrath or revenge, and cunning resourcefulness
Milton retains those traits of epic heroism… but our hero here is Satan
Slide14Wait, what?
Milton portrays Satan as a military leader who assembles and commands his troop of fallen angels. This is similar to the ancient Greek epics that glorified war heroes
By beginning
Paradise Lost
with a focus on Satan, Milton sets him up as the possible protagonist of the book rather than the antagonist. Though Satan realizes he has been defeated in his battle against God, his sense of pride doesn't allow him to ask God for forgiveness and reentrance into Heaven.
Slide15It’s tricky
Milton hints at the idea that even though Satan thinks he has control of his own life and decisions, God is always one step ahead
Milton never makes clear if he wants his audience to empathize with Satan, but making him an epic hero in 1667 was dangerous
Milton's audience would have been more likely to understand the complete power God had over Satan and that his battle was doomed to be futile
Contemporary audiences are more likely to see Satan as the sympathetic underdog of the story and to see God as rigid and unfeeling
Slide16An eventual, actual Hero
Eventually, a traditional epic hero emerges: the Son
Satan manifests the traits of wrath and military valor (during the War in Heaven), but Milton makes the point that the greater traits of a hero are sacrifice, faith, patience, and fortitude– the redemptive power of Christ
In other words, Milton uses the epic form BOTH as a critique of an earlier tradition of heroism AND as a means of advancing a new idea of Christian heroism: meekness, filial obedience, and boundless love for humankind
Slide17Other upside down conventions
Convention #6: The invocation of the muse
Typically, muses are a source of praise and inspiration
Not here. Milton’s muse is not precisely identified—whether the Holy Spirit or, more generally, the spirit of the godhead. At times, Milton alludes to the classical muse of epic poetry, Urania.
The intent, however, is to identify her not as the source of inspiration but as this idea that the divine word is communicated to man via imperfect methods (prophets) an imperfect muse through which the divine word was communicated to prophets or embodied in Jesus for dissemination to humankind.
Slide18Its place in the lexicon
PL is Milton’s magnum opus; he believes God guided him to write it
Milton is credited for creating the biblical epic. PL is an interpretation of Scripture: a selection of biblical events, their design and integration according to dominant spiritual themes—downfall and regeneration, the presentation of a Christ-centered view of human history, a virtual dramatization of the phenomenon of temptation to create psychological verisimilitude, and final affirmation about personal triumph over adversity and ultimate victory over evil.
Slide19Relevance
Imprinted in the epic are Milton’s personal and political circumstances. Milton identifies with those who advocate a righteous cause despite the adversity confronting them.
Though evil may be ascendant for a time, including the Stuart monarchy at the Restoration, goodness in the cyclical panorama of history will have its spokesperson and, ultimately, will prevail.
There are elements of theology, political science, feminism,
etc
all within it. Timeless.
Slide20Books 1 and 2
Prologue: the
purpose of PL is to justify the ways of God to humans and to tell the story of their fall. Milton, invoking the Muse, explains what led to the fall of man; he introduces the character of Satan, a former great angel in Heaven known as Lucifer. Satan tried to overthrow God's rule and banded together with other rebel angels to begin a civil war. They were defeated by God and cast out of Heaven and into Hell.
The story begins with Satan and the other rebel angels waking up to find themselves floating on a lake of fire in Hell, transformed into devils. Upset, Satan gathers the fallen angels together.
They work to build a capital in Hell for themselves, Pandemonium, and form a council to debate waging more warfare against God (either by force or guile)
Satan and the other angels don't seem to recognize that it is only through God's permission that they were able to loosen the chains that bound them upon their arrival in Hell. God allowed it because he is all-knowing and all-seeing and intends to change their evil intentions into goodness.
Slide21Books 1 and 2
Books 1 and 2 view the aftermath of the War in Heaven, with Satan and his defeated legions of angels having been cast down into Hell, a prison where they are tormented by a lake of liquid fire.
Most of the second book depicts the convocation of the fallen angels in Hell. Rather than continue their warfare directly against God and his loyal angels, they choose to stay on earth where the humans’ lesser nature would make them more vulnerable to onslaught or subversion.
Satan, who volunteers to scout the earth and its inhabitants, departs through the gates of Hell, which are guarded by two figures, Sin and Death. He travels through Chaos, alights on the convex exterior of the universe, then descends through an opening therein to travel to earth.
Slide22Visions of Satan
William Blake
Slide23Now, let’s create a timeline