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Paradise Lost. John Milton, 1667. Milton. 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
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Paradise Lost John Milton, 1667
Milton • 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
Milton’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
The 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
Paradise 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”
Epic 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
PL 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…
Epic 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
Epic 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
The 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
however • 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
The 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
Wait, 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.
It’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
An 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
Other 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.
Its 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.
Relevance • 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.
Books 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.
Books 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.
Visions of Satan • William Blake
