Milton (1608-1674)
Review Norton introduction:
693:
- Milton's frequent references to his own problems
- His involvement in shaping political structures of the day
- Reconceived the literary tradition, both classical and Western
- Protestant family
- extensive education
694:
- University education (Cambridge); but contempt for those destined for church;
- Attack on clergy in "Lycidas," 709
695:
- Civil War, 1642; Milton's writings on the Puritan side
- His disastrous marriage; his work on marriage, advocates divorce
- Became Latin Secretary to Cromwell government, 1649-58
- Sonnets, including on late wife, 723
696:
- Argued for church disestablishment
- Survived restoration of the monarchy in 1660
- Writes Paradise Lost in reduced circumstances, blind
Areopagitica
- Virtue must be tried, 713
- Truth must flow freely, 715
Paradise Lost
Milton unavoidable, a central part of the canon of English, or world literature.
Don't have to accept its theology to find it's narrative powerful, true in some sense; as with other powerful myths from Greek or Roman literature (or cf. Beowulf, Twelfth Night).
Cf. Areopagitica: "For books are not absolutely dead things…" (712). The power of the mind -- here, Milton's.
Previous myths: most obviously Genesis in the Bible; but many other sources, such as Ovid, Homer,Vergil, Tasso.
Illustrations (note poem's imaginative appeal to visual artists, here Romantic period)
Poem shows two ways beyond primary sin: to further evil (Satan) or redemption (Adam and Eve).
That good will come from the Fall, by showing God's mercy, the role of the Son of God.
Style:
- Verse style: no rhymes, 725
- Latinate: often inversions, such as object-verb-subject. E.g., opening lines, should be "Sing Heav'nly Muse of man's first disobedience…" (verb-subject-object). Or, line 70: "Such place Eternal Justice had prepared" (object-subject-verb).
- Epic simile. Especially in describing Satan or Hell: note vehicles drawn upon. Parallels in pagan myth figure Satan as one of the old warrior god heroes (cf. Beowulf). Satan described, see: I, 196-209.
So what happens? -- Quick summary: http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/john_miltonparadise_lost12.htm:
- Book I (798 lines): The fallen angels survey their state, Satan, roused by Beelzebub, summons a counsel of demons, and they build Pandemonium to house their Parliament.
- Book II (1055 lines): The fallen angels debate their strategy and vote to send Satan to seek out and destroy the new world that was created at the moment they fell, an act of revenge which takes Satan out of Hell's gate (where he meets his daughter/mate and son) and into the realm of Chaos, from which he sees Earth.
- Book III (742 lines): God sees Satan's flight and explains Man's fall due to disobedience in his free will, but the Son of God offers himself as a ransom for the rebellious human race. Satan deceives Uriel, a guardian angel, and is directed to Earth where he sets foot on Armenia's Mount Niphates.
- Book IV (1015 lines): Satan is tormented by the beauty of Creation, and discovers Adam and Eve living in perfect harmony. Hearing them talk of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, he turns himself into a toad and whispers temptation into the sleeping Eve's ear, but he is discovered by the guardian angels and expelled by Gabriel.
Book I: that Milton's Muse is the Holy Spirit. Invocation typical of epics, but Milton showing that while he includes himself in this tradition he will surpass it.
-- and compare earlier epics, journeys of one or a few men, but with Milton's epic all mankind are implicated.
Primary focus in first three books on Satan, as if he is the protagonist -- he isn't: Adam is. But use of epic similes to suggest his power and significance. His great size - but only at first (later takes the form of a toad, a serpent).
Satan's defiance, speeches to the assembly: celebrate martial values -- but a contrast to the Christian virtues of mercy, humility, obedience. Note solipsism of:
- Satan: "the mind and spirit remains / Invincible" (I, 139-40). The power of the mind inviolable, even in hell.
- "the unconquerable will" (106): power of Satan's heroic enterprise, undefeated will (makes him the hero of PL -- cf. Shelley, Blake)
- "The mind is its own place" (254)
- Their fall? God the Father: No role for foreknowledge (III, 116); "they themselves ordain'd their fall" (128). But Satan, while he sees this, cannot repent, since this would involve submission to God.
- Contrast (final) submission of Adam and Eve to God's will.
Examine:
Lines 1-26, Invocation
-- look over following section --
Lines 84-124, first speech of Satan / to summarize:
(Satan finds Beelzebub by his side) Satan. How you have changed in this fall, who once was joined with me! But despite this dire outcome of the enemy’s greater power (who would have guessed it?), I repent nothing, and not the pride that led us and our companions to oppose him in Heaven. We haven’t lost our determination, and to seek reconcilation would be the worst shame. Through our strength we can wage war overtly or subtly, even though he lords it still in Heaven.
Lines 128-155 Beelzebub's reply / to summarize
Beelzebub. O Prince, who challenged Heaven’s King! although we suffer this terrible defeat, yet in spirit we are invincible. But what if our strength is left us only to bear further suffering or to do his bidding?
David Daiches, Milton (1957):
Attractiveness of evil, as in the magnificent speeches of Satan and his colleagues; “they represent the attractiveness of plausible evil” (153-4). Their high rhetoric: we easily thrill “to grandiose rantings about honour and revenge uttered with all the mock passion and the theatricality of a Nuremberg rally” (154).
Satan’s first speech, “a magnificent set-piece, beginning with the broken cadences of elegy” (157). But irony of Satan’s determination not to change: he has changed already, as opening of speech shows; and he is to change further (toad, serpent, etc.). His commitment to “study of revenge, immortal hate”: this “suggests no action at all but simply brooding on revenge and hate” (158).
Document prepared February 12th 2007 / updated February 17th 2007