Paradise Lost - John Milton (1667)

John Milton (16081674)

a rebel and a Puritan

Took up pen against the king - sympathy for the arch-rebel Satan?

Paradise Lost in the context of the English Civil War

Felix culpa

happy sin

Man potentially greater because of the fall and redemption

Free will makes man greater for his individual struggles loss and regaining of

Paradise

Purpose: justify the ways of God to men

Motives: religious

Language: Latin or English?

Compromise: invented new language

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top [Holy Spirit]
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed [Moses]
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues [Home of Muses]
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (ll.1-16)
The Invocation of the Muse

classical convention from a Christian perspective

Holy Spirit voice or power of God

9 classical muses on Mt. Helicon; his Muse soars above them

what in me is dark / Illumine (reference to his physical blindness and plea for

enlightenment)

Epic

long and poetically well-constructed,

Subject: significant and original,

Form: strict and serious, and

Aims: noble and heroic

Iliad and Aeneid great classical epics of Greece and Rome;

Paradise Lost the first English epic

most original story known to man - the first story of the world and of the first human

beings

Homer and Virgil: chronicled journey of heroic men, e.g. Achilles or Aeneas

Milton chronicles the tragic journey of all menthe result of humankinds

disobedience

Homer and Virgil - great wars between men

Milton - the most epic battle possible: the battle between God and Satan, good and evil

Satan

Prologue and invocation: bears no mention of Satan he is the focus but not the

subject of the poem!!!

 In medias res the fallen angels have already been defeated and banished from

Heaven when the epic opens

Establishing a new course for himself and those he leads

Many scholars question who the protagonist of Paradise Lost is. According to

definition, the hero or protagonist is a person who struggles to accomplish something

(usually positive).

The first quarter of the epic tells us about the antagonist

when we meet Adam and Eve - know what they are up against

Satan is the most active force in the story

Epic Similes

depict how big and powerful Satan is

Satan on the burning lake is compared to:

the titans who waged war upon Jove in Greek mythology

Leviathan, so huge that sailors mistake it for an island and fix their anchor to it

(ll. 192-209)

Satans shield & spear (284-294)

The effect of these epic similies is unsettling: how big is Satan??? How big is evil?

Hell

How big is Hell, the burning lake, the hill, Pandemonium, etc.?

most of the devils shrink in size to enter Pandemonium, the important ones sit far

within / And in their own dimensions like themselves (I.792793).

First description of Satans size is the biggest retained some of his former glory (cf.

Beelzebub changed)
 Satan assumes many shapes and is compared to numerous creatures, but his size and

stature steadily diminish throughout the epic.

Catalogue of Devils

epic convention: listing heroes here: list of villains

intentional parody: cf. Homer's catalogue of ships and heroes in Book II of the Iliad.

fallen angels account for many of the gods in pagan religions they were originally

among the angels who rebelled against God.

E.g. Isis, Osiris, Baal, and others

two most important devils are Beelzebub and Belial.

Satan the Military Hero/General

Satan - all of the virtues of a great warrior (cf. Achilles or Odysseus)

courageous,

undaunted,

refuses to yield in the face of impossible odds, and

able to stir his followers to follow him in brave and violent exploits

Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flowr of heavn, once yours, now lost
If such astonishment as this can seize
Eternal Spirits: or have ye chosn this place
After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To slumber here, as in the vales of Heavn?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the conqueror? Who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from Heavn gates discern
Th advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arise, or be for even falln. (315-330)
Satan addresses the other fallen angels lying prostrate on the fiery lake. He is provoking them
verbally.
Satan's plans for further action. Obviously it is useless to wage war against God since he has
proven himself to be so powerful, and he has devised a plan to defeat God through fraud and
deceit.
. But he who reigns
Monarch in Heavn, till then as one secure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent or custom, and his regal state
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own
So as not either to provoke, or dread
New war, provoked; our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less
At length from us may find, who overcomes
By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heavn that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favor equal to the sons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to prey, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial Spirits in bondage, not th abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counsel must mature: peace is despaired,
For who can think submission? War then, war
Open or understood must be resolved.

The reaction of the fallen angels to his plans. Note how many of them there are and the
military imagery which accompanies the description. Once again, Milton is showing how big
the concept of evil is and is setting the scene for Adam and Eve and the battle that they will
become embroiled with.
He spake: and to confirm his words, out flew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell: highly then they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heavn.
(637-669)

council of devils - a council of war

earlier epics - centre around military heroes and their exploits

Milton is offering a critique of a literary culture that glorifies war and warriors
 Satan might appear appealing in the early chapters people in general sympathise

with and admire the rebel. Milton forces us to question why we admire martial

prowess and pride in literary characters.

Ultimately he attempts to show that the Christian virtues of obedience, humility, and

forbearance are more important than all other virtues.

Satans Power

Is illusory

His power to act derives only from God, and his struggle against God has already been

lost (He is unable to or will not see this.)

Satan seems heroic as he struggles to make a Heaven of Hell

God grants Satan and the other devils the power to act for God's purposes, not

theirs

So stretched out huge in length the Archfiend lay

Chained on the burning lake, nor ever thence
Had risn or heaved his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
Evil to others, and enraged might see
How all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On man by him seduced, but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured
(209-220)

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven (263)

Believed he was just as powerful as God

Jealous of the Son

But his doom

Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
 Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay,
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.
(53-58)

Yet not for those, / Nor what the potent Victor in his rage / Can else inflict, do I

repent, or change, (94-96)

To do aught good never will be our task, / But ever to do ill our sole delight, / As

being the contrary to his high will / Whom we resist. If then his providence /Out of our

evil seek to bring forth good, / Our labour must be to pervert that end, /And out of

good still to find means of evil; (159-165)

The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of

Heaven. (254-255)

Hell

Fiery liquid lake

Fiery solid ground

Gemstones and minerals found there

Geographic features: a plain and hill

Hell has potential for beauty?

Hell has more than one essence in Book 1.

Pandemonium

the capital of Hell all demons

unintentional humour: a sense of civic pride seems to overcome the devils

with improvements Hell may be nice enough that others may want to relocate (LOL!!

they have lost Heaven but they will try to make the best of what they have been

dealt)