Critics on Ambiguity

Question 1

Context - Satan ambiguous because…

Answer 1

…representation of Cromwell. Milton was against the monarchy and some suggest Satan’s usurping of God is similar to Cromwell’s usurp of Charles 1

Question 2

“Woman was created for man” - who, when, what does it link to?

Answer 2

Milton’s ‘The Divorce Tracts’, 1643-5; Eve’s independence brings about the fall of man

Question 3

During the Restoration, the sun was a symbol of…

Answer 3

…Charles 2 and the monarchy. ‘The Sun is sunk’ implies God - Charles - is no longer there

Question 4

“an attempt to re-educate the English”

Answer 4

Margaret Kean, Paradise Lost A Sourcebook (2005)

Question 5

“an epic of defeat”

Answer 5

Margaret Kean, Paradise Lost A Sourcebook (2005)

Question 6

Satan is “an embodiment of … epic ambition”

Answer 6

Margaret Kean, Paradise Lost A Sourcebook (2005)

Question 7

Who argues that during Book IX Adam and Eve are equals so Adam cannot legitimately control Eve’s actions?

Answer 7

Anna Baldwin, Paradise Lost Book IX (2008)

Question 8

Who declared that Milton’s “fluidity of syntax” is deliberately “suggestive”?

Answer 8

Christopher Ricks, Milton’s Grand Style (1963)

Question 9

Who sees PL as a “satanic epic”?

Answer 9

Dennis Burden, The Logical Epic (1967)