Deceit in all its subtle shades Flashcards
Argument one - part one
Satan as the hero
1) Burden “Satanic epic”
2) Milton lived shortly after the Renaissance when the classical myths of antiquity have been revived
3) Early in the poem Satan was endowed with certain attributes which are worthy of epic heroes, and which make him a sympathetic, almost tragic character.
4) “Better to rule in Hell then serve in Heaven” mirrors ideas of democracy and casts God as a tyrannical figure.
5) Shelly “Satan is morally superior to God”
Argument one - part two
Satan as the hero
1) Satan’s deceit is hidden within the glorious diabolical metaphors associated with his character
2) “The serpent the subtlest beast”
Sibilance – underlying vehement tone
Hyperbole “subtlest” – wicked intent
3) Speaks to Eve with Machiavellian eloquence with exordiums “empress of this fair world”
4) Psychologically displaces Eve above Adam
-Control/ grotesque manipulation
Ironic: As calls God the “Great threatener” and yet this is what Satan himself becomes
Argument two: part one
Eve’s disobedience - was Eve in the right?
1) C.S Lewis Eve fell through pride -
2) It is Eve, who encountered Satan on her rebellious search for independence and uses reason to convince Adam who is unknown to her true intentions
3) “Firm faith and love”
Fricative alliterative is peaceful/ soothing foreshadows descent as mirrors the soothing sibilance associated with Satan “sun was sunk” – doomed to fall?
4) Women below men on GchainofB and should have known her place as social inferior – incapable of proper reason
Argument two: part two
Eve’s disobedience - was Eve in the right?
1) Eve wants to be autonomous – curiously reminiscent of when she turned away after being created as Adam’s “second self”
2) “Graceful innocence” / Adam “guards her”
Infantile like a child – not free – was Eve right to be deceitful????
3) Eve’s language mirrors the Doctrines of Freedom in Milton’s Aeropagitica and arguments of reason do make sense if pre-lapsarian
4) “How are we happy in fear of harm” – how can we be in bliss if constantly afraid?
Argument three: part one
Satan’s great temptation speech
1) Empson PL is a “malicious joke”
2) Satan’s great temptation speech is like an operatic aria in praise of a certain “goodly tree” that he does not name. Could Eve be blamed for being ignorant to his Machiavellian eloquence when he should not be able to “reason” with “tongue of brute”
3) Innocent “goodly” – seemingly good but Satan not describing the tree with the superlative suggests maligned intentions
4) “reason” arguably what Eve is trying to strive for in her separateness to Adam and why she constantly uses it
5) Despite being lower on the GchainofBeing
Argument three: part two
Satan’s great temptation speech
1) Eve is aware of Satan’s intentions
2) Gilbert Eve has an inner morass of rot and evil
Although the fruit brings death “How dies the serpent?”
-Rhetoric – aware that Serpent is not completely honest
3) Resentful “For us alone was death invented? Or to us denied?”
-Rhetoric questioning God
-Pre-fallen ?
-Was eve ever oblivious to Satan’s intentions
4) Were women created evil? Flaw of the creator?
Other questions:
Satan exploits flaws in human nature
The presence of authority stretches beyond the confines of Eden
