epic

Question 1

what is the effect of Mitlon’s evocation of the muse?

Answer 1

• emphasises the distance between himself and the story

- humbling, milton suggets that he needs help to write ‘things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme’

Question 2

what is significant about the muse that he invokes?

Answer 2

Mitlon invokes a christian muse as opposed to a pagan one (typically of classical epic)
this is an attempt to bridge the gap between form and content

Question 3

what is a teleological argument?

Answer 3

a narrative with a clear start, middle and end. It maintains a logical structure throughout

Question 4

contextual factor relating to the muse

Answer 4

• with the rise of Protestantism there was a shift in attitude to church services. There was a bigger emphasis on interpreting the word of god, rather than reciting the exact word

Question 5

why is satan complicated in terms of the epic?

Answer 5

-book 1 focuses on his downfall.
-in epics, the poet often focalises on the hero in book 1.
-this would either mean that he is the hero (v problematic for the christian narrative)
or that he distrupts the teleogical narrative (problematic for form)

Question 6

what does the dichtomoy between satan and god’s rhetoric emphasise?

Answer 6

the conflict between the teleological narrative

Question 7

evidence of Milton’s neurotic style?

Answer 7

-his attempts to distinguish between active belief and passive faith

Question 8

how does milton disrupt the teleological narrative?

Answer 8

• charismatic satan
• adds complication, e.g. wants to justify the ways of god to man, NOT just describe the fall
• Milton fillin gijn the gaps in genesis, e.g. why adam and eve do some kind of labour

Question 9

1) Mack on fiction

2) how this can be applied to milton

Answer 9

‘the artist… who having been given the power to see the truth can convey it only through poetry- what we commonly call fiction and dismiss.’
2) highly stylistic punning, emohaisses the artistry of milton’s work. This porvides him with the freedom to attack. question the christian narrative

Question 10

Chaos: where does it come from, why is it significant/ problematic?

Answer 10

• his frequent allusions to chaos as explored in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura
• both poets suggests that the earth is surrounded with chaos (which gives us free will)
• this is problematic in Christianity as in genesis it says that earth was created with chaos, and that it was all used up in creation.
• de rerum natura was banned due to its aethist undertones

Question 11

what does satan do to language

Answer 11

satan distorts language, breaks its linearity hence dismantling our belief in it.

• this could be the microcosm of what he does with god, he dismantles the belief system.
• this is in some was relfected in his choice of form. In light of Jakobsons metonymic and metaphoric poles, wherby it is suggetsed that poetry is the most abstract form which distorts language the most