Paradise Lost Flashcards
Poet Dryden
‘one of the greatest most noble , and most sublime poems, which either this Age or Nation has produced. Dryden reproduced Milton’s epic into a five act dramatic operatic version called The state of Innocence and the Fall of Man
Blake
‘He was of the Devils party without knowing it’
Public reading of PL
At first was slow- not suprising considering the political climate and the fact that it was written by an infamous regicide
- The Edenic myth of PL stimulated 18th century poets and captured the Romantic literary tradition in other ways
Monarchial rule
Milton was dissolusioned by the return to monarchial rule- Restoration of England 1600 can be seen in the biblical narrative as a critique of those who failed to learn from the past, whether in matters of personal guilt or national political choices as in England there was a loss of political and religious liberty which can reflect Milton’s republican attitudes
Johnson 1779
Concluded that the epic cannot engage our human sympathies because it deals with experiences so far beyond our understanding.
Christopher Ricks
Milton takes us back to a time where there were no infected words because there was no infected actions
William Empson
Eve as a victim rather than an active agent of rebellion
Painting- Titian, The Fall of Man
Serpent depicted as a women- seductive nature of temptation
Social Context
- Miton was an advocate for divorce - put out pamphlets to express ideas
-He argued that marriage should be based on intellectual and emotional compatability despite living in a deeply religious and patriarchal society where women were expected to be obedient to their husbands
Historical Context
-Written in the aftermath of the English Civil War- a period of political and religious upheaval in England
-The Puritan movement which Milton suported- challenged monarchy and traditional religious structures- advocating for a more direvt relationshio with God
-Restoration of the monarchy
Political Context
- A strong advocate for individual liberties
-Opposed absolute monarchy, believeing in the right to challenge unjust rulers- echoed in PL through Satans rebellion against God
-The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce 1643- argued that marriage should be dissolvable if love and companionship were absent
Authorial intent
Inclination towards ambition and rebellion- embodied in Satans defiance and humanitys obedience- provokes thought about autonomy through distinct angles and motivation
- Expressed idea that Adam and Eve’s fall was fortunate, it gives individual humans the oppurtunity to redeem themselves by true repentance and faith
QUOTES
- Greedily she engorged without restraint. And knew not eating death
- Still threatening to devour me opens wide- SATAN
- Queen of this universe, do not believe- SATAN
- She gave me of the tree, and I did eat- ADAM
- Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat’
- Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed’- EVE
- ## Thy seed shall bruise the serpents head- protoevangelium- the first promise of a Saviour
QUOTES
-Despoiled of innocence, of faith of bliss
He made us and delight to reason joined’
-Our reason is our law
The fraudulent temptation thus began
-To whom the virgin majesty of ever rebuked
-Defaced, Deflowered and now to death devote
-Revenge- at first though sweet, bitter ere long back on itself recoils
-nothing lovelier can be found in woman, than to study household good, and good works in her husband to promote- ADAM
‘the wife , where danger and dishonour lurks, safest and seemliest by her husband stays- ADAM
