Paradise Lost Flashcards
Quote supporting God’s acceptance of Man’s free-will (1)
Eve: “But God left free the will, for what obeys/ Reason, is free, and Reason he made right”
How does Milton emphasise the importance of reason and argument in the opening? (1)
Repetition of “argument” in opening proclamation
How does Milton echo the Areopagatica? (1)
Eve: “How are we happy, still in fear of harm?”
–> Opposition of censorship/authority oppression
When and what was the Areopagatica? How does this link to Paradise Lost? (2+1)
1644
Written by John Milton opposing licensing and censorship; a philosophical justification for freedom of speech and expression
–> Similar to the way in which Milton expresses the need for freedom of Adam & Eve from authority
How does Eve use reason to convince Adam to give her freedom? (1)
Eve->Adam: “Nor much expect/ A foe so proud will first the weaker seek”
–> Also appealing to Adam’s masculinity and sense of superiority (Link to Celia->Volpone “any part that sounds yet man”)
How does Satan appeal to Eve’s physical senses (2)
S–>E: “Fairest colours mixed, ruddy and gold”
S–>E: “Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense”
How does Milton display dislike towards Eve’s breach of God’s trust? (1)
N: “Disloyal on the part of man, revolt/ And disobedience”
How does Milton link the breach of trust with God to the execution of Charles I? (2)
-Repetition of “fraud” - Has both political and legal connotations given the Grand Remonstrance & Trial of Charles I
N: “To sensual appetite, who from beneath/ usurping over sovereign reason”
When was the execution of Charles I? How would this link to Paradise Lost? (3)
- January 1649
- The rising against the King can be linked to A+E’s rising against God
- The execution of King Charles I was a highly contentious issue but Milton was a supporter of this: the execution was sometimes seen as a direct opposition to God- By displaying God as the architect of Man’s opposition to him and their fall (Calvinist theology), Milton simultaneously justified the fall of mankind and the regicide as part of God’s plans.
How does Milton display a growth in knowledge from eating the fruit? (1)
E: “What fear I then, rather what know to fear/ under this ignorance of good and evil, / of God and death, of law or penalty”
How does Milton display the idyllic setting of Eden? (2)
S: “Light above light, for thee above, as seems, / in thee concentrating all their precious beams”
- ->use of epanalepsis in “light above light” and the use of rhyming “seems” + “beams” adds to the tranquility of the setting
- -> Also used to display a benevolence to the character of Satan, who is able to recognise this beauty
N: “prime for sweetest scents and airs”
–> Sibilance for softness of setting
How does Milton foreshadow the fall? What impact does this have? (4)
Line 11: N: “brought into this World a World of Woe”
Opening: N: “The sun was sunk” (Pathetic Fallacy)
N: “Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked/ An eager appetite”
–>Motif of hunger and sensual desire
N: “[Satan] wished he might find/ Eve separate, he wished, but not with hope/ of what seldom chance”
–> Dramatic irony as he soon after finds her alone
–> The persistent use of foreshadowing implies the power of God and the fate involved in the action (“Justifying the ways of God to man”)
How does Milton display traditional gender stereotypes in Paradise Lost? (2)
N: “For nothing lovelier can be found/ In woman, than to study household good”
S discussing Adam: “Whose higher intellectual more I shun, / And strength, of courage”
How does Milton twist traditional gender stereotypes in Paradise Lost? (2)
N: “Domestic Adam in his care/ And matrimonial love”
E: “Keep the odds of knowledge in my power/ without copartner? So to add what wants/ in female sex […] and render me more equal”
–> Recognition of the inequality between male & female but equally plotting of woman to correct this inequality
Quotes on patriarchy and oppression of females? (2)
A->E: “Daughter of God and Man”
A->E: “The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, / Safest and seemliest by her husband stays” (Link to Celia obeying Corvino would lead to dishonour!)
N: “So spake the patriarch of mankind”
Quotations on hierarchy of God? (2)
S: “Of sacred influence: as God in Heaven/ Is centre”
S: “With Gods to sit highest, am now constrained/ Into a beast, and mixed with bestial slime”
–> Use of polyptoton in “beast” and “bestial” emphasises the inequality
How does Milton display the negativity of hierarchy? (1)
E: “For inferior who is free”
How does Milton display the benevolence of Satan? (3)
N: “Rose up a fountain by the Tree of Life”
–> The necessary role of evil and sin as a part of “life”
S: “O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred”
S: “In none of these/ find place or refuge; and the more I see pleasures about me, so much more I feel/ torment within me”
–> Able to appreciate the beauty of the world
–> Cuts an isolated and tragic figure (The tragic hero on the Promethean quest?)
How does Milton display the evil of Satan? (6)
N: “In mediated fraud and malice, bent/ on man’s destruction” (“Fraud” link to Volpone + Mosca)
S: “Nor hope to be myself less miserable/ By what I seek, but others to make such/ As I”
–> Satan’s overarching motives are that of evil and are pre-determined
S: “For only in destroying I find ease/ to my relentless thoughts”
N: “hot hell that always burns in him”
S: “To me, glory shall be sole”
–> Link to Ambitious desire of legacy hunters in Volpone
N: “Enemy of mankind”
How does Milton display the trickery of Satan? (5)
N: “mere serpent in appearance” (Link to Volpone Beast Fable)
N: “Satan involved in rising mist” + “like a black mist low creeping”
N: “His dark suggestions hide from sharpest light”
–> Contrast between traditional images of Good + Evil / God vs Satan
N: “Blazing with delusive light” (alluding to ignis fatuus/will o the wisp - natural illusion)
Acrostic from line 510-515 spelling “SATAN” emphasises how well disguised and hidden he was
How does Milton display the deceived Eve? (2)
N: “O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve”
-Anaphora exemplifies the level of her deception and haplessness
N: “such ambush hid among sweet flowers and shades”
How does Milton attempt to “justify the ways of God to man”? (2)
N: “Happier life, knowledge of good and evil; / of good, how just? Of evil, if what is evil/ be real, why not known, since easier shunned”
N: “enclosed knowledge of good and evil in this tree”
How does Milton display his role as narrator? (3)
Describes his writing as “sad task”
“Easy my unpremeditated verse: / since first this subject for heroic song”
–> “Heroic song” in that A+E’s actions were heroic and Paradise Lost as an Epic Poem!
–> Emphasis of his role as narrator implies a moral objectivity to his position (omnipresent as God) and his ability to dictate/fashion events mimics the role of God
How does Milton compare the Pre and Post Lapserian sex? (1+1)
Book IV Pre-Lapserian: “This sweet intercourse/ of looks and smiles”
Book IX Post-Lapserian: “let us play” (Link to Volpone’s sport)
“carnal desire inflaming” + “In lust they burn”
How does Milton display the change in Adam between Pre and Post Lapserianism? (1vs1 + 1vs1)
“Delight to reason joined” vs “Adam severe” + “strucken mute”
–> Reason vs insults and abuse/lack of reason
“Thus saying, from her husband’s hand her hand/ soft she withdrew” VS “Her hand he seized”
–> Kindness vs harshness (Directly paralleled through aspirate alliteration)
How does Milton display the change in Eve between Pre and Post Lapserianism? (2)
A->E: “Defaced, deflowered, and now death devote”
N: “despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss”
