Paradise Lost

Question 1

What can Milton be defined as?

Answer 1

an infamous regicide

Question 2

What is significant about the publication date (1667) of Paradise Lost?

Answer 2

carefully orchestrated- would not have been possible 6 months earlier or later(Fire of London, Dutch burned English ships on the Medway, plague, fall of Clarendon (Lord Chancellor to King Charles)… many publications responded by urging spiritual renewal on a nation that seemed to be experiencing divine displeasure)

Question 3

when was the execution of Charles I?

Answer 3

1649

Question 4

what was the interregnum and when was it?

Answer 4

1649-1660

between the reigns of Charles I ending and Charles II becoming king

Question 5

When were the Divorce Tracts?

Answer 5

1643-1645

Question 6

What did the Divorce Tracts outline?

Answer 6

that woman was created for man (feminists critics would criticise Milton for this- particularly 21st century/modern day) (highlights Eve created for Adam and therefore not his equal???)
celebrated the sanctity of true marriage

Question 7

What was Areopagitica 1644?

Answer 7

This is where Milton argued that the responsibility of ones actions and beliefs lies with the individual- therefore suggesting that Eve/Adam are entirely responsible for their own actions, and contradicts/argues against the idea that Eve is manipulated by Snake
It is seen as a defence of free will and freedom of speech
It advocates a sense of belief by testing ones ideas which is what Paradise Lost invites readers to do
Eve’s question, “And what is Faith, Love, Vertue unassaid/ Alone, without exterior help sustained” utilitises doctrines of freedom expressed in Milton’s Aeropagitica.

Question 8

What is Milton’s view of predestination and free will?

Answer 8

Milton is a puritan- and so his beliefs are rooted in Calvinism. However, ironically Milton denies the existence of predestination and rather adopts an Arminian position- admitting the possible existence of free will
this is highlighted in book III, when Milton states God made man “just and right/ Sufficient to have stood though free to fall.”

Question 9

What is meant by an Arminian position?

Answer 9

not constrained by predestination
you can freely choose
ability to make own choices and decisions
this belief + Areopagitica 1644 = Eve/Adam are solely responsible and to blame?

Question 10

what did sun imagery reflect at this time and how does Milton reference it in Paradise Lost to symbolise the fall of Charles?

Answer 10

During the Restoration, the use of sun imagery to reflect and represent the absolute sovereignty of Charles II commonplace and recognised Royalist imagery. Consider “The sun was sunk”.

Question 11

Why is Paradise Lost considered an attempt to ‘re-educate the English?’

Answer 11

Margaret Kean
Milton believed that by accepting the Restoration the English people were ‘settling for the familiar’ and this was ‘a form of self-enslavement’ and they were rejecting their ‘god given right to freedom’

Question 12

what is important to remember regarding Eve’s vanity?

Answer 12

It was traditional to associate women with vanity – link to Eve falling in love with her own reflection.

Question 13

What does Anna Baldwin argue in regards to equality in Paradise Lost?

Answer 13

Argues that during Book IX Adam and Eve are equals so Adam cannot legitimately control Eve’s actions.

Question 14

what does Kean state?

Answer 14

“Milton uses the Edenic experience as a means of discussing human nature and free will.”

Question 15

what does C.S Lewis argue about Eve?

Answer 15

that by giving Adam the fruit Eve commits ‘murder’

Question 16

1712 response to Paradise Lost…

Answer 16

(1712) Addison, The Spectator essays – sets a framework for reading the epic as classical and stylistic rather than theological and political.

Question 17

what does Christopher Hill recognise?

Answer 17

observes how Milton compares the marriage contract to the political contract between king and people - a common C17th belief. Woman is subordinate and subject to man.

Question 18

what does Christopher Ricks argue in Milton’s grand style?

Answer 18

Milton’s “fluidity of syntax” is deliberately “suggestive.” Consciously designed to exploit ambiguity. as readers we are forced to question if the line between good and evil is really so finate due to sympathetic presentation of Satan and tyrannical presentation of god- reverses traditional feelings

Question 19

what does B.Rjan argue about Milton’s use of unorthodox syntaax?

Answer 19

that it has a ‘dramatic and poetic function’
From his slack hand the garland wreath’d for Eve / Down dropd, and all the faded roses shed:
Adam = paralysed measured by the manner in which it passes out into nature, withering the roses at the same time as it withers him. The position of “Speechless” at the start of the sentence and the way it is anchored by the verb “stood” charge the word with the surrounding sense of deadness.

Question 20

what does Northrop Frye argue about Adam? (1960s)

Answer 20

that he is not heroic for he abandoned his responsibilities (- Eve points out when blaming him for the fall “Hadst thou bin Firm and fixt in thy dissent, Neither had I transgress’d’)

Question 21

Tillyard opinion on the fall…

Answer 21

“Both are essentially fallen before the official temptation has begun.”
predestination? undermines Arminian position? Or feels this way because they ‘divide labours’ = inevitable doom??? EVEN before this- references book 5 and 8.
Eve falls when she dreams of eating from the tree in Book 5, and Adam in Book 8 when he tells Raphael how Eve’s beauty is apt to affect in his mind in a way that is dangerous to (…) Reason.

Question 22

Dennis Burden’s views of Satan…

Answer 22

Views Paradise Lost as a “satanic epic” and reveals Satan thinks he is a conventional epic hero

Question 23

what is Burden’s contextual link to Paradise Lost about Satan/God and Charles/Cromwell?

Answer 23

Aligns Satan with Oliver Cromwell and God with King Charles, comparable with the bible and that the King is in a direct descendant and chosen by God.

Question 24

What is Karen L Edwards view of Adam’s authority?

Answer 24

'’The debate about whether Eve should have stayed by his side in Book IX is of course a question about whether Adam’s authority is higher than Eve’s.”

Question 25

what does Diane K. McColley (feminist critic) feel about Eve?

Answer 25

Eve “takes her work seriously” –Eve’s Duty - The garden is an “organic community of interconnected lives to which their healthy minds delightedly respond.” - makes her appear all good

Question 26

What does Joan S Bennett argue about Eve?

Answer 26

“Eve’s failure comes in not reasoning long or hard enough.”- appeal to vanity.
Yet ironically, Eve is tempted more quick and easily in Genesis in the Bible…

Question 27

what does James G Turner argue about postlapsarian Adam and Eve?

Answer 27

“adopt a pose of voluntary epicurism and sensual ‘elegance’”
Essentially that “Adam’s gentleness has been changed not into roughness but into the genteel mannerisms of the Court Amorist.”
- context link to critique of Restoration court? Charles’ licentious ways…

Question 28

how can Edmund Burke’s theory link to Paradise Lost?

Answer 28

He identifies uncertainty, intensity and terror as central qualities in heightening the aesthetic experience to the level of sublimity.- links to Satanic descriptions
Lewalski also argues Milton uses different literary concepts for effect- ‘heroic mode’ for Satan and ‘tragic mode’ to evoke ‘pity and terror of human condition’ after the fall

Question 29

Godwin’s supporting view of Satan = protagonist, god = antagonist…

Answer 29

(Satan) “he saw no sufficient reason for that extreme inequality of rank and power which the creator assumed.”

Question 30

Wollstonecraft’s view of Milton’s view of women…

Answer 30

He seems to “advise (women) to render (themselves) gentle, domestic brutes.” (Eve gardening and sin being she left Adam?) and Divorce Tracts 1643-1645
women formed to ‘gratify the senses of man’- Adam reveals he appreciates Eve’s taste and always talks of her beauty…

Question 31

Gilbert and Gubar’s view of Eve…

Answer 31

‘satanically inspired Eve’

Question 32

what may Gilbert and Gubar align with in regards to Paradise Lost?

Answer 32

The Augustinian position- we are all born damned due to the fall, Eve is the sinful one

Question 33

what does cupiditas and caritas mean?

Answer 33

cupiditas = self- love (arguably Eve)
caritas = generous love (arguably Adam)

Question 34

what does Anne Baldwin state about Eve?

Answer 34

‘Eve’s passion and pride leads to her placing herself before Adam’ - cupiditas over curitas = fall

Question 35

what does Blake say about god?

Answer 35

‘god is the origin of evil’

Question 36

In what way does Baldwin support Adam? (criticises Eve anyway)…

Answer 36

states that ‘“We are forced to admire Adam for cleaving to his marriage vow.”

Question 37

C.S. Lewis on why Adam ate the fruit…

Answer 37

‘Adam fell by uxoriousness [excessive attachment to, or dependence on, a wife]’
undermines masculine responsibility as he did not assert his dominance and role over Eve therefore against Baldwin’s view of admiration of Adam