Paradise Lost - Context Flashcards
What are the key characteristics of the classical epic hero?
Favoured or hated by the gods Physically attractive Wealth Male Rhetorical skills Noble birth Battle skills Kleos
What is the difference between the Christian and Classical hero?
Christian hero
- morally good character
- does morally good deeds
- humble and retiring about their morally good deeds - often done in disguise
Classical hero
- great
- does great deeds that ordinary people cant not - doesn’t have to be good or bad
- not humble - concerned about their own kleos (reputation)
Who is Achilles?
From the epic: the lliad by Homer
- hero of the Trojan war
- one of the greatest of the Greek warriors
- son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia
Who is Odysseus?
- A character that possesses all the hallmarks or Homeric leader
- Considered an epic hero because of his role of King of Ithaca
Who is Aeneas?
- Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and Aphrodite, goddess of love
- selfless, generous and merciful to his people
deeply in love with Dido but leaves her to carry out his duties
What is ‘The fall in Genesis’?
- the fall of mankind
- eve eating the apples from the tree of knowledge
What is some differences in the story of ‘the fall’ in different religions?
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all believe in the story of the fall
- In Christianity, all man lost their innocence and those related to Adam were born with sin and would never make it into Heaven
- Islam sees the fall as jus a historic event and did not change human nature - Adam is the one to eat the apple
- In Judaism, Adam and Eve had the free will to rebel against God’s first commandment. eating the apple was disobedience but not sin and that people do not inherit ‘original sin’
What were the two prominent views concerning the fall in 17th century England?
William Ames (1623) portrays a more pessimistic view of the fall suggesting that the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden has irrevocably ruined mankind’s ability to communicate with one another
Francis Bacon (1605) paints a more positive view of the fall concluding that it only impinged on mankind’s ability to make moral judgements and does not have an effect on the natural world
How can it be said that Milton portrays Satan?
- sympathetically
- William Blake described Milton as ‘of the devil’s party without knowing it’
- Percy Shelley describes Satan as ‘Milton’s Devil as a ,oral being is far superior to his God’
How is Eve presented in Paradise Lost?
- Vain, vulnerable and evidently intellectually inferior to Adam
- ‘Mother of Mankind’
- Sandra M Gilbert argues that Milton puts Eve on par with Satan in her refusal to accept hierarchy
- The reader is prepared early on to imagine Eve as a potential problem
- Eve’s sin can be said to be like Satan’s a rebellion against secondaries
How did Milton die?
Died of a kidney failure in 1674
How many children and wives did Milton have?
Had 3 children - 3 daughters
Had 3 wives - first two died of childbirth
Married his 3rd wife - 24 year old Betty Minsull in 1663 - age gap of 31 years
How did Milton treat his children?
- very badly
- they were not well educated with Milton holding great misogynistic views
robbed his books to sell off for money - they were his scribes after he turned blind by 44
The restoration period?
Milton feared for his life with him being placed on a Commons Hit list - then a warrant was issued for his capture for him to then be arrested shortly after. He was miraculously saved however by his influential poet friends who secured his release
His early life and education?
Born in 1608 in Bread Street, London
- Son of composer John Milton, who was disowned by his father for being protestant
- Achieved an MA from Cambridge University but was alienated from his peers
