Paradise Lost Critics

Question 1

‘Satan’s malcontent status seduces readers into sympathising, mirroring the danger of sin’

Answer 1

Fish

Question 2

‘Satan is a self-deceiving figure whose malcontented nature stems from pride and envy.’

Answer 2

C.S Lewis

Question 3

‘We bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity’

Answer 3

Milton in Areopagitica, 1644

Question 4

‘Monarchy unnacountable, is the worst sort of Tyranny.’

Answer 4

Milton in The Tenure of King’s and Magistrates, 1649

Question 5

‘The poem was written to justify the ways of God to man.’

Answer 5

Milton, 1667

Question 6

‘Satan is the hero because he defeats Adam.’

Answer 6

Dryden, 1697

Question 7

‘[Milton] disfigures the creation.’

Answer 7

Voltaire, 1795

Question 8

‘In all other poems, love is presented as a vice; in Milton only it is a virtue.’

Answer 8

Voltaire, 1759

Question 9

‘Contempt of females’ as ‘subordinate and inferior beings.’

Answer 9

Johnson, 1779

Question 10

‘Of the devil’s party without knowing it.’

Answer 10

Blake, 1790

Question 11

‘An omnipotent God warring with his creatures.’

Answer 11

Shelley in Frankenstein (the creature), 1818

Question 12

‘United by no link to any other being in existence.’

Answer 12

Shelley in Frankenstein (the creature), 1818

Question 13

‘When I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.’

Answer 13

Shelley in Frankenstein (the creature), 1818

Question 14

‘Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God.’

Answer 14

Percy Shelley, 1821

Question 15

‘Through giving Adam the fruit Eve commits “murder”’

Answer 15

C. S. Lewis, 1942

Question 16

‘Adam fell by uxoriousness.’ (excessive attachment to wife)

Answer 16

C. S. Lewis, 1942

Question 17

‘Adam’s sin was less ignoble than Eve’s.’ (not honourable)

Answer 17

C. S. Lewis, 1942