PL CONTEXT

Question 1

Milton and Charles I

Answer 1

Milton’ personal life - proponent of individual freedom and overthrow of monarchies, actively defended regicide of Charles I
- irony of PL - poem defended system of hierarchy and order whilst Milton advocated for destruction of monarchy
(C.S.Lewis provides an explanation why)

Question 2

Milton’ sexism in PL

Answer 2

Adam is closer to God; compares eve unfavourably with all masculine angels; eve made from a ‘rib crooked by nature’

Question 3

Milton’s radicalism portrayed in PL

Answer 3

Milton’s own radicalism reflected in Eve’s hint of rebellion

Question 4

Book 8 - Raphael

Answer 4

Eve absents herself when Raphael speaks with Adam

- superiority of male intellect

Question 5

Milton’s sexism in personal life

Answer 5

• prioritised education of nephews over own daughters

- made daughters read aloud in 7 languages they did not know - “one tongue was enough for a woman”

Question 6

perception of Paradise in 17th century

Answer 6

desire to represent a relatively unfallen paradise in art and literature

• ‘creatives’ opposed to this romantic glorification of Original Sin
• 1638 Rembrandt created “the Fall of man” piece = Eve standing under dragon-like Satan + Adam attempting to remove apple from her mouth
• Adam = moral superiority

Question 7

Ovid influence

Answer 7

Ovid like Milton, links scenes of destruction and creation invariably and intimately - as Adam and Eve fall and Paradise transcends into chaos, Satan’s dominions ‘Sin and ‘Death’ traverse through Art, also transforming it.

Question 8

Milton’s blindness

Answer 8

1652 became blind
only months later, plagued with tragedy of death of wife
- blindness and devastation compelled Milton to use words more intensely = impressionistic power

Question 9

satan as a courtly lover

Answer 9

“for the time remained stupidly good”

emphasises simplistic and hypnotic power of beauty