ENG LIT: Paradise Lost AO5

What does Mary Shelley say about Satan?

• He “perseveres” despite knowing his efforts to overcome God are futile

What was the general opinion held about Satan in the Romantic period?

• There was an increased focus on the “byronic hero” which allowed for praise towards characters that were inherently vain or selfish

• Led to William Blake’s comment that Milton was “of the Devil’s party”

• However this opinion was misinformed as it bastardises the religious context in which Milton wrote

What does T.S Eliot say about Adam and Eve?

• “They are not types but prototypes”

• Suggests they represent all of mankind, and so their selfishness and vanity is something we all have

What does Sandra Gilbert call Milton?

the “patriarch of patriarchs”

What does Carey write about Satan?

• His “fictional function is to make hostile moves”

• “Milton’s Satan is far superior to his God”

• Milton’s attempt to encapsulate evil in Satan fails

What did Percy Shelley write about Satan?

“nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan”

Who turns Milton’s epic into a production and what does it highlight?

• John Dryden 1671

• He was a royalist so presents Satan (who hates servitude) as similar to Oliver Cromwell

• He believed the fallen angel and not Adam was the hero

What does Blake argue about Milton?

• He was “of the Devil’s party”

• Milton (unintentionally) glamorises Satan’s character at the expense of God

What does T.S Eliot argue about Milton?

“Milton writes English like a dead language”

What is Empson’s argument for why Milton’s poem is so good?

“it makes God so bad”

What does Lieb argue about God?

The significance of God’s command not to eat the fruit lies in its ambiguity

What does Ross argue about God that is supported by his words in Book 3?

• “God sometimes acts as if he had mercy and sometimes acts if he had not”

• Supported by when God acknowledges that man will fall and he speaks in a cold and unfeeling tone

• However this is amended when the Son of Man volunteers to atone for man’s sin

What does Fish state about who the true hero of the poem is?

• “it is in fact the reader”

• Us seeing God as malevolent or Satan as attractive shows us we have fallen as the human race

• He argues the way we read the text is dependent on our experiences and beliefs so if we sympathise with Satan that is merely a reflection of ourselves

What does C.S Lewis argue about Satan?

• Milton evokes so much sympathy for him that we are drawn to him

• Could be part of the intention as it shows the seductive power of evil in the face of divine truth

Tillyard on Eve

“from first to last she takes the initiative”

What does Hill say on marriage and politics?

“Milton specifically compared the marriage contract to the political contract between king and people”

What does Adam Wittreich say about Adam?

“Adam is given exactly what he asks for, his equal”

What does Voltaire say about love?

Love is a virtue in Milton’s work

What does Chloe Blatt argue about Milton’s intentions?

He “seeks to redefine classical heroism on Christian terms”

What does Anna Beer argue about Eve?

“Milton demonstrates Eve’s quiet heroism”

What does Klimt argue about free will?

“the concept of free will is always at the forefront”