Week 4 - Paradise Lost
Milton’s Satan
defender of Republicanism, however disillusioned as to how everything has turned out
opponents and allies praise Paradise Lost, it can be interpreted in many ways
Even those that disagreed with certain aspects recognised it as a work of art
Civil war - war of ideas and questions about where does power lie and who has the right to govern
obedience, disobedience; order, rebellion
Milton wrote about justified disobedience in relation to republicanism, but his dreams, hopes and ambitions for the new society of the Commonwealth had been disappointed as the Republic is crumbling and the monarchy has been restored.
Politics and/or religion
A poem of republican defiance?
most powerful speeches in the poems are Satan’s, admitting defeat but willing to retry; he has lost the battle, but he will win the war; he will use fraud and guile, not physical force
Poem of painful defeat?
experience of painful defeat, consequences of disobedience; story of a failed rebellion
In praise of God’s excellence
Milton leaving politics, retreating into religion as politics proves too difficult
romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued that the poem was evidence that Milton turned to spiritual matters as politics defeated him
Does Milton borrow the biblical narrative as an extended metaphor for his own true concerns, political matters
are the theological questions that it raise about man’s relationship to God more central
Themes of obedience and rebellion, freewill and destiny, perfection of God, human weakness and potential
Satan
Milton’s depiction of Satan is complicated and troubled, moments of human reflection: regret mixed with spite, triumphant public speeches balanced by private moments of doubt and despair.
This characterisation
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and Gods, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet, and of the Devil’s Party without knowing it. - William Blake
Blake saw Milton as an unrepentant radical, trying to blend together his libertarian views with his theology
He argued that Satan was far more fascinating and exciting and his sins are better written than the stilted language used to describe God
Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in Paradise Lost … Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture is to one who in the cold security of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his enemy… Milton has so far violated the popular creed… as to have alleged no superiority of moral virtue to his God over his Devil. - P.B Shelley
the romantics emphasise the idea of Satan as a torment and Satan as a tormented soul, a tragic hero, his tragic flaw is his pride, which means that he cannot bow to God, compelled to disobey.
Satan’s famous opening - Book I (254-263)
The mind is its own place and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I still be the same?…
Here at least we shall be free…
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven!
This moment, presumably of peak despair, these are glowing words of defiance
Intelligence, iron will/resolve of Satan
Book IV (73-82)
Me miserable! Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell';
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
O then at last relent: is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon
left?
None left but by submission;
Satan falls into many bouts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy and despair
Doubts what he has done and resolved to do
Carries hell within himself, he can never escape
the comfort he has tried to give his followers is false - they’ve reached their lowest point, however, a lower deep is always possible
tragic, flawed hero - in order to receive the reconciliation that he desires, he would have to submit, and his pride prevents him from doing that
the futility of Satan’s rebellion, that is already doomed to failure against God’s omnipotence, makes his perseverance all the more admirable - reflects well on Satan’s rebellious soul, similar to how the romantic poets like to see themselves
“The reason why the poem is so good, is that it makes God so bad.” - William Empson, Milton’s God (1961)
Milton and the Fall
first Satan’s fall from heaven
then Adam and Eve’s fall from Eden
Idea of freedom
Milton was the major intellectual spokesperson for a revolution which was fought largely in the name of liberty
Fall of Satan
Satan admits that it’s his own pride and ambition that drove him to rebel against God. His pride (sin) prevents him from seeking reconciliation with God. He would have to submit to God.
Satan’s heroic speech (lines 254-63)
Denounces God as a tyrant, unjustly putting himself above the angels.
God is more powerful than the angels, but not superior morally or intellectually.
Fall of man
In the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton states “No man who knows what can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself and were by privilege above all the creatures born to command and not to obey, but Satan’s fall as precipitated by desire to command and not to obey.”
Satan’s fall is precipitated by desire to command and not to obey.
Man’s fall is also caused by Adam and Eve refusing to obey God’s command, and it leads to misery and exile
Inequality between Adam and Eve, God is only present within Adam and Eve mistakenly eats the fruit.
Eve’s hair described as golden tresses, which tumbled down to her waist in wanton ringlets, and as the vine curls her tendrils, which movement implies subjection. This movement is reflected in the subtle movements of Satan, as he tries his chances with her rather than Adam.
Milton’s attitude towards women seems benign, one of the first references to Paradise Lost comes from Lady Chuffy who says that Milton shows us that women can be as excellent a creature as man.
Virginia Woolf finds in Milton the Masculinist tradition.
Free will - in Book IV, Satan hatches his plan to use the Tree of Knowledge to encourage disobedience.
Affinity between Satan and Eve, a curiosity between them.
The Fall tests free will, liberty and knowledge as its possible to choose the right path thereafter and be saved.
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