John Milton& Paradise Lost

♪ Historical Background

♪Introduction of John Milton

♪Paradise Lost

♪On his Blindness

•The war began on August 22,1642 and ended in 1651. Charles I was condemned to death. The English Civil War is also called the Puritan Revolution. It has been seen as a conflict between the parliament and the King, and a conflict between economic interests of the Crown and the economic interests of the urban middle classed coincided with their religious ( Puritan) ideology while the Crown’s traditional economic interests correspondingly allied with Anglican( 英国圣公会的 ) religious belief.

• The parliament vs. the king

• Economic interests of the Crown vs. economic interests of the urban middle class

• The English Civil War not only overthrew feudal system in England but also shook the foundation of the feudal rule in Europe. It is generally regarded as the beginning of modern world history.

英国内战不仅推翻了英国的封建制度，而且动摇了欧洲封建经济的基础。英国内战通常被看作是现代世界史的开端。

The First Civil WarSo, in 1641-46, Parliament allied with Scottish Presbyterians against Charles,

trying Charles for treason and taking him prisoner. This was the first of three civil wars, variously called the Wars Between Three Kingdoms, the Pu

ritan Revolution, the English Revolution, or the English Civil Wars.’

The Second Civil WarIn 1648, a different Socttish army, allied with Charles (who escaped in 1647) f

ought for Charles against a Parliament entitled the Rump Parliament (purged of members sympathetic to Charles). The Scottish army is defeated by general Oliver Cromwell. This is the second of the three civil wars. With Charles now in custody, this Parliament voted for Charles' execution. Charles was executed-- beheaded--in 1649. With Charles' execution, the Interr

egnum (period between kings) began.

The Third Civil WarIn 1649-51, the third of the civil wars took place when the same Scottish force

s as above waged war, along with Royalists in exile in Ireland, and Charles' son, Charles II. The Scottish forces were defeated.

In 1653, Cromwell dissolved the Parliament that carried out Charles' execution and established a new, essentially powerless Parliament, and declared

himself Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland. In 1658, Cromwell died as the Protectorate became weaker. In 1660, Charles I

I returned from exile to, with relatively little bloodshed, restore the monarchy.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688

• In 1685 Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother James II. James was brought up in exile （流放） in Europe, was a Catholic. He hoped to rule without giving up his personal religious views. But England was no more tolerant of a Catholic king in 1688 than 40 years ago. So the English politicians rejected James II, and appealed to a Protestant king, William of Orange, to invade and take the English throne. William landed in England in 1688. The takeover was relatively smooth, with no bloodshed, nor any execution of the king. This was known as the Glorious Revolution.

Introduction of John Milton (1608-1674)

Life Story

• John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost（《失乐园》） and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica （《论出版自由》） .

Life Story

• In 1608 ， John Milton was born in a prosperous and cultured middle class Puritan family.

• When about twelve years old ， young Milton was sent to a famous boys' school in london called st. Paul's.

In 1625 ， John Milton enrolled at Christ's College, Cambridge, to be educated for the ministry. While Milton was a hardworking student, he was also argumentative to the extent that only a year later, in 1626, he got suspended after a dispute with his tutor, William Chappell.

Life Story

Christ's College, Cambridge

• In 1632, Milton took his M.A. cum laude at Cambridge, after which he retired to the family homes in London and Horton, Buckinghamshire, for years of private study and literary composition. His poem, "On Shakespeare", was published in the same year in the Second Folio.

Life Story

on settled down in London, where he began schooling his two nephews, later also taking in children of the better families. The Civil War was brewing — King Charles I invaded Scotland in 1639, and the Long Parliament was convened in 1640. Milton began writing pamphlets on political and religious matters

Life Story

On January 30, 1649,milton was probably to witness the public execution of Charles I. In March, the Cromwellian government appointed Milton Secretary for Foreign Tongues and ordered him to write an answer to Charles I's purported Eikon Basilike In 1650, the Council of State ordered Milton to write a response to Salmasius' Defensio Regia — the Continental outcry against the English action

Life Story

The year 1652 was one of many personal losses for Milton. In February, Milton lost his sight. This prompted him to write the sonnet "When I Consider How My Light is Spent." In May, 1652, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Deborah, and died a few days later. In June, one year-old John died.

Life Story

• Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell died in October, 1658, and the days of the Commonwealth were coming to a close. In early 1659, Milton published“A Treatise of Civil Power and Ready and Easy Way To Establish a Free Commonwealth. ” For his propaganda writings, Milton had to go into hiding, for fear of retribution from the followers of King Charles II. In June, 1659, both Defensio pro populo Anglicano and Eikonoklastes were publicly burned. In early autumn, Milton was arrested and thrown in prison, to be released by order of Parliament before Christmas. King Charles II, son of the former king ， was restored to the throne on May 30, 1660.

• Milton died peacefully of gout in November, 1674, and was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate.

Life Story

Milton’s Personal Character:

• 1. Love beautiful things.

• 2. Be hard working.

• 3. Acquire a good knowledge of Latin.

• 4. Have proud and independent spirit.

• 5. Have revolutionary spirit.

• 6. Love freedom.

Life Story

execution( 死刑 )of Charles I

Latin secretary, correspondence( 信件；函件 )

pamphlets to support the government

hard-working, totally blind, beginning of 1652, 44 years old

restoration of the Stuarts

blindness, the persecution( 迫害 )died of gout( 关节痛 )

Milton’s marriage

1.Mary Powell, political view, leave, backDied from complications follo

wing children's birth

2. Catherine Wookcockdied in childbirth

3. Elizabeth Minshullsurvived him (remained alive after him)

Works of John Milton

Poetic and dramatic works• 1631: L'Allegro

• 1631: Il Penseroso • 1634: Comus (a masque) • 1638: Lycidas • 1645: Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and

Latin • 1655: On the Late Massacre in Piedmont • 1667: Paradise Lost • 1671: Paradise Regained • 1671: Samson Agonistes • 1673: Poems, &c, Upon Several Occasions

Political, philosophical and religious prose

• Of Reformation (1641) • Of Prelatical Episcopacy (1641) • Animadversions (1641) • The Reason of Church-Government

Urged against Prelaty (1642) • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642) • Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

(1643) • Judgement of Martin Bucer

Concerning Divorce (1644) • Of Education (1644) • Areopagitica (1644) • Tetrachordon (1645) • Colasterion (1645) • The Tenure of Kings and

Magistrates (1649) • Eikonoklastes (1649)

Defensio pro Populo Anglicano [First Defense] (1651) Defensio Secunda [Second Defense] (1654) A treatise of Civil Power (1659) The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church (1659) The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660) Brief Notes Upon a Late Sermon (1660) Accedence Commenced Grammar (1669) History of Britain (1670) Artis logicae plenior institutio [Art of Logic] (1672) Of True Religion (1673) Epistolae Familiaries (1674) Prolusiones (1674) A brief History of Moscovia, and other less known Countries lying Eastward of Russia as far as Cathay, gathered from the writings of several Eye-witnesses (1682)De Doctrina Christiana (1823)

• Outline• Introduction of characters• Feature• Symbols of Paradise Lost• Motifs of Paradise Lost• Themes of Paradise Lost• Analysis• Excerpt and Translation• Seven Sins and its connection to the work• Others associating with the work

这部叙事长诗共分 12 卷，一万余行，取材于《旧约 · 创世纪》。作品中描写天使撒旦率众反抗上帝，败后被打入地狱，变成魔王。听说上帝在创造新的世界伊甸园，里面居住新的种族“人类”。撒旦决心以引诱人类来完成复仇使命。他飞出地狱之门，来到伊甸园。先是偷听了亚当和夏娃的谈话，知道上帝禁止人吃智慧树的果实。他变形为蟾蜍，使夏娃做了一个想吃智慧果的梦，后又变形为蛇，引诱夏娃偷尝智慧果。亚当为了和夏娃共命运，也吃了禁果。上帝知道后，将他们逐出伊甸园。亚当和夏娃擦干懊悔的眼泪，携手踏上孤寂的路途。撒旦及众魔受到上帝的诅咒，蜕变为蛇，用腹行路，终生吃土。

Outline of Paradise Lost

• 第 1 部：全诗总纲，讲述了整个事件的起因和结果；• 第 2 部：撒旦与众叛逆天使讨论如何同上帝作战，夺取天堂；• 第 3 部：讲述上帝决定如何赐予人类恩惠；• 第 4 部：描述撒旦在天堂见到亚当夏娃，撒旦在夏娃的梦中施展引诱；• 第 5 部：天使警告亚当要当心恶魔的引诱；• 第 6 部：描绘天使与撒旦一伙的战斗；• 第 7 部：亚当向天使询问有关创世的许多问题，并一一得到回答；• 第 8 部：他接着又询问天体运行的问题，但对所得到的回答并不满意；• 第 9 部：撒旦化身为蛇，躺在伊甸园里，并指引亚当和夏娃摘食禁果；• 第 10部：上帝因此震怒，亚当也后悔不已；• 第 11部：圣子代表上帝宣布将亚当夏娃逐出天堂，并向他们指点未

来；• 第 12部：天使向他们叙述拯救之路，亚当夏娃终于离开天堂，失去

了乐园

• Paradise Lost is the great epic poem of the English language in blank verse, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle ranges across heaven, hell, and earth, as Satan and his band of rebel angels conspire against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, motivated by all too human temptations, but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.

P.S. Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.

Introduction of characters

• Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. He is introduced to Hell after a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God.

• A central character in the first half of the poem. A high ranking archangel in Heaven who became jealous of the Son of God and led multitudes of angels in a violent rebellion against the Almighty. Tossed into Hell, he makes it his kingdom, where he plans revenge against God by corrupting mankind.

Satan’s complex musings and self-examination sometimes resemble a hero’s stance against a tyrannical enemy, inducing more sympathy from the reader than Milton intended. In the latter part of the poem, Satan’s character degenerates into a more typical villain, as we sympathize more with the human couple.

• Lucifer • Satan's name before he fell. It means "brightest

star." In his original state, he was glorious to behold.

• 弥尔顿在思想上批判骄矜的撒旦，感情上却同情他所处的地位，因为撒旦受上帝惩罚，很像资产阶级受封建贵族的压迫一样。在描绘地狱一场时，弥尔顿虽然口口声声说撒旦骄傲、野心勃勃，但在对话里，在形象上，撒旦又完全是一个受迫害的革命者。这个形象十分雄伟，在凶险的地狱背景衬托下，他的战斗决心表现得更鲜明。撒旦说：“战场上虽然失利，怕什么 ? 这不可征服的意志、报复的决心、切齿的仇恨和一种永不屈膝、永不投降的意志———却都未丧失。”这是英国资产阶级革命的不可磨灭的记录，是卓越的艺术成就。而诗中的上帝却显得冷酷无情，缺乏生气。

• Adam: Adam is the first human in Eden created by God. He is more intelligent than Eve and is also stronger, not only physically but morally.

He is created perfect, but given free will, with which he can either maintain or lose his perfect state of happiness. God tests him by forbidding him to eat the fruit of one tree. Placing his love for Eve above his obedience to God proves his downfall. When Adam finds out that Eve has broken this commandment, rather than survive without her, he eats also, thereby losing Paradise and eternal happiness for himself and the world. After God passes sentence on him, laying on the cold ground, Adam delivers a long, emotional speech expressing self-recrimination, terror of death, and pity for the future of mankind, which concludes with a shocking verbal attack against.

She is subservient to Adam, but does not hesitate to argue with him. Satan targets her as the weaker sex （妇女，女性） , and tempts her to eat the forbidden fruit. She succumbs to his temptation, and decides to talk Adam into joining her in what at first seems like a good thing for both of them, but later brings terrible remorse （悔恨，自责） . Their mutual love, together with God's mercy, sustains them and provides a conclusion to the story which is not without hope. Eve's soliloquies before and after her sinful act are notable, as first she ruminates over Satan's persuasive argument, enhancing it with her own rationale, and afterwards considers not sharing the fruit with Adam, thereby raising herself to his level of wisdom by its imagined powers, or perhaps even, she thinks, a little higher.

• Eve: Eve is the second human created, taken from one of Adam's ribs and shaped into a female form of Adam.

• The Son of God: The Son of God in Paradise Lost is Jesus Christ, though he is never named explicitly, since he has not yet entered human form.

• God the Father: God the Father is the creator of Eden, Heaven, Hell, and of each of the main characters. He is an all-powerful and all-knowing being who cannot be overthrown by even the one-third of the angels Satan incites against him.

In the poems God is surrounded by his angels, who never think of expressing any opinion of their own. His long speeches are never pleasing. He is the representative of an absolute monarch. However, the all-knowing God is just in allowing Adam and Eve to be attempted and, of their free will, to choose sin and its inevitable punishment, thereby opening the way for that voluntary sacrifice of Christ. This shows that God is merciful in bring good out of evil.

 

Daughter of Satan. Half-woman, half-serpent, she sprung from Satan's head when he conceived the thought of rebelling against God. She is charged to hold the key to the gates of Hell. Together with her son, Death, she builds a highway from Hell to Earth.

Son of Sin, fathered by Satan. A faceless creature, his first act upon being born is to rape his mother. He confronts Satan at the gate of Hell, and the two are prevented from a deadly battle when Sin reveals that he is Satan's son/grandson by incestuous union with her.

• Raphael: Raphael is an angel who is sent by God to warn Adam about Satan's infiltration of Eden and to warn him that Satan is going to try to curse Adam and Eve.

He is the poem's narrator of the account of Satan's rebellion in Heaven and the creation of the world, as told to the human couple. He is "sociably mild" in contrast to the stern, military angels.

• Michael: After Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, God sends the angel Michael to visit Adam and Eve. His duty is to escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise.

Feature: Inheritance from traditional writings• 1)Influence from France and Italy;

• 2) The blank verse inherited from Shakespeare;

• 3) Influenced and inspired by Greek and Roman epics by Homer and Virgil;

• 4) The Bible as source material and the themes of tragedy and redemption in the Old Testament mini-epic

Grade of angles• 上位三阶： • Saraphines(Seraphim,Serafim) ：炽天使，六翼天使。• Lucifer ：路西法，原天使长，光辉的晨星，后堕落。• Cherubines(Cherubim) ：智天使，负责守伊甸园。 • Gabriel ：加百列，原七大天使之一，职务为警卫长，原为天使阶。 • Uriel ：乌里叶，原七大天使之一。 • Raffaele(Raphael) ：拉法叶（拉斐尔），原七大天使之一，原为能天

使阶。 • Ithuriel ：神的发现。 • Zephon ：神的探索。 • Abdiel ：神之仆。 • Zophiel ：神之斥候。• Thrones(Throni) ：座天使。

• 中位三阶：• Dominations(Dominion) ：主天使（神权）。

地上界的天使均归其管辖，执行神交付的任务。

• Virtues ：力天使（神德）。展现奇迹，耶稣升天时在他身边出现过。

• Podesta(Powers,Puissances) ：能天使（神力）。天使军团的主力攻击部队。

• 下位三级：• Principautes(Principalities,Princedoms) ：权天使（王子）。在天界看门的防御部队。

• Arcangel ：大天使。负责神与人之间的传达。

• Remiel ：七大天使之一，神之猛兽，后堕落。

• Ariel ：神之狮，后堕落。 • Arioc ：神之猛狮，后堕落。 • Sariel ：七大天使之一。 • Razuel ：七大天使之一。

• Satan ：撒旦，堕落之魔王。• Serpent: 圣经创世纪中出现的巨大蛇形恶魔

• 8大堕落天使 7大恶魔 9大天使Azazel阿撒兹勒 Lucifer           Michael(米迦勒 )Rahab拉哈伯 Abadon          Gabriel(加百列 )Samael萨麦尔 Samael          Raphael(拉斐尔 )Sariel沙利叶 Berial            Uriel(乌利尔 )Camael卡麦尔 Satanail         Metatron(梅塔特隆 )Samyasa桑杨沙 Beelzebul       Sariel(沙利叶 )Asbeel安士白 Mastema       Raguel(拉贵尔 )Ariel 亚列 Remiel(雷米尔 )                                                   Rasiel( 拉结尔 )

Symbols of Paradise lost• The Scales in the Sky• As Satan prepares to fight Gabriel when he is

discovered in Paradise, God causes the image of a pair of golden scales to appear in the sky. On one side of the scales, he puts the consequences of Satan’s running away, and on the other he puts the consequences of Satan’s staying and fighting with Gabriel. The side that shows him staying and fighting flies up, signifying its lightness and worthlessness. These scales symbolize the fact that God and Satan are not truly on opposite sides of a struggle—God is all-powerful, and Satan and Gabriel both derive all of their power from Him. God’s scales force Satan to realize the futility of taking arms against one of God’s angels again.

• Adam’s Wreath• The wreath that Adam makes as he and Eve work

separately in Book IX is symbolic in several ways. First, it represents his love for her and his attraction to her. But as he is about to give the wreath to her, his shock in noticing that she has eaten from the Tree of Knowledge makes him drop it to the ground. His dropping of the wreath symbolizes that his love and attraction to Eve is falling away. His image of her as a spiritual companion has been shattered completely, as he realizes her fallen state. The fallen wreath represents the loss of pure love.

Symbols of Paradise lost

Motifs of Paradise lost

• Light and Dark• Opposites abound in Paradise Lost, including Heaven

and Hell, God and Satan, and good and evil. Milton’s uses imagery of light and darkness to express all of these opposites. Angels are physically described in terms of light, whereas devils are generally described by their shadowy darkness. Milton also uses light to symbolize God and God’s grace. In his invocation in Book III, Milton asks that he be filled with this light so he can tell his divine story accurately and persuasively. While the absence of light in Hell and in Satan himself represents the absence of God and his grace.

• The Geography of the Universe• Milton divides the universe into four major regions: glorious

Heaven, dreadful Hell, confusing Chaos, and a young and vulnerable Earth in between. The opening scenes that take place in Hell give the reader immediate context as to Satan’s plot against God and humankind. The intermediate scenes in Heaven, in which God tells the angels of his plans, provide a philosophical and theological context for the story. Then, with these established settings of good and evil, light and dark, much of the action occurs in between on Earth. The powers of good and evil work against each other on this new battlefield of Earth. Satan fights God by tempting Adam and Eve, while God shows his love and mercy through the Son’s punishment of Adam and Eve.

• Milton believes that any other information concerning the geography of the universe is unimportant. Milton acknowledges both the possibility that the sun revolves around the Earth and that the Earth revolves around the sun, without coming down on one side or the other. Raphael asserts that it does not matter which revolves around which, demonstrating that Milton’s cosmology （宇宙论） is based on the religious message he wants to convey, rather than on the findings of contemporaneous （同时代的） science or astronomy （天文学） .

Conversation and Contemplation• One common objection raised by readers of Paradise Lost is

that the poem contains relatively little action. Milton sought to divert the reader’s attention from heroic battles and place it on the conversations and contemplations of his characters. Conversations comprise almost five complete books of Paradise Lost, close to half of the text. Milton’s narrative emphasis on conversation conveys the importance he attached to conversation and contemplation, two pursuits that he believed were of fundamental importance for a moral person. As with Adam and Raphael, and again with Adam and Michael, the sharing of ideas allows two people to share and spread God’s message. Likewise, pondering God and his grace allows a person to become closer to God and more obedient. Adam constantly contemplates God before the fall, whereas Satan contemplates only himself. After the fall, Adam and Eve must learn to maintain their conversation and contemplation if they hope to make their own happiness outside of Paradise.

Themes of Paradise lost

The Importance of Obedience to God

• The first words of Paradise Lost state that the poem’s main theme will be “Man’s first Disobedience.” Milton narrates the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, explains how and why it happens, and places the story within the larger context of Satan’s rebellion and Jesus’ resurrection. Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s disobedience in an effort to give him a firm grasp of the threat that Satan and humankind’s disobedience poses. In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin（罪恶） and degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.

The Hierarchical Nature of the Universe• Paradise Lost is about hierarchy as much as it is about

obedience. The layout of the universe—with Heaven above, Hell below, and Earth in the middle— presents the universe as a hierarchy(等级制度 ) based on proximity to God and his grace. This spatial hierarchy leads to a social hierarchy of angels, humans, animals, and devils: the Son is closest to God, with the archangels and cherubs behind him. Adam and Eve and Earth’s animals come next, with Satan and the other fallen angels following last. To obey God is to respect this hierarchy.

• Satan refuses to honor the Son as his superior, thereby questioning God’s hierarchy. As the angels in Satan’s camp rebel, they hope to beat God and thereby dissolve what they believe to be an unfair hierarchy in Heaven. When the Son and the good angels defeat the rebel angels, the rebels are punished by being banished far away from Heaven. At least, Satan argues later, they can make their own hierarchy in Hell, but they are nevertheless subject to God’s overall hierarchy, in which they are ranked the lowest. Satan continues to disobey God and his hierarchy as he seeks to corrupt mankind.

• Likewise, humankind’s disobedience is a corruption of God’s hierarchy. Before the fall, Adam and Eve treat the visiting angels with proper respect and acknowledgement of their closeness to God, and Eve embraces the subservient role allotted to her in her marriage. God and Raphael both instruct Adam that Eve is slightly farther removed from God’s grace than Adam because she was created to serve both God and him. When Eve persuades Adam to let her work alone, she challenges him, her superior, and he yields to her, his inferior. Again, as Adam eats from the fruit, he knowingly defies God by obeying Eve and his inner instinct instead of God and his reason. Adam’s visions in Books XI and XII show more examples of this disobedience to God and the universe’s hierarchy, but also demonstrate that with the Son’s sacrifice, this hierarchy will be restored once again.

The Fall as Partly Fortunate• After he sees the vision of Christ’s redemption of humankind in

Book XII, Adam refers to his own sin as a felix culpa or “happy fault,” suggesting that the fall of humankind, while originally seeming an unmitigated catastrophe, does in fact bring good with it. Adam and Eve’s disobedience allows God to show his mercy and temperance in their punishments and his eternal providence toward humankind. This display of love and compassion, given through the Son, is a gift to humankind. Humankind must now experience pain and death, but humans can also experience mercy, salvation, and grace in ways they would not have been able to had they not disobeyed. While humankind has fallen from grace, individuals can redeem and save themselves through continued devotion and obedience to God. The salvation of humankind, in the form of The Son’s sacrifice and resurrection, can begin to restore humankind to its former state. In other words, good will come of sin and death, and humankind will eventually be rewarded. This fortunate result justifies God’s reasoning and explains his ultimate plan for humankind.

Analysis of Paradise Lost

•Book I

•Book II

•Book III

Analysis of Book I Milton tells us that he is tackling the story told in Genesis of the F

all of Adam and the loss of the Garden of Eden. With it, Milton will also be exploring a cosmic battle in heaven between good and evil. Supernatural creatures, including Satan and the Judeo Christian God himself, will be mixing with humans and acting and reacting with humanlike feelings and emotions. As in other poetic epics

such as Homer's Iliad and Ulysses, the Popul Vuh, and Gilgamesh, Milton is actually attempting to describe the nature of man by reflecting on who his gods are and what his origins are. By demonstrating the nature of the beings who created mankind, Milton is presenting his, or his culture's , views on what good and evil mean,

what mankind's relationship is with the Absolute, what man's destiny is as an individual and as a species. The story, therefore, can be read as a simple narrative, with characters interacting with each other along a plot and various subplots. It can also, however, be extrapolated out to hold theological and religious messages, as

well as political and social themes.

Analysis of Book IIWith each of the demon's proposals to fight heaven, we

see a reflection a number of different worldly concepts of good and evil, heaven and hell. Milton,

with the devils, has his own idea of how good and evil is balanced and, with the devils, refute the others as

impossible. These constructs include: an eternal war between good

and evil (seen in folk religions where evil spirits must be warded off by good spirits), evil's submission to

good and hope of redemption (seen in new age concepts that all things are, in their essence, good),

and the opposite yet equal kingdoms of good and evil (seen in Eastern religions with the Yin/Yang

concepts). All these suggestions do not work for the devils, and, Milton is suggesting, they do not work

theologically either.

Analysis of Book III

Milton introduces the character of God and Son with preparatory phrases of praise, almost a hymn, describing the

nature of God and heaven. From stanzas 1-55, Milton uses the idea of light to represent this nature. Alternately, light is

used to describe God himself, the first born Son, the immortality of God, the glory of God, grace, truth, wisdom, and physical light. Heaven is a place, then, full of light but much of it is an invisible light, i.e. the light of wisdom, that man cannot perceive in the same manner as physical light

but which works in the same way. Book III introduces the other settings of the epic as well, including heaven and earth, tied to each other with a golden chain and a passageway for angels to go down to earth and

help with creation. Milton's universe is structured fairly simply: earth is in the middle, tied to heaven above it and a

soon-to-be constructed bridge to hell leading below it. Between the earth and hell is Chaos. In concentric circles, or invisible globes surrounding earth, are the various orbits of the sun and moon, stars and planets around the earth (the

earth is still in the middle).

• Though chang'd in outward lustre; that fixt mind• And high disdain, from sence of injur'd merit,• That with the mightiest rais'd me to contend,• And to the fierce contention brought along • 虽然外表的光环消失了，• 但不移的信念和岸然的骄矜决不转变；• 武力的受损，激动了我，• 决心率领无数天军投入剧烈的战斗，和强权一决高低，

Excerpt and its Translation

• Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce• To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:• Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.• 地狱，决不会把我从这里赶走。我们在这里可以稳坐江山，

• 我倒要在地狱里称王，大展宏图，• 与其在天堂里做奴隶，倒不如在地狱里称王。

• Seven Sins

• Pride-Lucifer

• Greed-Mammon

• Gluttony-Beelzebub

• Lust-Asmodeus

• Envy-Leviathan

• Sloth-Berial

• Wrath-Satan

Milton's secondary purpose seems to be to depict Milton's secondary purpose seems to be to depict woman's disobedience and to justify the ways of God woman's disobedience and to justify the ways of God to woman. Do you agree or disagree with the critic? to woman. Do you agree or disagree with the critic?

Milton? Milton?

• 1674 "woman" was obviously not the same thing as 2008 "woman" (not to mention Scriptural "woman"). You're probably too young to remember, but there was a time when the terms "man," or "he" in hypothesis, by definition included men and women. (So far, we have not been reprimanded for respecting that tradition here, or for always saying "Adam and Eve," never "Eve and Adam.") I don't see a separation in Milton's intent. He was speaking to both, and accusing both of the sin of disobedience.

• Eve's pulling away from Adam in IX may have led to her downfall, but by today's standard it's one of her more normal moments. Milton's dialogue argues both male and female sides so well in this scene it's hard to tell whether he is accusatory or in sympathy with her.

"Paradise Lost:" A Revival of the "Paradise Lost:" A Revival of the SpiritSpirit

•An instance in which Milton's views on the sovereignty of the Spirit appear in some of the conversations of the Arch Fiend himself with his fellows—which is quite ironic, considering that the story is an extrapolation upon Christian Scripture. One of Satan's "compeers" says, during a discussion after their exile from Heaven:

• Too well I see and rue the dire eventThat, with sad overthrow and foul defeat,Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty hostIn horrible destruction laid thus low,As far as Gods and heavenly EssencesCan perish: for the mind and spirit remainsInvincible, and vigour soon returns,Though all our glory extinct, and happy stateHere swallowed up in endless misery (I:135-140).

• The invincibility of "the mind and spirit" is something which even the foes of God understand. Though the fallen angels corrupt their "heavenly Essences" with disobedience and revolt, they still have a keen understanding of the powers of perception, of personal reaction to one's environment—"for neither do the Spirits damned/ Lose all their virtue" (2:482-483). Satan boldly speaks to his fellows, asking

• What though the field be lost?All is not lost—the unconquerable will . . .And courage never to submit or yield (I:105-108).

• Like a true hero, Satan refers to conquest and courage, a response to the tyranny he and his cohorts have received from the hand of God. It is this attitude—of adventurous righteousness—which many cite as sufficient to show the fallen Archangel to be the hero of the work. However, working within the confines of the Biblical account, Milton could not reasonably—even if he wished—display Satan as the outright protagonist and epic hero. Therefore, it can only be his qualities of trust in the Spirit, in his own Consciousness as a fortress against the harms surrounding him, that can represent the truly heroic aspect Satan is a deeply solipsistic character, well aware of the world and his situation in it. Though he becomes quite fatalistic at times and denies possibilities of recovery from his downfall, essentially, he knows that the loss of Heaven as a place is always permanent:Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,Receive thy new possessor—one who bringsA mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.What matter where, if I be still the same. . . Here at least/ We shall be free . . .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.

Similarities and differences between Milton's Similarities and differences between Milton's

creation story and that of the Biblecreation story and that of the Bible • Milton follows the Bible's physical account of the days of

creation closely, quoting nearly verbatim at points. He expands upon it and details it using his imagination. There is technically no inconsistency between Milton and Genesis 创始 . Milton has the work of creation delegated to the Son. Most people assume it was the Father who did the creating, though it is not so stated in Genesis. Milton may have lessened the impact, though, having God send forth the Son in his chariot "on the wings of Cherubim uplifted" where "all his train followed in bright procession to behold Creation." The Bible's imagery of the solitary Creator moving through the dark, empty abyss is more powerful in its simplicity.

What Effect did Paradise What Effect did Paradise Lost Have on Society?Lost Have on Society?

• God, Satan, the Beginning, and the surrounding events and consequences had never before been so uncompromisingly exposed. The poem brought to light some difficult moral conflicts and paradoxes, with images that carried a heavy emotional burden. Make of it what you will, but it has been noted by theologians that the doctrines of the Fall, and of hell, have experienced a gradual decline in importance as essential basis to the Christian faith, continuing to the present time, and beginning at about the time of the poem's publication.

The Tyranny of Heav'n: Milton, Magistrates, The Tyranny of Heav'n: Milton, Magistrates, and the Rhetoric of Satan's Protestantism in and the Rhetoric of Satan's Protestantism in

Paradise LostParadise Lost• John Milton defended not only the overthrow, but also the exec

ution of Charles I in his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. In the second edition of Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton marshals a variety of oddly misrepresented Protestant authorities to bolster his case. Protestant Christians--from Luther, to Calvin, to Anabaptist figures such as Thomas Mh ntzer, to such contemporary English Presbyterian figures as Stephen Marshall--had long argued over what rights magistrates (but not the common people) had to take up arms against a king. The crux of the argument is this: Who may resist a king, and under what circumstances? In summary terms, the conclusions of the above-mentioned figures are these: so-called "private-persons" may themselves take no action whatsoever against either a king, a prince, or an inferior magistrate; these magistrates and/or princes may resist, and may even depose, a king or other superior ruler, if that ruler is behaving in a grossly unjust and violent way toward his subjects.

• Milton followed up Paradise Lost with its sequel （续篇） , Paradise Regained, published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes, in 1671. Both these works also resonate with Milton’s post-Restoration political situation.

Paradise Regained

Background

• John Milton's eyesight began to fail in 1644. By 1652, he was totally blind. Oddly, he wrote his greatest works, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, after he became blind. Many scholars rank Milton as second only to Shakespeare in poetic ability. 

SONNET XIX.

ON HIS BLINDNESS.

WHEN I consider how my light is spent,Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest He returning chide,'Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?'I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, 'God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts. Who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,And post o'er land and ocean without rest;They also serve who only stand and wait.'

•   ere half my days.—Taking March 1652 as the date at which the blindness was complete, Milton's age was forty-four.    —dark and wide.—In Milton's imagination the great size of the habitable globe was a constant element.  Paradise Lost, 12. 370—'and bound his reign With earth's wide bounds.'  The epithet here enforces the impression we receive of the helplessness of the blind.

    one talent which is death to hide.—The allusion is to the parable of the talents, Matt. 25.

    fondly = foolishly—'he who to be deemed a god, leaped fondly into Ætna flames.'—P.L., 3. 470.

    thousands.—'Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen both when we wake and when we sleep.'—P.L., 4. 677.

Translation

• 我思量，我怎么还未到生命的中途，• 就已耗尽光明，走上这黑暗的茫茫的世路，• 我这完全埋没了的庸才，对我毫无用处，• 虽然我的心思是要多多服务，• 想要鞠躬尽瘁地服务于我的创造主，• 算清我的帐，免得他要向我发怒；• “难道上帝不给光明却要计算日工吗？”

• 我愚蠢地一问，“忍耐”就把我的话止住，• 立刻回答道：“上帝不需要人的服务，• 也不要你还他什么礼物；• 谁能忍受得起痛苦，就是最好的服务；• 他的国度气派堂皇，听他差遣的不计其数，• 他们奔走忙碌于海洋和大陆；• 那些站立得稳，坚定不移的也是服务。

• 世茫茫兮，我目已盲。 静言思之，尚未半生。 • 天赋两目，如托千金。 今我藏之，其实难任。 • 嗟我目兮，於我无用。 虽则无用，我心郑重。 • 忠以计会，虔以事主。 恐主归时，纵刑无补。 • 嗟彼上帝，既闭吾瞳。 愚心自忖，岂责我工。 • 忍耐之心，可生奥义。 苍苍上帝，不较所赐。 • 不较所赐，岂较作事。 惟我与轭，负之靡暨。 • 上帝惟皇，在彼苍苍。 一呼其令，万臣锵锵。 • 驶行水陆，莫敢遑适。 彼待立者，都为其役。

Translation

• This is a Petrarchan sonnet(彼特拉克体十四行诗） , of iambic pentameter and yet again simple diction, full and half-rhyme, enjambment and contraction.

• This type of sonnet, popularized by the Italian priest Petrarch (1304-1374), has a rhyme scheme of ABBA, ABBA, CDE, and CDE.

• This sonnet is conjecturally dated 1655, because in the vol. of 1673 it follows the Piedmontese （ ( 意大利一行政区 )皮埃蒙特 [ 人 ,语 ] ） sonnet.

• Milton's sight had been long threatened before it was finally extinguished. In a letter to the Greek Philaras, the agent in London of the Duke of Parma, dated September 1654, Milton says it was ten years, more or less, since he had first found his eyes failing. The blindness had become total probably about March 1652, in which month Weckherlin was appointed by the Council of State to assist Milton as secretary. The calamity was precipitated by his persistence in writing his Defension pro populo Anglicano contra Salmasium, though warned by his physician of the consequences.

• The reader will observe that in the present lament, Milton does not bewail hi

s own privation, but insists wholly on the wreck of the heaven-appointed task to which he considered himself called and set apart.

• 'My often thought is,' he writes to Philaras, 1654, 'that since to all of us are

decreed many days of darkness, as saith the Wise Man, Eccles. 11, 8, my dark thus far, by the singular favour of Providence, hath been much tolerable than that dark of the grave, passed as it hath been amid leisure and study, cheered by the visits and conversation of friends.'

• The poem is literally about a man who is blind, and thus his God-given talent, which is the ability to write, is useless to him and to God. Although a possible translation of the “Talent” could be translated into a monetary （货币的、金钱的） value because of its biblical implication （基督教内涵） , the more accurate definition is “the ability to write,” because you can not write in the dark, and Milton himself went blind by the end of his life. “Doth （ dose ） God exact day-labor, light denied, ”shows that the speak

• A sonnet provides a poet with a set of implied but strict guidelines that they must follow in order for their poem to be considered a legitimate sonnet. In “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,” the struggle between a physically handicapped man and ironically his lack of “blind” faith in the truth of God is exposed. The question and answer form that is usually associated a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet allows the reader to understand the speaker’s conscience. However, Milton chooses to utilize the question and answer sequence of this sonnet to emphasize the poem’s overall theme, and to further support the notion that as the speaker realizes he does not need God.

• This poem serves as a literal reflection on the man’s current situation, and instead of this sonnet providing a resolution, it rather mocks God’s “kingly nature” and deduces the notion that effort to please God is a waste. “They also serve who only stand and wait”(14) confirms the speaker’s decision to be like those who do not overexert themselves. This line is a mockery towards God, for in lines 11-12 the speaker refers to God as “kingly” with thousands of followers, yet the speaker plans to just “wait” knowing that his talent of writing is not necessary to please God. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker feels bitterness and hatred towards God because of his blindness, yet he hopes to make the effort to expose his abilities to the fullest possible extent,

Analysis of On His Blindness

This is the most stately and pathetic sonnet in existence.

The soul enduring enforced idleness a

nd loss of power without repining. Inactivity made to serve a higher end.

Meter

• All the lines in the poem are in iambic pentameter. In this metric pattern, a line has five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total of ten syllables. The first two lines of the poem illustrate this pattern:

•        1...........2........... 3............4............5 When I | con SID | er HOW.| my LIFE | is SPENT    

•     1................2............ 3...............4....................5Ere HALF | my DAYS | in THIS | dark WORLD.| and WIDE

Philosophy

By the late 1650s, Milton was a proponent of monism or animist materialism, the notion that a single material substance which is "animate, self-active, and free" composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God. Milton devised this position to avoid the mind-body dualism of Plato and Descartes as well as the mechanistic determinism of Hobbes. Milton's monism is most notably reflected in Paradise Lost when he has angels eat (5.433–39) and engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–29) and the De Doctrina, where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creation ex Deo.

Political thought• In his political writing, Milton addressed pa

rticular themes at different periods. The years 1641–42 were dedicated to church politics and the struggle against episcopacy. After his divorce writings, Areopagitica, and a gap, he wrote in 1649–54 in the aftermath of the execution of Charles I, and in polemic justification of the regicide and the existing Parliamentarian regime. Then in 1659–60 he foresaw the Restoration, and wrote to head it off.

• Milton's own beliefs were in some cases both unpopular and dangerous, and this was true particularly to his commitment to republicanism. In coming centuries, Milton would be claimed as an early apostle of liberalism.

Theology

• Like many Renaissance artists before him, Milton attempted to integrate Christian theology with classical modes. In his early poems, the poet narrator expresses a tension between vice and virtue, the latter invariably related to Protestantism. In Comus Milton may make ironic use of the Caroline court masque by elevating notions of purity and virtue over the conventions of court revelry and superstition. In his later poems, Milton's theological concerns become more explicit. In 1648 he wrote a hymn How lovely are thy dwelling fair, a paraphrase of Psalm 84, that explains his view on God

• Milton embraced many heterodox Christian theological views. He rejected the Trinity, in the belief that the Son was subordinate to the Father, a position known as Arianism; and his sympathy or curiosity was probably engaged by Socinianism: in August 1650 he licensed for publication by William Dugard the Racovian Catechism, based on a non-trinitarian creed.

• After the restoration, Milton continued to advocate freedom of worship and republicanism of England while he supervised the publication of his poems. Soon after the succession of Charles II, Milton was arrested and threatened with execution for regicide. People such as his brother, Christopher, Andrew Marvell and William Davenant interceded and on his behalf. The exact date and location of his death is unknown, but it is thought to be in London on 8 November 1674 from complications from gout, possibly renal failure. He was buried inside St. Giles Cripplegate Church in London.

• Once Paradise Lost was published, Milton's stature as epic poet was immediately recognised. He cast a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18th and 19th centuries; he was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, including Shakespeare. Very early on, though, he was championed by Whigs, and decried by Tories: with the regicide Edmund Ludlow he was claimed as an early Whig,[67] while the High Tory Anglican minister Luke Milbourne (1649–1720) lumped Milton in with other "Agents of Darkness" such as John Knox, George Buchanan, Richard Baxter, Algernon Sidney and John Locke.

•Pictures. & Lines