John Milton’s Paradise Lost - Hazleton Area High School · John Milton’s Paradise Lost Mr. Adam...
Transcript of John Milton’s Paradise Lost - Hazleton Area High School · John Milton’s Paradise Lost Mr. Adam...
John Milton’s
Paradise LostParadise LostParadise LostParadise Lost
Mr. Adam Johnson
Senior English 2004-2005
Source: John Geraghty’s Digital Facsimile Project
Epic Poetry As a Classic
Literary FormExamples:
� Homer recorded first major epic poems: The Iliad and The Odyssey
� Virgil tells story of Rome’s founding in The Aeneid
� Dante describes Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory in great detail in The Divine Comedy
� John Milton gives account of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden in Paradise Lost
Why Write It?
� Wanted to surpass previous epics
� Deals with great deeds on a cosmic scale
� Attempts to address the reason for sin and
suffering in the world: God is not responsible;
Adam and Eve “brought death into the world,
and all our woe.”
� Asserts that God gave us free will, and we are
responsible for our choosing of evil
Why Write It?
� Shows the struggle between good and evil (goodness is not goodness without a struggle to overcome evil)
� Virtue is not virtue unless it is won in the “dust and heat” of the conflict with evil.
� Though Adam and Eve “lose,” they gain the right to prove themselves.
Verse Style
� Paradise Lost is written in blank verse
�Unrhymed iambic pentameter
�Example: Paradise Lost
� John Milton did not think that his poem had to
rhyme, since Classical poetry (e.g. The Iliad) did
not
� You will notice when reading that perfect I.P. does
not always occur in Paradise Lost
I.P. and Paradise Lost(Text from First 5 Lines of Bk. 1)
� “ When I beheld the Poet blind, yet bold,
In slender Book his vast Design unfoldMessiah Crown'd, Gods Reconcil'd Decree,Rebelling Angels, the Forbidden Tree,
Heav'n, Hell, Earth, Chaos, All; the Argument;”
� Notice how there are 10 syllables in each line
�To read correctly, emphasize every second
syllable
John Milton
� Born on Dec. 9, 1609 inLondon, England
� Graduates from Cambridge with an M.A.
� Completely blind by 1652
� Paradise Lost published in 10-book form, 1667
� Paradise Lost re-published in 12-book form, 1674
� Dies, Nov. 1674
John Milton´s Times
� 1642-1649: English Civil War
� King/Anglican Clergy vs. Parliament (dominated by
Puritans)
� Protestant Revolution (Death of King Charles I)
� 1649-1660: No British King
� 1649-1653: Commonwealth
� 1653-1658: Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell
� 1660: Restoration (of King Charles II)
Paradise Lost – Leading Up to the Beginning
� At beginning of poem, war in Heaven has been
over for two weeks
� For nine days, Satan and those who fought God
alongside him have been lying in Hell, stunned
at the outcome
� The first character to move is Satan, who begins
by speaking to Beelzebub
� Starts to sort of rally his troops
The Characters
� Only Six major characters
� Satan, the leader of the fallen angels (now known as
devils)
� Beelzebub, Satan´s closest friend/ally
� God, God the Father
� The Son, God the Son; also known as the Messiah,
Christ
� Adam, The first man, living in Paradise
� Eve, His wife, supposed to be under his control
SatanMajor Quote: "Better to reign in Hell then serve in Heav'n!"
� The leader of the angels who were cast from Heaven for eternity
� His big entrance to the poem are lines 84-191.
� He is the focus of the section we’ll read.
Beelzebub
� Satan’s best friend (“Lord of the Flies,”Prince of Demons)
� He is talking to Satan about a return to Heaven for more fighting
� Disappears after Book I
God The Father
� Called the Father because of Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit
� Ruler of Heaven and Creator of Earth
� It was he who cast Satan out