Milton’s Political Ideas and Paradise Lost as a Political ...
The Fall of Satan by John Milton Introducing the Poem Literary Focus: Style Reading Skills:...
9
The Fall of Satan by John Milton Introducing the Poem Literary Focus: Style Reading Skills: Milton’s S tyle Feature Menu
-
Upload
justina-mcdaniel -
Category
Documents
-
view
214 -
download
0
Transcript of The Fall of Satan by John Milton Introducing the Poem Literary Focus: Style Reading Skills:...
The Fall of Satanby John Milton
Introducing the Poem
Literary Focus: Style
Reading Skills: Milton’s Style
Feature Menu
The Fall of Satan by John Milton
The Angel Michael Binding Satan (c.1850) by William Blake.
The Fall of Satan by John Milton
Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both.
—Simone Weil
(1909–1943)
Think about these two age-old questions and how they are related:
• Why does evil exist?
The Reason for Evil
The Fall of Satan by John Milton
• If there is a merciful God, why does he allow so much human suffering?
The Angel of Divine Presence (detail) by William Blake. Watercolor.
Paradise Lost presents the struggle between good and evil on an epic scale.
The Reason for Evil
The Fall of Satan by John Milton
In Milton’s epic, as in the Bible, the original choice of evil over good leads to the suffering and burdens of humanity.
In Book I . . . Satan rebels against God.
Later, in Book IX . . . Satan influences Adam and Eve to partake of evil.
• The archangel Lucifer has led a band of rebellious angels to defy God.
The excerpt in your textbook comes from the beginning of Paradise Lost.
Milton stresses the pride and willfulness that led Satan to revolt.
The Fall of Satan by John Milton
• The rebels, defeated, were cast out of Heaven into Hell.
[End of Section]
A writer’s style is closely connected to
Style—the unique manner in which writers use language to express their ideas
The Fall of Satan Literary Focus: Style
• diction—the author’s choice of words (long, fancy words versus simpler, more everyday words, for example)
• syntax—the way the sentences are constructed (elaborate and complicated structures, short sentences, fragments, or a combination)
A writer’s style can be categorized by any of a number of descriptive words. What word or words below describe the style of the following passage?
The Fall of Satan Literary Focus: Style
formal? comic? ornate? plain? forceful?
[End of Section]
Forthwith upright he rears from off the poolHis mighty stature; on each hand the flamesDriven backward slope their pointing spires, and rolledIn billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale.
Paradise Lost, lines 221-224
√√
√
Reading Milton can be challenging. As you read, identify areas of difficulty and apply these strategies to deal with them:
The Fall of Satan Reading Skills: Milton’s Style
• Use context clues to figure out the meanings of new words.
• Consult the side glosses for help with unfamiliar names and terms.
• Read and answer the reading questions for help understanding key ideas.
[End of Section]
