Paradise Lost

Question 1

Milton on his desire to write an epic poem

Answer 1

He says that one day he will write on ‘some graver subject’ that will permit his ‘‘transported mind’ to ‘soar/Above the wheeling piled and at Heav’n’s door/Look in, and see each blissful deity’’

Question 2

Milton on the subject plans for Paradise Lost

Answer 2

He describes himself as “rapt above the pole” and says that he will “Aung of secret things that come to pass/When beldam Nature in her cradle was”

Question 3

Implications of Milton’s first draft of Paradise Lost found at Trinity College, Cambridge

Answer 3

His first plans for the Fall of Man was more in keeping with an Aristotelian tragedy perhaps supporting Blake’s believe that ‘‘he was of the devils party without knowing’’

Question 4

John Leonard on Miltons use of the Epic poem

Answer 4

“Readers must finally decide for themselves whether Milton Satanizes the epic or measures Satan against an epic standard and finds him wanting”

Question 5

John Leonard on nakedness

Answer 5

Milton gives nakedness a heroic treatment

Question 6

Marlowe’s influence of Milton

Answer 6

Miltons ominous simile in reference to Eve’s nakedness is an allusion to Marlowe signalled by “naked strive” which still credits Eve’s nakedness with heroic splendour

Question 7

John Leonard on Miltons satire of nakedness

Answer 7

“But Milton’s satire is sharper for not equating nakedness with shame”

Question 8

Milton’s use of nakedness as an attack on the bourgeois

Answer 8

When the restored Charles II made his return to London it was documented as the most spectacular display of royal pomp (May 29th 1660), Milton’s emphasis on the how Adam is “solemn” (“grand, imposing”) compared to when the kings parade in ‘state’ flaunt themselves ‘with great pomp and insignia’, (AO3:Milton was in hiding and wrote a lot about his disapproval of the monarchy)

Question 9

Link to Johnson’s ‘the splendid’, ‘the gloomy’ & ‘the dreadful’

Answer 9

Milton’s Heaven and Universe as ‘The splendid’ Milton’s Night, He’ll, Chaos as ‘The dreadful’ and ‘The gloomy’

Question 10

Tasso on the epic poems specific purpose…

Answer 10

‘…of moving the mind to wonder’

Question 11

Samuel Johnson on Miltons ‘peculiar power’…

Answer 11

…is ‘to astonish’

Question 12

The Oxford dictionary credits Milton with creating the word…

Answer 12

‘Space’ which Milton probably took from the Roman poet Lucretius who in ‘De Rerum Natura’ refers to outer space as ‘Spatium’

Question 13

Lucretius and Milton both refer to the Cosmos as…

Answer 13

…the universe would at least be overwhelmed from outside…Chaos (“the womb of Nature and perhaps her grave”) is hostile for Milton because it continues to exist…

Question 14

Milton believed that God did not create out of nothing rather out of…

Answer 14

Chaos which for nine days Satans legions fell through while Gis created for 6 days on the second of the ninth day the universe…

Question 15

John Leonard on Miltons use of light and dark symbolisms with God

Answer 15

Milton conjectures that God must have dwelt in a place of light from all eternity

Question 16

Milton’s universe is unusual because…

Answer 16

…it places a finite universe in an infinite abyss and shuts infinity out by enclosing his universe with a protective shell…in De Doctrina Christiana Milton argued that all matter was good…

Question 17

Empson on Milton’s faith

Answer 17

“Milton genuinely considered God in need of a defence”

Question 18

Chloe Batt on the epic form

Answer 18

Milton “seeks to redefine classical heroism in Christian terms”

Question 19

C.S Lewis on Satan

Answer 19

Throughout the poem he undergoes a “progressive degradation” from Gods second in hand to “a mere peeping Tom leering and writhing in prurience”

Question 20

Tillyard on Adam and Eve’s relationship

Answer 20

Milton “fails to convince us that Adam and Eve are happy”, they “are in the hopeless position of Old age pensioners enjoying perpetual youth”

Question 21

David Reid on the fall

Answer 21

“Error is a lapse of mind and like nonsense, cannot be understood”

Question 22

Dr Johnson on Milton and women

Answer 22

Milton had a “Turkish contempt for women”

Question 23

C.S Lewis on Eve’s actions

Answer 23

Throughout giving Adam the fruit Eve commits “murder”

Question 24

T.S Elliot on Milton’s language

Answer 24

If he used a “straightforward utterance rather than archaic language it “would make the speak very much more real to us; but reality is no part of the intention”

Question 25

Voltaire on Milton’s virtue

Answer 25

“In all other poems love is represented as a vice; in Milton only it is a virtue”

Question 26

C.S Lewis on why Adam ate the fruit

Answer 26

“Adam fell by uxoriousness (excessive attatchment to, dependence on, a wife)”

Question 27

Milton on why he wrote the poem

Answer 27

“To justify the ways of God to man”

Question 28

Dryden on Milton’s form and language

Answer 28

“Rhyme was not his talent”

Question 29

What is the meaning of Renaissance? what was the primary impact of the renaissance?

Answer 29

‘rebirth’ - during the renaissance people returned to studying ancient greek/ roman texts, and began to question the authority and knowledge of the catholic church.

Question 30

Blake (Romantic Criticism)

Answer 30

“Milton was of the devil’s party without knowing it”

Question 31

What did David Daiches argue about the “moral paradox” Milton presents?

Answer 31

“If we can only resist evil by knowing it, and we can only know it by becoming involved in it, then the innocent are incapable of true virtue and only the morally tarnished can succeed in the struggle for virtue”

Question 32

Dryden on heroes (1697 - Roman Catholic)

Answer 32

“Milton would have been worthy of regard as a great poet if the devil had not been his hero instead of Adam”

Question 33

Shelley on Satan (Romantic Criticism)

Answer 33

“nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence as expressed by Satan in Paradise Lost” “Milton’s devil is a moral being far superior to his god”

Question 34

Eleanor Tate observes…..

Answer 34

…..”ciceronian decorum”

Question 35

Tate - “through his many classical allusions Milton does gain a sense of remoteness in time….

Answer 35

…..and through his geographic ones a sense of vastness in space”

Question 36

Widmer - Satan and his world are…

Answer 36

…in a constant state of flux, in contrast to the immutability of God and Heaven

Question 37

Tate - “the final irony is that Milton uses…

Answer 37

…the epic traditional epic form in which to reject traditional epic values”

Question 38

Tate - “renunciation of heroic rebellion in favour of submission is an attitude of….

Answer 38

…..Christian fortitude and patience” - Link to DOM Duchess as a protestant martyr