John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) PDF

Text Bank 20 John Milton (1608-1674) Life and works returned home. This bitter personal experience caused the John Milton was a committed Protestant and Humanist poet to justify divorce in a series of pamphlets, like The scholar...

Text Bank 20 John Milton (1608-1674) Life and works returned home. This bitter personal experience caused the John Milton was a committed Protestant and Humanist poet to justify divorce in a series of pamphlets, like The scholar who felt his poetic inspiration was a gift from God. Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), and Areopagitica He was born in London into a wealthy Puritan family in (1644) about the freedom of the press. In 1652 Milton 1608. He studied for a Master’s Degree at Cambridge, and became blind, but blindness helped to stimulate his verbal also learnt Latin, Greek and Italian. During the period 1631- richness. 37 he published the poems L’Allegro and Il Penseroso (1631); After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, his the pastoral elegy Lycidas (1637), and a number of sonnets. republican writings were condemned to be burnt and In 1638 Milton began a European tour and he visited the author was sent to prison. He was later pardoned Galileo in Fiesole, near Florence. When back in England, and released. His three long poems were written during his sympathies were with Cromwell (→ 2.5); his support these years: Paradise Lost (1667), his masterpiece, Paradise for the new Commonwealth was such that in 1649 he Regained (1671), a much less grandiose poem on Satan’s was appointed secretary for foreign tongues in Cromwell’s temptation of Christ, and Samson Agonistes (1671), a Council of State. In 1642 he had married the daughter of a tragedy in verse on the final days of the biblical Samson, his Royalist, Mary Powell, who found the Puritan austerity and moral recovery and self-sacrifice. Milton died in London in intellectual stature of her husband unbearable and promptly 1674. COMPETENCE: READING AND UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION 1 READ about Milton’s life and works and complete the table below. Origin Education Beginning of literary career Political activity Masterpiece Other works Paradise Lost John Milton (1667) STORY A RELIGIOUS EPIC POEM Paradise Lost tells the biblical story of Adam and Eve, with Milton chose the epic genre for his masterpiece because of God and Lucifer (Satan), who is thrown out of Heaven the greatness of his subject and he followed the typical epic and later tries to corrupt humankind. Satan, the most conventions. Paradise Lost opens with a precise statement beautiful of the angels, is thrown into Hell with his stunned of the theme of the epic – ‘Of Man’s First Disobedience’ –, followers, as a consequence of his defeat in the war in as do all traditional epics. Heaven. This epic takes place in the universe. There God, Satan, Christ, man and many fallen angels are met and they echo SETTING the several warriors and heroes created by Homer. The Although Milton was familiar with the Copernican typical character of the epic hero was altered by Milton cosmology, which establishes the sun and not the earth as to suit the changing spirit of the age: no longer a warrior the centre of the universe (→ 2.3), he based his universe on like Achilles, seeking glory on the battlefield, but a more the more traditional Ptolemaic system. In Milton’s Heaven, philosophical hero who must learn to control himself God sits on his throne surrounded by the nine orders of before he is judged fit to found an empire. angels; the tenth one, who revolted under Satan, has been hurled down into a dreadful realm, Hell, which is below chaos and which is in antithesis with God’s world. Out of chaos, God created the earth, fixed in the centre of the universe, and around it the spheres. Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Heritage.blu © Zanichelli 2018  Text Bank 20 THEMES AND As he was a rebel against the political authority of the king CHARACTERS and the religious authority of the Church of England, his The main themes are: the certainty of evil hanging over sympathy was for Satan, the rebel. mankind, the hope for redemption and the belief in Divine Providence. Although it is absurd to suggest that STYLE Milton intended Satan to be the hero of his masterpiece, The style of this poem is elevated and matches the nevertheless at the beginning of the poem Satan has many seriousness of the universal subject of the fall of man; of the characteristics of the epic hero (→ Satan’s speech): the poet used a new kind of blank verse of sonorous leadership, initiative, a courage which refuses to accept magnificence. The poetic diction he employed is very defeat, a willingness to undertake the desperate enterprise far from common speech: it abounds with polysyllabic to escape from Hell and attack God’s creation, man. Latinisms, inversions and circumlocutions. Milton put a great deal of his own soul into this character. Key idea John Milton’s version of Hell in Paradise Lost lowest circle of Hell, the City of Dis in the appeared about three hundred years after centre of the earth, where he is bound in ice Dante’s image of pain in his Inferno. Not forever. only were the two works inspired by different Milton’s Satan takes several forms: he is first Satan in Dante and artistic visions, but also by divergences in presented as a fallen angel who finds himself Milton culture and religion. Both authors were in a newly created Hell (→ Satan’s speech); religious, however, and claimed divine later in the poem, he takes the classic form inspiration was rooted in their works. of a snake. Though the physically monstrous They had contrasting ideas as regards Satan’s aspect of Dante’s Satan is absent, replaced by physical appearance and dwelling, but the a slimy creature, Dante shares this serpentine most notable difference is that Dante’s Satan interpretation of evil, describing Satan in the becomes a means of punishment, while Inferno as ‘the ill Worm’. Milton also takes Milton’s is a twofold symbol of God’s eternal Dante’s significant colours for his Satan, justice, being cast out of Heaven himself and, making the serpent’s eyes red and his neck later, forcing Adam and Eve out of Eden. yellow. Dante’s Satan (Lucifer) dwells in the very 2 READ about Paradise Lost and answer the following questions. 1 What is described in Paradise Lost? 2 Where does Paradise Lost take place? 3 Why did Milton choose the epic form for his masterpiece? 4 How does Paradise Lost start? 5 What features does Satan share with the epic hero? 6 How did Satan mirror Milton’s character? 7 What are the most important characteristics of Milton’s style? 8 What are the most important differences between Dante’s Satan and Milton’s? Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Heritage.blu © Zanichelli 2018  Text Bank 20 T20 Satan’s speech John Milton Paradise Lost (1667) The passage you are going to read deals with Satan’s arrival in his new kingdom, Hell. Book I ‘Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,’ Said then the lost Arch Angel1, ‘this the seat2 That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom3 For that celestial light? Be it so, since he 5 Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best Whom reason hath equall’d, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy Fields Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail4 horrors, hail 10 Infernal world, and thou5 profoundest Hell Receive thy6 new Possessor: One who brings A mind7 not to be chang’d by Place or Time. The mind is its own place8, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. 15 What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he9 Whom Thunder hath made10 greater? Here at least 1 Arch Angel. Lett.: arcangelo; qui: Satana. We shall be free; th’Almighty hath not built 2 seat. Dimora. Here for his envy, will not drive us hence11: 3 mournful gloom. Triste oscurità. 20 Here we may reign secure, and in my choice 4 Hail. Salve. 5 thou. You. Tu. To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: 6 thy. Your. Tuo. Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n. 7 One who brings / A mind. Uno che reca uno spirito. 8 The mind is its own place. La mente è la sua dimora. But wherefore12 let we then our faithful friends, 9 all but less than he. Tutto tranne che meno di colui (Dio). Th’associates13 and co-partners of our loss 10 hath made. Ha reso. 11 hence. Di qui. 25 Lie thus astonisht14 on th’oblivious Pool15, 12 wherefore. Perché. And call them not to share with us their part 13 Th’associates. I compagni. In this unhappy Mansion16, or once more 14 astonisht. Attoniti. 15 oblivious Pool. Stagno dell’oblio. With rallied Arms17 to try what may be yet 16 Mansion. Sede, dimora. Regain’d in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?’ 17 rallied Arms. Armi raccolte. LITERARY COMPETENCE 7 VOCABULARY 1 READ the text and match the highlighted words with their meaning. 1 got back............................................................................................................................................... 5 land, region.................................................................................................................................... 2 owner...................................................................................................................................................... 6 has made equal....................................................................................................................... 3 climate.................................................................................................................................................. 7 command.......................................................................................................................................... 4 Omnipotent..................................................................................................................................... 8 lives............................................................................................................................................................ 7 COMPETENCE: READING AND UNDERSTANDING A TEXT 2 READ the text again and answer the following questions. 1 Who is speaking? Is he alone? 2 What does he hail? 3 How does he react to the fall from Heaven? 4 Does he feel equal to God? Why is the power of reason so important? Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Heritage.blu © Zanichelli 2018  Text Bank 20 7 COMPETENCE: ANALYSING AND INTERPRETING A TEXT 3 HELL is described in contrast with Heaven. 1 List any reference to the features of Hell and Heaven. 2 State which semantic area all the antitheses belong to. Then try to recognise the message they convey. 4 FOCUS on the hero Satan. 1 Underline any words or phrases in which Satan refers to God. How does Satan see God? 2 What are Satan’s feelings about his new situation? 3 Can you consider Satan an epic hero? Why? 5 CONCENTRATE on the style of Paradise Lost. 1 This poem is written in blank verse, that is, unrhymed verse, usually in lines of 5 iambic feet. However, Milton varies: the number of syllables in a line; the number of stresses; the succession of unstressed-stressed syllables. Find examples of these variations. 2 Find examples of run-on lines, that is, when a line ends in the middle of a phrase and the meaning break comes in the next line, and end-stopped lines. How would you interpret the prevalence of run-on lines in this extract? Tick as appropriate. It creates an effect of monotony. It creates a feeling of expectation. The reader is urged to go on reading. The long verse paragraph gives a sense of majestic movement. 3 Milton was a great Latin scholar. This can be inferred from the use of long sentences, deviation from the normal English word order and Latinised words. Find examples. Then state the effect achieved by the use of this Latinate syntax. 7 COMPETENCE: FINDING AND UNDERSTANDING LINKS AND RELATIONSHIPS 6 REFER to 2.5 and to the introduction to Paradise Lost and explain if there are any reasons why Milton might have intentionally made Satan attractive. 7 STATE the differences between Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Hell as regards location, main features and inhabitants. Spiazzi, Tavella, Layton Performer Heritage.blu © Zanichelli 2018