'Paradise Lost' John Milton, Lecture notes of English Literature

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‘Paradise Lost’

John Milton

Tuesday 1

st

February 2022

Recap: Key quotations – the temptation of Eve Write a couple of sentences explaining the meaning and significance of the following quotations:

1. ‘…for inferior who is free?’
2. ‘ I extinct; / A death to think.’
3. ‘Tedious, unshared with thee and odious soon.’
4. ‘..if death / Consort with thee, death is to me as life.’
5. ‘..he scrupled not to eat / Against his better knowledge..’
6. ‘..it might be wished, /For this one tree had been forbidden ten.’

Book IX: Lines 990 - 1133 Lines 1034- 1066

1. How is a sense of lustfulness conveyed in 1034-1045?
2. How do they suffer in their sleep and then in the realisation of the Fall afterwards?
3. What does their consciousness of their nakedness show?
4. How is the story of Samson and Delilah used? Lines 1067- 1098
5. How is Adam conscious of the change that has befallen them?
6. How are images of moral decay and shame created?
7. Which two ways does Adam want to avoid shame (one short term, the other long term)? Lines 1099- 1133
8. How do we see their increased awareness of emotions? What has happened to reason? Symbolism: pansies = admiration; violets = innocence and modesty; asphodel is a type of lily = purity and death; hyacinth = constancy

Book IX: Lines 1134- 1189 Lines 1134- 1161 How do we see Adam blame Eve? Do you find his case weak? How does Eve defend herself and in fact blame Adam? Lines 1162-end How does Adam continue to hold Eve responsible? What does he say about free will? What does he blame himself for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j__itIVgOk

Critical Views

• William Empson ‘Milton’s God’ (1960)
• Sees God as cruel and wicked, not unlike Joseph Stalin. Empson cannot reconcile God’s omniscience and omnipotence with a God of Mercy.
• ‘Paradise Lost’ is written because Milton is ‘struggling to make his God appear less wicked.’

Book X: Lines 229 - 324

• The scene then jumps slightly back in time, as Sin and Death wait at the Hell’s gates where Satan left them. Sin suddenly senses that Satan has succeeded in his task, and she convinces Death to come along with her, as he smells “mortal change on earth” and the possibility of much prey to feed his hunger. The two gather up whatever materials they find in Chaos and construct a wide, smooth bridge from Hell to Earth.
• Read, annotate and identify key quotations