Context Flashcards
(17 cards)
King Charles I
King of England from March 1625 to January 1649 (executed)
Tyrannical and unpopular due to belief in divine right of kings - self-interest
He was Catholic, creating mistrust between him and most of England who were protestant
Milton wrote Eikonoklastes in October 1649 justifying Charles’ execution
Republicans
Believed that the monarchy was outdated and unjust and elitist as if there was to be a monarch it should be based on merit, not family
Government lasted between 1649 and 1660, led by Oliver Cromwell
First time since Middle Ages UK had a non-monarch led government
Oliver Cromwell
Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland from December 1653 to September 1658 (died)
His dominance came as a result of Charles I execution and his own military success, establishing himself as the leader of the Commonwealth
Some view him as a figure of political liberty who saved Britain from monarchy, but some saw him as a dictator who used military force to gain power
He hired Milton as ‘secretary of foreign tongues’ (foreign office) in 1649
Galileo Galilei
Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer and polymath
Best known for championing Copernican heliocentrism stating the Sun was located in the centre of the universe
Catholic church had doubts and discovered that his conclusions opposed biblical opinions
Milton met him in 1638 in a state of physical decline - some of PL is based on the encounter e.g. where Satan’s shield looks like the moon he saw through Galileo’s telescope
Catholics and Protestants
Both forms of Christianity
Catholicism is the belief in the divine right of Jesus Christ
Protestantism is the rejection of the Pope in the aim to make the church more accessible to all, by making services and the bible in English
Milton was a Protestant so reflects Protestant views in PL e.g. free will
The impact religion had on people’s lives at time of writing
Religious worship was one of the strictest priorities in 1600s England
God and the church became so strong that every accident or illness was a sign of wrongdoing and so must be punished
Priests became a part of everybody’s life as people were obsessed with the idea of going to heaven after death
Why Satan was banished from heaven
Satan’s prideful rebellion and the challenges he posed to God’s character and law caused him to be cast out
He tried to undermine divine authority and elevate himself above everyone else
After being banished, he entered Eden and disguised himself as a snake, trying to introduce sin into the world as a form of revenge
He succeeded as he caused Eve to commit the first sin, eating the fruit
Why God created the forbidden fruit if he didn’t want it eaten
He gave Adam and Eve the choice between listening to God and receiving eternal blessings or the consequences of disobeying him
The fruit was, as God intended, the catalyst for the fall in man as sin entered the world
Old and New Testaments
OT occurs first and tells us how the people of Israel came to be
NT occurs afterwards and tells us how the world was saved by Jesus’s actions toward his people
Human time is divided into two eras, hence the two testaments of the bible, so each testament describes an era
Milton’s personal love life
Milton was married 3 times
Mary Powell in 1642 - she left him shortly after so he returned home to live with his mother
Milton wanted a divorce to marry someone else but the laws didn’t allow that
Milton started writing divorce tracts and tried to marry a woman called Miss Davis which was unsuccessful
Katherine Woodcock in 1656 - successful marriage until she died due to complications giving birth
What made people accuse the church of corruption
Popes and bishops were demonstrating an increasing abuse of spiritual power for political and material gain
e.g. the priests placed Milton’s mothers grave the wrong way round so he fell out of favour with them
Many Catholics were deeply disturbed by the abuse of indulgence
The church also sold offices and leadership positions
Why Milton wrote PL
To ‘justify the ways of God to men’ - themes of predestination, human agency and nature of good and evil in the face of the fall of man
Re-imagined Epic genre - creating a uniquely English epic poem by drawing on Homer (Odyssey) and Virgil (Aeneid) and incorporating his protestant views
Personal reflection - wrote PL during personal and political struggle like decline of English republic, restoration of monarchy and his blindness - reflects struggles with faith, hope and possibility of redemption in face of adversity
Political commentary - allusions to the return of the monarchy are made with his own views made clear through Satan’s rebellion against God
Areopagitica
Written in 1644 by Milton and defends free speech as it is essential to the truth
Argues that:
Censorship, even under good intentions, causes misuse of power by the state
Freedom of speech and quest for knowledge is a fundamental human right, not privileges granted by the government
Truth is a ‘streaming fountain’ that stagnates when prevented from flowing freely (censorship idea)
Great chain of being
Linear hierarchy with God at the top and increasingly complex beings descending down below
In PL, GCOB is as follows: God, angels, humans, animals
Humans occupy middle ground as they possess both spiritual and physical aspects
The fall of man and rebellion of Satan disrupt the GCOB, causing chaos and disorder
Milton uses GCOB to show an order of life, allowing him to explore themes of rebellion, hierarchy and consequences of breaking it
Gender roles
Women in the 17th century were becoming more educated
In one Christian Doctrine, Milton even considered that a woman may be wiser in marriage than a man
Milton adapts genesis story: ‘she shall be called Women, because she was
taken out of Man’
17th century views on relationship between husband and wife mirrored those between the King and subject: ‘the family was a little church, a little state…
the subordination of the wife to the husband figured Christ’s rule over the state’ (Christopher Hill)
Rhetoric and debate
Milton was likely trained in the art of public speaking and argument at
Cambridge, and honed it in his polemical (writing for political argument)
literature.
When Satan is about to make his great temptation speech to Eve, he draws
himself up like ‘some orator renowned’
We should observe in him the skill of a
classical lawyer, and (thus) the possibility he does not believe what he says
Epic features
A hero whose leadership changes the course of history. In Milton’s case, two:
Satan and Adam
Descriptions of voyages - In Book 9, we have Satan’s journey around the
earth seven times
