Paradise Lost Context Flashcards
(18 cards)
“I may assert Eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to men.”
Book I
Why Milton chose to write Paradise Lost
“All this good of evil shall produce, and evil turn to good; more wonderful that that which creation first brought forth light of darkness” - Adam
Book II
“Thought one step higher would set me highest” “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell” “While they adore me on the throne of Hell … the lower still I fall, only supreme in misery”
Book IV
“For in their looks divine the image of their glorious Maker shone” “True authority in men” “Though both not equal, as their sex not equal seemed” “He for God only, she for God in him” “Unargued I obey; so God ordains, god is thy law, thou mine: to know no more is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise” - Eve
Book IV
“Have dreamed” of “offence and trouble” “Methought close at mine ear”
Book V
Satan has a gentle, romantic speech
Subtly seductive
“Me damp horror chilled”
Book V
“To stand or fall free in thine own Arbitrament it lies” “All temptation to transgress repel”
Book VIII
Raphael’s warning to Adam and Eve to stand strong against Satan
Literary Context: Aristotle on tragedy
Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris (excessive pride or self-confidence), fate, and the will of the gods.
Aristotle says a tragic hero has a powerful wish to achieve a goal/ambition
Should have a flaw (hamartia)
Should make some mistake
Must undergo a change or reversal in fortune (peripeteia)
May achieve some anagnorisis (revelation, recognition, or discovery) about fate, destiny, and the will of the gods
“A change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate”
Plot must have some pathos (suffering), and also peripeteia (reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition) to be both single and complex
Literary Context: The Epic
Milton drew on the tradition of epic poetry established by Greeks and Romans
Epic - originally, long poems that were sung alongside a lyre in poetic metre in Greek, featuring heroes and gods
Conventions - invocation to the muses, divine intervention, heroism, epic similes (very long, detailed similes, usually to describe someone in battle)
Areopagitica 1644
Opposed licensing, following The Licensing Order of 1643
Parliament required authors to have a license approved by the government before their work could be published
Principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression - “For this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance ever should arise in the Commonwealth - that let no man in this world expect; but when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for”
Doctrine of Divorce 1644
Shortly after marrying, Milton’s wife left him and returned to living with his mother
The legal statutes of England did not allow for Milton to apply for a divorce, so Milton had to promote the lawfulness of divorce
“The soberest and best governed men are at least practised in these affairs; and who knows not that the bashful muteness of a virgin may oftimes hide all the unliveliness and natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation?”
The Tenures of Kings and Magistrates 1649
Milton defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign, whether tyrannical or not
Explains what the role of a king is and conversely what a tyrant is, and why it is necessary to limit a ruler’s power through laws and oaths
“If men within themselves would be govern’d by reason, and not generally give up their understanding to a double tyrannie, of Custom from without, and blind affections within, they would discern better, what it is to favour and uphold the Tyrant of a Nation”
Royal proclamation banning books by John Milton 13th August 1660
Condemns the ‘traitorous’ books which justifies Charles I’s ‘murder’
Demands them to be burned
Gouge’s Of Domesticall Duties: Eight Treatises 1622
A list of aberrations
Women: Ambition, “Conceit that wives are their husbands equals”, “Inward despising of her own husband”, “A stout standing on her own will”, “Refusing to go when he calls”, “Discontent at her husband’s estate”
Men: Want of wisdom and love, “Too meane account of wives”, “Conceit of his wife to be the worst of all”, “Harsh, proud and bitter speeches, to and of his wife”, “Losing of his authority”, “A careful neglect of his wife”
Chain Of Being
A hierarchy
God - > Angels - > Kings - > animals - > plants - > rocks - > satan
Divine Right of Kings
Political and religious doctrine that states that monarchs receive their authority directly from God, and are therefore not subject to any earthly authority
Cromwell believed that he was following God’s will
Felix Culpa
Fortunate fall
Brought the blessing of redemption
Microcosm and macrocosm
Eden and the Helmer household are a microcosm for the society
