Milton Paradise Lost Commentary

The Renaissance era represents a complete sound with the Middle Ages on a political, philosophical, scientifical and theological scale. Indeed, the discovery of new territories and the expeditions of explorers such as Francis Drake, the resurgence of unspotted writtings, the new scientific outbreaks of Copernicus, Newton and Galilei as well as the Protestant reformation led by Luther and his 95 Theses, triggered a will for knowledge and a quest for truth, thus putting an end to the noetic hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe.Intellectuals of this era began to think on mankind, looking for answers impertinent of the Religious constraints. Written during this con text edition of political and religious upheaval, Paradise Lost, an epic poem published in 1667 in ten books, reflects in a way the gr squander changes of the Renaissance. This poem, written by John Milton (December 1608 November 1674), an face poet, polemicist and civil servant, tell the Christian sto ry of the creation of the Earth, the fall of Satan and the Fall of domain.As a prude, Milton, who had already attacked the Church for its corruption in Lycidas (1637), give this unequivocal Christian tale puritan traits (such as the protrayal of even as a dedicated plower). The pass era under study is taken from mass 9 of Paradise lost. In this book, the narrator focuses on the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Satan returns to the Garden of enlightenment eight days after his banishment by Gabriel to avenge himself. Adam and Eve , preparing for their labors, decide to conk out separatly , even if Adam is anxious that eve would be an easy prey to Satans come-on .In this overtaking we enkindle see the approach of the Satan , (the serpent in the grass) and the begining of his enticement that will lead Eve to eat the prohibited fruit. We merchantman clearly see that Milton here uses a mix of Classical and Judeo-Christian figmentology to tell this tale. We toilet thus wonder In which way he uses these influences, and why he uses them ? In a first part we will see that the Serpent is a emblem of temptation, and in a second part we wll snap Miltons uses of Classical mythology. First, Milton depicts the glide which Satan is possessing, as an incredibly splendiferous animal.The main strategy of Satan to try to corrupt the naive mind of Eve is to appear as a magnificent snake. According to the narrator, his physical appearing is so pleasing that never a snake will be as beautiful (on verse 504 pleasing was his shape, and lovely, never since a serpent lovelier). To get a line the snake, the narrator use the lexical field of precious material carbuncle his eyes on verse 500, cope of verdent gold on verse 501. Here Satan seems to have chosen a snake whose appearance can attract Eve only because his similitude with precious material.In a kind of materialist temptation, he tries to appeal to Eve inner sin of cupidity to seduce her. entirely there is manyth ing paradoxical in the way the snake is depicted as a beautiful creature. Indeed, the snake is often assimilated with devastation, the venom of some species of snakes such as the cobra can kill a man in less than star hour. It as well as an animal that generate inherent aptitudeive fear in most human (and occurence of Ophidiophobia can be effectuate everywhere). Here death and beauty become assimilated in one animal.It can thus be comprehend as prosopopoeia of the treachery of satan behind the beaty of his rethoric, of his discourse hides a awe-inspiring fates, the banishment of Man from Heaven. This can likewise underline the interest of humans for macabre, dark topics. We can see since the dawn of age exemples of this morbid attraction of the Human race public executions had always (and still do) gathered a traffic circle of people around the death of a single man as well as we can see every day the impact (and too its capacity of generating profits) of a news involving the mysterious death of a movie star, of the murder of a whole family by its patriarch.As we know, Satan has chosen this animal, perchance he relies on this fascination to attract eve attention. We can also throwaway that the serpent can be interpreted as a phallic symbol. On verse 498 to 502 the snake is described as a circular base that towered folds above folds a surprising maze with burnished neck ready amidst his circling spires. Thus the snake appears as a symbol of virility, a phallic form erecting from the filth and can be understood as anformer(a) strategy of Satan to cajole Eve into believe him.On the other hand this radio links made by Milton between sensuality and religion can be seen as a hint of the influence of the metaphysical poetry on his writting this link beeing one of the interest of the metaphysical poets who were contemporary with Milton. Then the snake can be analysed as a symbol of corruption and of perfidy. Satan uses a disguise, a snake to talk t o eve. He uses his beauty, his eloquence to seduce her. His roll movements, looking like a dance, and his attitude (Fawning, and licking the ground whereon she strod on verse 526) can be interpreted as a nuptial parade with the snake laying on the primal instinct (which are restricted by religion) of Man to attract Eve in his trap. It is also interesting to raze that the occurence of the word Satan is, as Satan himself, disguised in this passage. Here Satan is refered to as the snake or the enemy of mankind on verse 494. The word Satan can only be seen if the reader looks closely at the poem an acrostic is hidden from verse 510 to 515. This clever technic reflects the vicious strategy of the Devil in the passage. Satans main strategy to talk Eve into beliving that she has the right to eat the apple is flattery.The Devil choose to tempt Eve because he was afraid of Adams acquaintance which could have be an obstacle to his scheme. Thus he constantly celebrate eve beauty and transc endence of others matinee idols creature to put her in a position where she can feel throw in to act as she wants. From verse 532 to the end of the passage the snake states that eve is sole wonder, that she is a universally admired celestial beauty that should be a goddes among gods, adored and served by angels numberless. The snake thus seems to contradict Gods Hierarchy of creation, The Great Chain of Being.According to him, Eve is higher than all the other creations of god, and should be sitting just next to god, just as the Holy Spirit and Jesus. In this passage the snake is the voices that question god authority and urges Eve to more than freedom which appears, in the eyes of God as an Heresy. Hence a parallel can be drawn betwen the questioning of Gods Hierarchy by the snakes and the questioning of Gods Hierarchy by the new theories about founding expressed by scientists such as Copernic who were at the time seen as Heretics, devilish prophets and treated as such.Now that we have seen in which way the snakes represents a symbol of temptation embodying as well as the Biblical symbol of sin, the Renaissance questioning of Gods Hierarchy, we are going to see and analyse Miltons use of Classic Mythology in this passage. First Miltons use of Classic reference in his text can be interpreted as a perversions of those myths. In this passage he uses lead myth to illustrate the action. He first refers to the tale of Hermione and Cadmus taken from Metamorphoses written by Ovid in AD 8.According to this classic of Latin literature they were both transform into snakes in an act of vengence from the Gods. Then he refers to transformation of Amonian Jove and Capitoline into snakes to seduce and mate with Olympias and the mother of Scipio to give birth of two of the most famous and splendiferous war chief of both hellenistic and Roman era Alexander the Great and Scipio Africanus. We can notice that Milton cleverly used myth in which the snakes as a role close to th e one it has in the Bible.Concerning Ovid, the snakes is an object of temptation for which Hermione yields and is thus punished by being transformed in a snake. Concerning the myth of the birth of Alexender and Scipio, the snakes, just as in the Bible, is in fact a deity in disguise, seducing a woman. But if we look closely, these myth appeared to be perverted. In the classical myth, the deity or characters who are transformed into a snake are large(p) and nobles characters Cadmus is the founder of Thebes, and Amonian Jove and Capitoline are Jupiter.In paradise lost, the snake is Satan, the personification of rebellion against Gods will and of all the Human Sins. In this antithetic linking of diverse mythology, Milton wants to oppose Satan perfidy with classical characters nobility while underlining common themes. He thus appeals to a special knowledge of his readers. On the other hand , the authors use of classical mythology in this text can be seen as another influence of the metaphysical poetry on the Milton. Mixing diverse sources of knowledge to build his imagery is a technic used by metaphysiacal poets such as John Donne.But when others metaphysical poets mixed scientific, geographical, astronomical discoveries with theology and philospy, Milton just mixed Judeo-christian religious myths with classical myths. still if this influence is small, it is sufficient to guess that Milton, contemporaneous with Donne, Herbert, Henry or Crashaw, has drawn some inspiration from the work of these poets. Moreover, Milton use of Classical mythology is representative of the Renaissance. Indeed, it clearly illustrates the resurgence of classical works during this era.Every arts had been touch by this tendency, in paintings, the classical style was a new fashion, the subjects taken from greek mythology began to be more and more numerous, Michaelangelo being a good exemple in both the sculpture and painting field. This resurgence has also an impact on architecture (w ith the building of houses, mansions, official buildign following the principle of the straight line) , on doctrine ( the raison and the re-reading of the platonician and socratic philosophy) as well as on literature.Thus Milton appears as an exemple of this new interest ofr the classical literrature, and htis work, Paradise lost, embodies this feature of the Renaissance. Finally, as we have seen, Milton uses his main influence, the Bible, to depicts the snake as a symbol of temptation and perfidy and uses his other influence, the classical mythology, in a perversion of the myths to develop his imagery. Furthermore, analysing this text, we can see that Milton was also influenced by the Metaphysical Poets in his uses of mixed sources as well as the use of the theme of the link between sensuality and religion.This book, which is now one of the most famous piece of english poetry, had a great influence on following artists such as Blake who considered Milton as the major English Poet a nd Edmond Burke and the romantic theory, asserting No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity than Milton. , valuating his geographic expedition of blank verse. Milton also had a great impact on the English language by creating metal money that are still used today such as pand?monium, enslaved, satanic and self-esteem.