NAVIGATION: Index of Dr. Weller's Class Materials Index of English 340 Materials
On Paradise Lost, particularly Books 9-10
Though Milton was on the reformist side in the great religious struggle we know as the English Civil War, Paradise Lost is a profoundly conservative poem. Milton is attempting to do no less that save Christianity; in his own words, "justify the ways of God to men" (I, 26).
- He had heterodox religious views on various topics: the nature of the Trinity, church Governance, the afterlife of the soul —but doesn't even allude to them in Paradise Lost.
- What Milton does emphasize is the underpinning of everything else in Christianity: the sinful nature of humans. In Milton's words: "man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste / Brought death into the world, and all our woe . . ." (I, 1-3).
As a prologue to the portrayal of Adam and Eve and their sin, Milton opens the poem with a portrayal of Satan (formerly known as Lucifer).
- "Yet not . . . do I repent or change, / Though changed in outward luster, that fixed mind / And high disdain, from sense of injured merit" (I, 94-98).
This idea about evil persists. See this clip from the Lion King.- "If then his providence / Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, / Our labor must be to pervert that end, / And out of good still to find means of evil" (I, 162-165).
Discussion Questions:
- (IX, 99-178 [p. 2093 ff.]): What is Satan's primary motivation? What motivation does Satan ascribe to God? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?
- (IX, 205-375 [p. 2096 ff.]): What is Eve's primary motivation? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?
- (IX, 679-732 [p. 2106 ff.]): When Satan speaks to Eve with the tongue of the serpent, what picture does he paint of God? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?
- (IX, 745-790 [p. 2107 ff.]): In her musings to herself, what fundamental mistake about the nature of God does Eve make? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?
- (IX, 896-916 [p. 2110 ff.]): When Adam breaks his "inward silence," he declares his love for and loyalty to Eve. Why is this declaration a sin? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?
- (X, 720-770 [p. 2132 ff.]): What complaint does Adam make against God, and how does Adam answer his own complaint? -- How does this passage help to "justify the ways of God to man"?