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Critical Appreciation of Paradise Lost Book IX
Name:
Rajyaguru Ravi
Semester : 01
Roll
No : 32
Paper
No : 1
Enrolment
No: PG15101032
Email
ID : rajyagururavi24@gmail.com
Year : 2015-17
Submitted
To: Department Of English
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Introduction
John Milton
was born on 8 December
1608 and died
on 8 November
1674. He was a poet ,prose, polemicist and
civil servant. He knows many
language like Latin,French and German
etc. His best work
is an epic
poem Paradise Lost
written in blank
verse. Unfortunately, he becomes blind
after the age
of 40 but
steal he continued
writing his works. And
Paradise lost his
most precious work,
he has written
after his world
became black.
Milton began Paradise Lost in 1658 and
finished in 1667. He wrote very little of the poem in his own hand, for he was
blind throughout much of the project. Instead, Milton would dictate the poem to
an amanuensis, who would read it back to him so that he could make necessary
revisions. Milton's daughters later described their father being like a cow
ready for milking, pacing about his room until the amanuensisarrived to
"unburden" him of the verse he hadstored in his mind.
Milton claimed to have dreamed much of
Paradise Lost through the nighttime agency of angelic muses. Besides lending
itself to mythologization, his blindness accounts for at least one troubling
aspect of the poem: its occasional inconsistencies of plot. Because he could
not read the poem back to himself, Milton had to rely on his memory of previous
events in the narrative, which sometimes proved faulty. Putting its infrequent
(and certainly minor) plot defects aside, Paradise Lost is nothing short of a
poetic masterpiece. Along with Shakespeare's plays, Milton's Paradise Lost is
the most influential poem in English literature as well as being a basis for or
proof text of modern poetic theory.
Now,
we start
here discussion on
Paradise Lost. It is written in
12 volumes .It is
one type of
biblical story. Here, we only
talks about its
ninth volume which main
theme is Fall
of Man.
Summary
Here Satan
who is banished
to hell wants
to take revenge
against God by
banishes his creation, humans who
are at the
about the Garden of Eden .So, in
this volume Satan
goes there in
shape of serpent
to tempt human
kind. Raphel already warns
Adam and Eve
about the future. But,
Satan by his
words tempts Eve
to eat an
apple which God
denies to eat. Satan
tells Eve that
by eating that
apple you would
become like god
that’s why god
denied you to eat
. Then he further
tells that as
a Serpant he
can speak because
he ate that
apple from knowledge
tree. Then Eve eats
an apple and
with a fear
goes to Adam
and tells a
story. Adam knows that
Eve has not
done the right
thing by going
against the god. But as
he loves Eve
very much, he also
eats an apple
that if they
die,die together.
Characters
Satan
Satan is
the major character
of paradise Lost. He
is also known as Lucifer.He
was also a part of
heaven serving there
as an angel. But
he believes that “
Better to reign
in Hell than
serve in Heaven”. As
he wants to
take a rebel
against god , he
decided to tempt his
beautiful creation Mankind and
he does so. Satan is one of God's favorite angels until
his pride gets in the way and he turns away from God. Satan brings many of
heaven's angels with him, however, and reigns as king in hell. He continues an
eternal battle with God and goodness for the souls of human beings. Satan, at
first, is an angel with a single fault, pride, but throughout the story he
becomes physically and morally more and more corrupt.
Adam
First created man, father of all mankind.
Adam is created a just and ordered creature, living in joy, praising God.
Lonely, Adam will ask for a companion and will thereafter feel deep and
uncontrollable, though ordered, love for her, named Eve. This love will
ultimately get Adam in trouble, as he decides to disobey God rather than leave
her. Adam has free will and, by the end of the poem, also has the knowledge of
good and evil.
He alone
on earth so
demands one partner
to give him
a company . God creates woman to fulfill his
demand. Adam loves Eve
very much. Here, Adam
is heroic figure
but also as
a sinner than
Eve, as he is
aware that what
he is doing
is wrong.
Eve
First created woman, mother of all mankind.
Eve is rather a fickle and vain woman, easily flattered by Adam and Satan. Her
weakness becomes her downfall, as her vanity drives her to disobey God. She
loves Adam as well, though the implication is that she loves herself much more.She is extremely
beautiful creation of
God. She is
tempted by Satan
to eat an
apple which god
has denied. Then, she
does that sin
and Adam also
follows her as
they both loved
each other.
God
God is
the creator of
universe to whom
Satan tries to
rebel. God is the
creator of Mankind. God
firstcreat Adam and
Eve. They are living
their life in
Garden of Eve
so God has
warned them don’t
eat an apple
from one tree.But
Adam and Eve
eat that so
god become angry
and gives them
punishments.
The Absolute, ruler of heaven, creator of
earth and all of creation. God is all seeing, though he seems to pay less
attention to things further away from his light. He is surrounded by angels who
praise him and whom he loves but, when Satan falls and brings many of heaven's
population with him, he decides to create a new creature, human, and to create
for him a beautiful universe in the hopes that someday humans will join him in
heaven. God has a sense of humor, and laughs at the follies of Satan and seems
to be a firm and just ruler.
Major
themes in “Paradise Lost”
Ø His Grand style
Ø In Modern times Milton’s style
first received general criticism from T.S Eliot
Ø Eliot also points out about
Milton’s style that
Ø Milton’s style in writing the Paradise Lost has beencalled a ‘grand
style’, which means it is anelevated, serious, highly crafted, and different
fromcommon speech. It is in fact so unfamiliar tocommon language, even the
usual literary language, that Dr. Johnson accused Milton of‘pedantry’. The
charge is basically based on hiswriting that was heavily Latinated. Indeed
manycritics have complained that Milton spoilt theEnglish language. But in
other ways he hascontributed to the development of the Englishlanguage as a
literary language. Milton’s ‘grand’,style can be discussed under four or five
heads:rhythm and music, word game and figures ofspeech, diction and decorum,
syntax, and theremoteness and sublimit of language and theme.The meter or
rhythm of Milton’s epic poem isusually called the blank verse, but it is not
the common blank verse (lines in iambic pentameterwithout rhyme); Milton
adapted it to his ownconvenience and purpose.
Ø The lines in ParadiseLost do contain ten
syllables usually, but the linescontain any number of stresses from three to
eight.So, it would not be appropriate to say that this isdone by using
traditional techniques of variation.Furthermore, the stresses differ in degree
andposition. The pause or caesura is another evenmore important feature of
rhythm in Milton. Thepause falls at different places of the lines, and
theweight of different pauses is also different; there are light or shorter
pauses and heavy or longerpauses give different effects to the narrative.
Ø Milton’s diction is
heavily Latin. Even when heuses English words, they have the Latinconnotations
beneath. The words are someticulously chosen that many critics have blamedhis
diction as too labored. Milton somehow‘invented English that is extremely
unfamiliar andpedantic. He uses words in such ways that thereare always both literal
and symbolic meanings,with both English denotations and Latinconnotations. His
descriptions are florid and highlypicturesque. He uses images to reinforce
thetheme. He shifts tone along with the change ofdescription and setting. That
usually helps himshift the emotional intensity, or avoid monotony.
“What he could do well he did
better than anyone else has ever done, his poetry could only be an influence
for the worse upon any poet”
Allusion
and vocabulary
The
first aspect of the grand style that most readers notice is the number of
allusion and references like
Ø “Oreb”
Ø “The Shepherd”
Ø “Chosen seed”
Ø “Siloa’s Brook”
To wind up …..
So
also Milton’s almighty considerate purely as a literary character, is
unfortunately tinged with the narrow and literal theology of the time .in this magnificent
heroism Milton has unconsciously immortalized the puritan spirit. Paradise Lost
the least said the better but to the splendor of the puritan dreams and
glorious melody of it ‘s expression no words can do justice .
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