Milton's Paradise Lost: the failure of a revolution, Lecture notes of English

Download Milton's Paradise Lost: the failure of a revolution and more Lecture notes English in PDF only on Docsity! MIL TON' S PARAD/SE LOST: THE FAILURE OF A REVOLUTION John Milton was not an exception among XVIIth century scholars when it carne to regard the Bible as the key pattem of conduct: political attitudes were not an exception to the rule. Such an assertion, however, was regarded as·"dangerous" by ruling classes: Calvinism was a much better option, since it considered human beings as bom sinners, that only an élite would attain the Kingdom of Heavens and the possiblity of having faith as the unique saving grace was not convenient for political reasons. In fact, after the failure of the Puritan revolution which Milton supported, he had to thank his life to the influence of sorne friends. However, leamed men began to be aware of their having been created to control forces which had been, up to that date, utterly unknown to them: the great geographical discoveries, scientific and medical advances, the "free-thinking" mind after the Restoration ... it all opened new possi­ bilities, already hinted in Genesis las regards to the purpose of the creation of man.l All this offered a new perspective which, however, implied as necessary a whole revision of man's nature. Freedom, according to Milton, was neither given nor attained. God Himself had created man free, it was a sacred gift inherent to man's nature, but it was also what God's Word was to give man. God creates through His Word, and it is His Word made into flesh, Jesus Christ, what grants us salvation. Paradise Lost is a revision of the Word: it recreates Adam' s Fall in order to explain the failure of the Puritan. Revolution as it was seen by Milton, in which the efforts of the "rationals", so close to suc­ cess, were frustrated by the depravity of a few. After tuming out from Politics, Milton committed himself to find a historical meaning to this failure, to revise "the justification of God's ways toMen" (PI,!, l. 26), to explain why "virtuous men"- as Adam, as himself­ fail. However, the conclusion of Milton' s work does not give place to tragedy or defeatism, as it could be expected: Paradise Lost is constructed upon a premise of hope which sould be always sought for, even after the Fall. Milton rejects the Calvinistic principie of predestination and supports that the saving grace is granted to all virtuous men. This new perspective implied a whole revision of the old myth of the Fall, whose basic contents were transmuted in order to offer the possibility of hope, even after defeat. The myth had traditionally summarised the sadness of a people oppressed for l Milton makes of this point one of the main subject-matters in Paradise Lost, that is, man has been created to rule the forces of nature, to create a new arder· in which he would be the king. The fact that man has been made in God's image refers to his possibilities as a creator in this new arder: "Let us make now Man in our image, man 1 In our similitude, and let them rule, 1 Over the fish and fowl of sea and earth 1 And every creeping thing that creeps the ground." (Paradise Lost, VII,!!. 519-523). Many Sundry Wits Gathered Together !996: 201-208 Laura Lojo Rodríguez Many Sundry Wits Gathered Together centuries, cursed to undergo suffering in order to attain eternal life. Milton gives a new hope to the creative effort and places his "golden age" in a forthcoming future on earth: 1 " ... Only add Deeds to your knowledge answerable, add faith Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love, By name to come called Charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be 1oth To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A Paradise within Thee, happier far" (PL, XII, 11. 581-587). Milton's proposition of "a Paradise within Thee", even happier than the one lost, must have struck - and even alarmed - his reading public. He recreates the paradox of the "fortunate fall" or felix culpa, which is, on the other hand, as old as Christianity itself. The assertion can only be explained in the light of the consequeces that man' s Fall had for Milton himself: the virtues most admired by him were those which appeared only after the Fall, namely, self-as­ surement, courage in adverse situations and, above all, the capacity to chose, to decide for oneself (as opposed to determinism) and the creative effort of man, which was formerly God's only. Adam's role in Eden was that of a gardener, his creative capacity was limited to preserve the former order. After the Fall, and in the World that God had just created forman, he becomes the agent of a new order, he himself becomes the center and the rest of creation is subordinated to his power. lt should be noticed that this new order is a reproduction of the ini­ tial biblical pattern "creator-creature", but this time theroles are subverted and manis the cre­ ator, not the creatirre. On the other hand, the idea of man as a "creator" fits conveniently in the new bourgeois society in which Milton lived, that is, an individual who was socially free, economically independent and the subject of carefullearning. The story of Adam in Paradise Lost is no other than his own education. Thus, the replacement of the old order by a new one could only be attained by means of a Revolution. Milton, through his work and his revolutionary views, had endevoured the scheme of redeeming the English people, following the example of Moses, who released the peole of Israel from slavery and conducted them to the Promised Land. Now, the English people is the "chosen one" and the Promised Land is no other than England. However, an earthly paradise could only be attained by means of effort and sacrifice, and could not take place without a revolution, which would be similar to the one that Moses led. In spite of this, 1 Many scholars shared Milton's point of view. Francis Bacon believed the Falla matter-of-fact truth (cfr. The Ad­ vancement of Leaming). However, and the same as Milton, he firmly sustained that man could build a new society on earth which would recreate Eden and would leave depravity aside. This aim could only be attained by means of education, reason and intense effort. As a result, the curse on the fallen man - work - would turn out to be the means which would allow him to rise again. From the point of view of Christian theology, these ideas were regard­ ed as unorthodox, although they were quite popular among members of Parliament. They helped to reduce the shadow of "original sin" in favour of a better life on earth by means of human effort. The possibility of finding the lost happiness of Eden on earth was then being opened. 202 Laura Lojo Rodríguez So dreadful to thee? (PL, X, ll. 101-106; 119-121). The loss of direct communication God'Man is, for Milton, the worst consequence of man's Fall.l The role of the W ord is vital for Mil ton. God, in Genesis 1 creates through His W ord and, in short, His Word is Jesus Christ, God.2 This might be the reason why Milton used this ac­ count of creation instead of the second one, in which God plants a garden in Eden and puts man there. This text was written 500 years before the first account of Creation, and belongs to a more primitive biblical tradition.3 The order of creation cannot be conciled in the two accounts, but Milton recreates a combina­ tion of both. In Gn. 1, God creates the universe and al! living things and eventually, makes man and woman simultaneously. The means that God uses to create are altogether different: in Gn. 1, He just uses His Word. Milton uses Gn. 1 for the creation of heaven, earth and all living creatures except man, in which case he recreates the image in Gn. 2 in which God ap­ pears as a potter who makes Adam in clay and blows in his nostrils to give the statue life: Let us make now Man in our image ( ... ) This said, he formed Thee, Adam, thee, O Man, Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed the breath oflife ( ... ) (PL, VII, 519; 520-526). Milton never doubted the historical truth of the events narrated in Genesis 1 and 2, although he also added sorne elements taken from his imagination and from sorne Christian comments to the Fall. For Milton, however, there should exist a bridge, a coherent explanation between an innocent and a sinful state, between Adam and Eve in Book IV and those characters who wake up one moming in Book IX (11. 1053-1055): 1 This situation is often stressed by Milton in the work: "No more talk where God or Angel Guest 1 With Man. as with his friend. familiar us' d 1 To sit indulgent, and with him partake 1 Rural repast, permitting him the while 1 Venial discourse unblam'd." (PL. IX, U. 1-5). 2 This seems to be related to the Gospel according to Saint John, who praises the eterna! origin of the Word. He first presents its relation to God, in Whom the Word is (U. l-2); to the wor1d, made by him (l. 3) and tomen, to whom He is Light and Life (U. 4-5): "In the beginning there was the Word 1 and the Word was in God, 1 and the Word was God. 1 AU things were made by Him, 1 and without Him, there was nothing of what has been made. 1 in Him was the life, 1 and the life was the light of men". (John l, 1-5). 3 In Gn 1 the bíblica! author starts from an initial situation of chaos and darkness, in which everything is flooded by water (aquatic cosmogony). In six days, and by means of His Word, God creates the world separating the waters from the rest. He makes the light (first day), the sky, separating the waters above and below (second day), sepa­ rates land from sea and creates the trees (third day), separates day from night and creates the sun, the moon and stars (fourth day), creates aquatic animals and birds (fifth day), creates earth1y artimals and man and woman (sixth da y) and rests on the seventh da y. Milton is very interested in the solemnity of chapter one: however, for the creat­ ion of man, he choses chapter 2 in Genesis, probably because he did not want man and woman to appear to be created at the same time. Befare making any living creature, God creates man and plants a garden for him to 1ook after. Man feels lonely, and God makes the beasts and birds to keep him company. Nevertheless, none of them fits in man's necessities, and God creates the woman out of Adam's rib. 205 Many Sundry Wits Gathered Together Soon found their eyes opened, and their minds How darkened. Innocence, that as a veil Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gane The character of Eve seems to be that connection, and that might be the reason why Milton used Gn. 2 to account for the creation of man. In this way, the text itself would stress that man and woman were not created at the same time, and that womáh was made out of Adam' s rib. Milton's effort to underline that fact has often been pointed out by feminist readings of Paradise Lost in the last years. lt seems clear that Milton's intention was to stress woman's obedience with respect to man.l The crisis of Paradise Lost starts when E ve yields to the ser­ pent that flatters her vanity and eats the fruit as a result. As a theologian, Milton had to pre­ serve Eve's innocence until the very instant in which she eats the forbidden fruit. As a poet, he had to stress that Eve was predisposed to sin. The omens ofEve's Fall start from her very birth, whe1;1 she tells Adam how she carne to consciousness, "under a shade of flow'rs", watching her image reflected in the pond. The reader inmediately associates the passage with the myth of Narcissus, which appears in Ovid' s Metamorphoses (III, 401- 51 0).2 The myth has traditionally been regarded as the epitome of the destructiveness of self- !ove. But Milton goes even further: the birth of Sin, which is described in Book 11 and refers to the legend of Palas Athene's birth, is extremely similar to Eve's. Both Sin and Eve are already adults when they are bom, are incredibly beautiful and are made in the image of their creat­ ors. S atan sees in Sin his perfect image and, the same as eve, falls in !ove with it. Eve' s sexual implications are also extremely important. Adam confesses to Raphael that he cannot resist Eve's sexual charms. Milton also compares the union of Adam and Eve with Jupiter and Juno's marriage, which is an extremely negative association: Jupiter, the same as Adam, is betrayed by the woman he !oves. Eve's dream is also pregnant of sexual connota­ tions; being in this dream when Eve falls for the first time, an amen of the real disobedience. S atan has overheard the circumstances of E ve' s birth and, therefore, knows how to tempt her naive vanity. He is not only successful, but also able to make Eve deviate her thoughts from Adam, her leader. Having done this, she concentrates her mind on herself, on that self-love which will be her destruction. Thus, she looks for Adam in her dream, but she cannot find him; she literally falls down, reaches the Tree of Knowledge and eats its fruit: "My Cuide was gon, and 1, methought, sunk down" (Paradise Lost, V, l. 91). The author is being explicit enough when he anticipates Eve's fall and therefore, the reader is not surprised when Eve ac­ tually eats the fruit. Satan is successful in his endevour: he leads Eve astray from her guide 1 The bíblica! author may have had in mind the amazing reality of marriage (in fact, the whole passage of Genesis 2 is a justification of marriage), in which man leaves his family in order to create a new one with his wife. The fact that E ve was made out of Adam' s rib is an image of deep attachment and intimacy between husband and wife. This explains why Eve only can fullfil Adam's life in Eden. 2 The parallelism is even more distressing if one takes into account that Milton uses classical myths as a device to re­ fer to Satan and his Angels from Hell. In this way, the destructive character of these beings is underlined. As it could be expected, Eve and Satan are associated by this recurrence to classical mythology. 206 Laura Lojo Rodríguez and encourages her latent pride.l Adam' s failure in Paradise Lost is depicted in a very differ­ ent way. Adam resembles too much the classical hero: his lave for Eve leads him to reject the etemal innocence ofEden, and he prefers to sink down with her. The dramatic structure and subject-matter of Paradise Lost was intended to give his author the justification of man's fall, but also an explanation of his own failure. Por Milton, it was not God who allowed his Revolution to fail, in the same way as it was not God who chose Adam's fall. It was man himself, although unaware of it, who became the creator a a new or­ der that he would have to learn to rule. REFERENCES Laura Lojo Rodríguez Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Abrams, N. H. 1971: El Romanticismo: Tradici~n y Revoluci~n. Madrid, Norton & Compa­ ny. Barbeito, José Manuel (ed.) 1991: Paradise Lost: The Word, the World, the Words, Universi- dad de Santiago de Compostela, 1991. Beck, Richard 1961: Milton and the Spirit ofthe Age. English Studies, vol. 42. Frye, Northrop 1957: An Anatomy of Criticism, Princeton University Press. Frye, Northrop 1976: La Escritura Profana, Monte Ávila Editores, Harvard University Press. Frye, Northrop 1982: The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, London, The Gresham Press. Harding, David 1962: The Club of Hercules. Studies in the Classical Background of Paradise Lost. Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, vol. 50, Urbana, University of lllinois Press. Hill, Christopher 1983: Crisis en Europa: 1560-1660, vol. II, Madrid, Alianza Universitaria. Hill, Ch ristopher 1977: Milton and the English Revolution, Lonfon, Faber & Faber. Kermode, Frank 1987: The Literary Guide to the Bible; London, Collins. Martz, Louis 1987: Paradise Lost: A Collection ofCritical Essays, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Milton, John 1970: The Critica! Heritage, London, Routledge. Milton, John 1982: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, London, Signet Clasics. 1 This is aclually whal Salan had previously done: when, slill in Heaven, God presenls His Son (Book I), Salan au­ lomalically feels envious and deviales his eyes from God lo loo k at himself, which is the firsl acl of pride. 207