Paradise Lost, Book 1 (Course: ENGA-P5) Dr Swarup Ray ..., Assignments of Cosmology

Download Paradise Lost, Book 1 (Course: ENGA-P5) Dr Swarup Ray ... and more Assignments Cosmology in PDF only on Docsity! Paradise Lost, Book 1 (Course: ENGA-P5) Dr Swarup Ray Department of English Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira (Engraved portrait of Milton at age 62) John Milton (1608-1674) Paradise Lost Title page to Paradise Lost, 1667 Title page to Paradise Lost, 1674 Summary (Books 1-6) The whole poem tells of Satan’s expulsion from Heaven, his vengeful tempting of Eve, and the expulsion of Adam & Eve from Paradise. Book 1: Satan and his fellow rebels awake in Hell, build the palace of Pandemomium, and sit in council. Book 2: The fallen angels debate how best to retaliate against or appease God. Satan embarks for the newly created earth to seek revenge. At the gates of Hell he meets Sin and Death. Book 3: Satan’s journey is observed from Heaven. The Son offers to sacrifice himself to redeem humankind from the sin into which Satan will lead it. Book 4: Satan reaches the Garden and plots to make Adam and Eve sin by eating of the Tree of Knowledge. On his first attempt to seduce Eve in her sleep, he is apprehended by the angel Gabriel. Book 5: Raphael dines with Adam and Eve, and tells them the story of Satan’s rebellion in Heaven. Book 6: Raphael tells of the war in Heaven, and the expulsion of Satan and the rebel angels by the Son of God. Summary (Books 7-12) Book 7: Raphael tells of the creation of the world in six days. Book 8: Adam tells Raphael of his own creation and meeting with Eve. Book 9: Satan returns in the guise of a serpent and tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Learning what she has done, Adam consents to eat as well. They fall victim to lust, shame, and mutual recrimination. Book 10: Satan returns in triumph to Hell, but he and his devils are transformed into snakes. Adam and Eve bemoan their state. Book 11: The angel Michael tells Adam and Eve that they must depart from Paradise. First, he reveals to Adam the future of humankind. Book 12: Michael continues his revelation, including the coming of Christ. Hand in hand, Adam and Eve depart from Paradise. The Cosmology of Paradise Lost When Satan reaches the limit of Heaven’s light, what he sees is the Universe (or World), consisting of Earth, a fixed central body, round which ten concentric circles revolve at varying speeds. These circles are thought of as moving shells of space carrying planets in the following order (from Earth outwards): Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars, the Crystalline Sphere, and the Primum Mobile. The Primum Mobile possesses a hard, opaque outer surface; it serves as on outer covering for the whole Universe. The Cosmology of Paradise Lost When Satan lands on the outer shell (Book III) he finds the aperture. He flies through the aperture and lands on the Sun. Here Satan meets Uriel, the Sun angel, whom he deceives by assuming the disguise of a youthful cherub and inquiring the way to Earth. The Cosmology of Paradise Lost Milton’s cosmology is that of the Ptolemaic Universe, based upon Greek science and elaborated in the Middle Ages. Milton himself accepted the heliocentric cosmology advocated by Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe & Galileo, but adopted the geocentric cosmology of the ancient Roman astronomer, Ptolemy in Paradise Lost for reasons of convenience. The heliocentric cosmology was only gradually establishing itself in Milton’s time, and could not yet replace the geocentric cosmology for imaginative purposes. Notes on the Invocation, Book 1 1-26: The first proem or invocation; there are three more invocations (Books, 3, 5 & 7). The first contains the epic statement of theme (1-5) and the invocation. 4: greater Man: Christ, the second Adam. 6: heavenly Muse: Milton calls his Muse ‘Urania’ in Book 7. Urania, the Greek Muse of astronomy, had been made into the Muse of Christian poetry by Du Bartas and other religious poets. Here she is identified as the divine Logos that inspired biblical prophet-poets. 8: shepherd: Moses, thought to be the author of Genesis and the other four books of the Pentateuch, was tending sheep on Mount Horeb (“Oreb”) when God spoke to him from a burning bush (Exod. 3:1-2); he received the Law on the highest peak, “Sinai.” chosen seed: the children of Israel; the Jews. 9-10: In the beginning: Echoes Gen. 1:1; Milton thought God created the universe out of formless, primordial matter (“chaos”), not out of nothing. Sion hill: Mount Zion, associated with the biblical poet David (author of many psalms); also the site of Solomon’s Temple with its songs and ceremonies. Notes on the Invocation, Book 1 (contd.) 11-12: Siloa’s brook: Siloah, a pool near Mount Zion (Neh. 3:15) in Jerusalem; it parallels Aganippe, the Muses’ spring on Mount Helicon. oracle: Mount Zion as site of divine teaching and prophecy (Isa. 2:3). 15: Aonian mount: Mount Helicon, home of the classical Muses. 16: The line translates Ariosto’s boast in Orlando Furioso 1.2.2: “Cosa non detta in prosa mai, né in rima” (‘What never yet was said in prose or rhyme’). unattempted: ‘Unattempted even in the Bible?’ or ‘Unattempted in English literature?’ asks Daiches. 17: Spirit: Probably the creative power of God, but possibly the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity), in spite of Milton’s argument in Christian Doctrine, 1.6 that invocation of the Holy Spirit as a separate person has no Biblical foundation. Unlocalised and operating inwardly, the Spirit provides the impulse of every creative act, divine or human. There is an implied analogy between creation and poetic making. 17-22: A composite of Biblical phrases (e.g., Gen. 1:2, 1 Cor. 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, and John 1:32). Dove-like…pregnant: The Spirit of God ‘brooded’ (hatched) the Universe out of the unshaped matter of Chaos (“abyss”) , thus putting life into Chaos, making it “pregnant”. The Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, appeared as a dove on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism (John 1:32). Notes on the Invocation, Book 1 (contd.) 22-26: “… what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence, And justify the ways of God to men.” Readers and those casually acquainted with Paradise Lost frequently misunderstand what Milton means by the word justify, assuming that Milton is rather arrogantly asserting that God’s actions and motives seem so arbitrary that they require vindication and explanation. Milton does not use the word justification in its modern sense of proving that an action is or was proper. Such a reading of justify would mean that Milton is taking it upon himself to explain the propriety of God’s actions—a presumptuous undertaking when one is dealing with God. Rather, Milton uses justify in the sense of showing the justice that underlies an action. Milton wishes to show that the Fall, death, and salvation are all acts of a just God. To understand the theme of Paradise Lost, a reader does not have to accept Milton’s ideas as a vindication of God’s actions; rather the reader needs to understand the idea of justice that lies behind the actions. The fourth proem or invocation, Book 9 (1-47) … sad task, yet argument [subject] Not less but more heroic then the wrath Of stern Achilles … (lines 13-15) … If answerable [suited to the subject] style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated Verse: Since first this subject for heroic song Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late; Not sedulous [eager] by nature to indite [write about] Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroic deemed, … (lines 20-29) … … Me of these Nor skilled nor studious, higher argument Remains, … (lines 41-43) The Fortunate Fall At the end of Paradise Lost, Adam wonders whether he should be sorry or glad about the Fall: “O goodness infinite, goodness immense! That all this good of evil shall produce, And evil turn to good; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness! full of doubt I stand, Whether I should repent me now of sin By me done and occasioned, or rejoice Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring, To God more glory, more good will to men From God, and over wrath grace shall abound.” (XII: 473-478) This is Milton’s version of the idea of the “fortunate fall” expressed in the Mass for Holy Saturday: O felix culpa quae talem ac tantum meruit habere redemptorum - “O blessed sin that was rewarded by so good and so great a redeemer!” Arthur O. Lovejoy calls it the ‘Paradox of the Fortunate Fall’. The Fortunate Fall (contd.) The final justification of God’s ways is the manifestation of his grace in the redemption of man through the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ – “whereby man, being delivered from sin and death … is raised to a far more excellent state of grace and glory than that from which he had fallen“ (Christian Doctrine, I. xiv). Christ’s death is the price paid as ransom to free man from the bondage of Satan, sin, and death into which Adam sold himself and all his progeny by his disobedience. In this act of atonement, Christ restored to man the possibility of eternal life (as in Paradise), freed him from the inherited guilt of Adam’s sin, and made him more aware of God’s infinite love than he had been before. In Paradise Lost God’s providence is made to seem just by the conclusion of the “great argument” (1: 24) or story: Satan fell because he thought he merited more than he got, and Adam in his redemption got more than he merited. As Addison remarked, in the end “Satan is represented as miserable in the heights of his triumph, and Adam triumphant in the heights of his misery.”