Paradise Lost : A Song of Origins

1. Paradise Lost: A Song of Origins Adviser: ANA-KARINA SCHNEIDER, PhD Associate Professor Candidate: MARTA ONU

2. Preliminary Considerations In postmodern times or, as some might put it, in post-postmodern times, when humans’ thoughts address the future, and the “daily grist of our news,” as Ihab Hassan would put it (2003: 5), Milton’s cosmogonic myth speaks to us of origins and eternal truths. We witness every day “the sundry movements of secession, decolonization, separatism, on the one hand, and the fluent imperium of high-tech, media capitalism, on the other – cargo cults here, satellites there, the Taliban in one place, Madonna everywhere” (Hassan 5). In this despiritualised world, Milton’s Paradise Lost offers us the same values of truth, trust and tact that it did in the seventeenth century and that Hassan recommends to twenty-first-century humanity (5). This paper aims to interrogate the healing potential of Milton’s method of regressusad originem. The return to origins is an attempt to understand the causes of the anguish and anxieties that society is confronted with in times of crisis; this method proves to have been true in Milton’s time, and it is still true nowadays.

3. Chapter I: Social and Religious Anguish 1. The Socio-Religious Situation and Milton’s Theological Opinions The first subchapter presents the general social and religious background of the seventeenth century, when Jean Calvin’s ideas were put in contrast with Jacobus Arminius’s ideas, and when King Charles I wrote a Royalist propaganda work, where he advocated the belief in the “divine right of kings.” Charles I’s EikonBasilike was published after his execution in February 1649, and in October 1649, Milton published his Eikonoklastes, a book meant to shape his protest against the King’s ideas. In this work, Milton demonstrated his fervent Puritanism, as the Puritans were against the Anglican idea of the supremacy of the King in Church. 2. Milton’s Subtle Resistance to Puritanism despite his fervent Puritanism, Milton became estranged from some of the Calvinist principles, as his God was a God of free will. Throughout the works that precede Paradise Lost (Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes), and especially throughout Paradise Lost itself, Milton manifests his subtle resistance to Puritanism. Milton’s resistance to Puritanism, which is manifested through his admiration for the two epochs of human history: Antiquity and the Renaissance. These epochs reveal man’s dual nature, his earthly sensuality and his ethereal beauty, or, as Milton puts it, man’s “sweet attractive Grace” (9. 459), and, on the other hand, his “graceful Innocence” (4. 298).

4. Chapter II: Paradise Lost: A Song of Origins This chapter illustrates the idea that Paradise Lost reveals the initial harmony that characterised the times when man had not yet fallen under the burden of sin. In this sense, the chapter’s thesis is strongly related to MirceaEliade’s reports about certain shamans who practiced a ritual that involved singing a song of the origins of the disease when someone falls sick. The song contains the story of the disease, focusing on its origins in order for the patient to become aware of the causes and the song cures him. In his poem, Milton explores the beginnings of time and rediscovers the error of disobedience. 1. The Creation In demonstrating this thesis of re-thinking the error and of healing the injured man of all times, the first subchapter analyses God’s act of creation, when light existed independent of the Sun’s existence; light was considered a feminine principle, and the Sun a masculine principle, paralleling the union of soul and God, Eve and Adam.

5. 2. Adam and Eve: Tempted by Satan to Disobey The second subchapter, however, represents a counterpoint to the harmony of the first subchapter. Disharmony is embodied in Satan’s “Erebus” (Chaos), and, especially, in his method of seducing Eve: he appears in her dream, and whispers in her ear that the entire universe was created to admire her. Thus, the seed of pride was sown in her soul, and disobedience grows out of this seed.

6. 3. Christ’s Redemption The third subchapter illustrates the need for Christ’s redemption: the cosmic creation, in which all living creatures dwelled, was transformed into an uncreative process. This uncreative process is transformed into a re-creative one through Christ’s incarnation and resurrection. Thus, the new joy that Christ provided the fallen man with is crucial, because humanity gains new hope of healing itself.

7. Chapter III: The Epic: The Genre of Origins The last chapter incorporates the idea that the epic as a genre can explain the origins of good and evil. The epic is seen as a spiritual category of humanity that can illustrate man’s crucial aspiration of understanding God, and of restoring his faith. 1. The Genre of Origins The first subchapter depicts the fact that nothing could have explained better the origins of truth than the epic genre, which best reflects man’s ability of narrating and communicating. 2. Milton’s Epic Enterprise The second subchapter aims to illustrate the fact that Milton’s epic was meant to compete with Homer’s and Virgil’s epics. This “competition” is revealed in this subchapter by describing the themes adopted by these classical poets comparatively. Thus, while Homer and Virgil describe heroic anger, Milton depicts divine anger, namely God’s anger when confronted with Adam’s disobedience.

8. Representative Quotes From Milton’s Paradise Lost Let us make now Man in our image, Man let them rule In our similitude, and let them rule Over the Fish and Fowle of Sea and Aire, Beast of the Field, and over all the Earth.(7.519-522) ...the pleasant savourie smell So quick’nd appetite, that I, methought Could not but taste … (5.83-5) Behold me then, mee for him, life for life I offer, on me let thine anger fall; […] On me let Death wreck all his rage.(3.236-237; 241) Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe… (1.1-3)