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Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost. John Milton. Lines 1-49. Examine the narrator's invocation (lines 1-25) and his epic question and answer (lines 26-49). What is the source of the narrator's authority?

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Paradise Lost

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  1. Paradise Lost John Milton

  2. Lines 1-49 • Examine the narrator's invocation (lines 1-25) and his epic question and answer (lines 26-49). • What is the source of the narrator's authority? • What kind of persona would you say is established when one puts all three elements--the invocations, question, and answer--together?

  3. Lines 1-26 • Characteristic of a classical epic that the poet invokes the aid of his patron muse. Milton marries his Christian theme and neo-classical method by invoking, as his muse, the Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity. This section is a prayer, in which Milton states his subject, and asks for divine assistance in giving voice to it. Milton states that his purpose is to: “Assert eternal providenceAnd justify the ways of God to men.”

  4. Lines 50-83 • What purposes do the lines (50-83) serve that immediately follow the invocation and question and answer?

  5. Lines 27-83 • Satan's revolt • Note how easily Milton moves from prayer into an account of Satan's fall, by asking who or what caused man to fall. According to Milton, Satan's motive was to be above his peers. • Satan is cast out of Heaven, together with his “horrid crew”. Nine days they lie on a lake of fire, then regain consciousness to find themselves in Hell.

  6. Lines 84-124, 128-55, 157-91 • Examine the first speech that Satan makes, the one he makes only to his arch-lieutenant, Beëlzebub. Also examine the latter's response to this speech as well as Satan's counter-response to Beëlzebub's words. • Work out what the arguments of these two speakers are. • Is Satan a skilled rhetorician? How so? • Try to explain some of Satan's errors in logic. • Does Beelzebub know something Satan doesn't; or does he admit something that Satan will not admit?

  7. Lines 84-127 • Satan acknowledges how utterly his confederate, Beelzebub, has been changed, for the worse, by the devils' defeat, but stresses fact that they are still united in their fall. • He recognizes God's superior strength, but points out that he now knows the extent of God's power, previously unknown because untried. • Despite the change they have outwardly undergone, Satan stresses the unchanged nature of his attitude to God's Son, “the potent Victor”.

  8. “All is not lost” because Satan will never submit freely to God's authority. Satan suggests that God's rule was endangered by his revolt, that he will never sink to the indignity of asking forgiveness, and outlines his intention of conducting further warfare against God. • Satan's speech smacks of wishful thinking; he speaks boastfully, but at the same time tortured by pain and profound despair.

  9. Lines 128-191 • Beelzebub's reply and Satan's second speech • Beelzebub acknowledges Satan's trial of God's might, bewails loss of Heaven, and the punishment the fallen angels are suffering, though this will not be alleviated by death. He suggests that God has deliberately left devils their strength, to be His slaves, carrying out “his errands in the gloomy deep” of Hell. • Satan replies that the devils' task must be never to do anything good, but always to strive to pervert to evil ends whatever God does, turning to evil His good actions. Satan suggests leaving the lake of fire in which they lie, and reassembling their forces. • Note Satan's resolution and his taking the initiative. As the poem continues we also note Beelzebub's support of Satan, his ready agreement with all he says - Beelzebub is very shrewd: he makes sure he defers to his superior.

  10. Lines 195-210 • From lines 195-210, we are treated to Milton's first major extended simile. Actually, it is a series of similes, and a complex one at that. Examine these lines--in what way are they relevant, even vital, to the task of Milton and his narrator in describing heavenly things that really are not describable from a fallen human perspective?

  11. Lines 192-282 • Satan's and Beelzebub's quitting the lake of fire • Satan and Beelzebub leave the lake of fire and fly to land. • Milton compares Satan with the sea-monster, Leviathan, and stresses the fact that it is only with God's permission that the devils quit the lake. • Satan acknowledges the horrible nature of Hell, but argues that, for him, to be in Heaven would be Hell (being subservient to God) and it is better to reign where he is than serve in Heaven. • Beelzebub repeats Satan's suggestion, advising him to call to other angels, who will be revived by sound of their leader's voice.

  12. Lines 242-55 • Examine Satan's primal poetic elegy. What purpose/s does it serve? What resolution or statement does this elegy lead Satan to make?

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