Woden’s Day, February 5: Paradise Lost EQ: How does Paradise Lost further Milton’s idea of Reason as “God’s Image”? Welcome! Gather MILTON PACKET, pen/pencil, paper, wits!
Group Reading: Paradise Lost, I – XII
Freewrites/Journals: The Mind In Hell
Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming
from th' ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
ELACC12RL-RI1: Cite strong thorough textual evidence to support analysis ELACC12RL-RI2: Analyze two or more themes or central ideas of text ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, events interact, develop ELACC12RL4-RI4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text ELACC12RL5: Analyze an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text ELACC12RL6: Distinguish what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant ELACC12RI6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text ELACC12RI8: Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal British texts ELACC12RL-RI9: Analyze for theme, purpose rhetoric, and how texts treat similar themes or topics ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature independently and proficiently. ELACC12W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience ELACC12W9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions ELACC12SL3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, evidence and rhetoric ELACC12SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English ELACC12L3: Demonstrate understanding of how language functions in different contexts ELACC12L4: Determine/clarify meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases ELACC12L5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, nuances ELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases Opening Freewrite: Bad Guy, Bad Place
Write 100 words on one of these, or 50 words on each, or some combination something like that: What do you think when somebody says the word “Satan”? What, to your mind, does that entity look like, sound like, act like? Be specific. What do you think when somebody says the word “Hell”? What, to your mind, does that place look like, sound like, act like? Be specific. John Milton, Areopagitica (1644)
Like other Puritans, Milton believed that Christians are responsible for individual relationship with God – cannot rely on priest, etc. Believed that the mind – “Right Reason” – is the gift God gives us to find His Will in scripture, nature, and ourselves. Right Reason isn’t “natural” like conscience, etc.; must be developed by hard mental work. Unlike many Puritans, Milton believed in Free Will: we know God’s Truth only if we seek it freely and choose it openly. SO: Righteousness, virtue, wisdom and salvation come only if we choose “good” over “evil” – sin must available as a choice, and rejected freely, if virtue is to be meaningful.
Brave words! Let’s see how that worked out. John Milton: After Areopagitica
1650: Blindness. He had been losing his sight for years; by now, becomes total 1660: Restoration. Sick of Puritans, Parliament invites Charles II to return. Charles orders Milton imprisoned (remember Tenure of Kings?). He is soon released, but denied employment, his works burned in public (Areopagitica?). 1660-1666: Blind, disgraced, impoverished, bedridden, Milton composes, revises, edits 12,000 lines of Paradise Lost ALL IN HIS HEAD, and dictates in its entirety to his daughters, who write it all down according to his (memorized!) instructions. 1667: Paradise Lost published to instant, universal praise. Even “haters” acknowledge its greatness – have continued to do so at the highest level ever since (this never happens!). 1674: Paradise Lost published in final form; Milton dies John Milton, Paradise Lost: Book I
The poem’s famous opening has Milton stating his purpose, and asking a Muse for help.
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse…. I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. ….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.
Milton asks the Heavenly Muse “who first seduced” Adam and Eve; the Muse answers:
The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived The mother of mankind, what time his pride Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers…. With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms. Nine times the space that measures day and night To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew, Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, Confounded, though immortal…. At once, as far as Angels ken, he views The dismal situation waste and wild. A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe…. He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side, One next himself in power, and next in crime, Long after known in Palestine, and named Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy, And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid silence, thus began…. ”All is not lost: the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee, and deify his power Who, from the terror of this arm, so late Doubted his empire – that were low indeed; That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods, And this empyreal substance, cannot fail; Since, through experience of this great event, In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, We may with more successful hope resolve To wage by force or guile eternal war, Irreconcilable to our grand Foe, Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven." So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain, Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair.
This creature, now called Satan, tells the other Fallen Angels to follow him to a hilltop above the flames, where he plans to build a meeting hall to be called Pandaemonium. Satan gets up:
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool His mighty stature; on each hand the flames Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale. Then with expanded wings he steers his flight Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air.
Satan lands on the hilltop and gives his most famous speech. "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat That we must change for Heaven?--this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be it so…. Farewell, happy fields, Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor, one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Reading Guide: John Milton, Paradise Lost: Book I
1.. Milton says that his subject is “Man’s ______, and the ______
of that ______.” What Biblical story is he talking about?
2. For help in this he asks, “Sing, ______.” Who would this be?
3. Milton “invokes” this “aid” to help his “______song,” while it “______
things ______yet in ______or ______.”
4. “What is in me ______, ______,” he prays. What does this mean?
5. He says that his mission is to “justify the ______of ______to ______.”
6. After God tossed Satan out of Heaven, he “Lay vanquished” without moving for how long?
7. Satan sees that Hell’s fire gives “No light, but rather ______.”
8. These flames “Served only to discover ______of ______.”
9. The creature “soon discerns …/ One next himself in power,” who is “named” ______.
10. Satan vows to continue war because “All is not ______; the unconquerable ______/ and study
of ______, immortal ______,/ and ______never to ______or ______.”
He claims that God felt “the terror of this ______” and “Doubted his ______.” Is this likely?
11. After all this “Vaunting aloud,” Satan actually is “racked with deep ______.” What does that tell us about his bragging in question #10?
12. Satan builds a meetings hall called ______. What does word usually mean? That word, by etymology, would literally mean ______
13. Read the description of how Satan flies. What does it sound like? (hint: not bat, dragon)
14. As he surveys Hell, Satan says, “The ______is its own ______, and in itself
can make / A ______of ______, a ______of ______.” 15. “Here at least,” says Satan, “we shall be ______.” Paradox, much?
16. Satan famously concludes that it is “Better to ______in ______than
______in ______.” Is it? The Mind In Hell: Excerpts from Paradise Lost II - XII
Book II: Moloch, “the strongest and fiercest Spirit/That fought Heaven,” addresses Pandaemonium. My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, More unexpert, I boast not: them let those Contrive who need, or when they need; not now. …. let us rather choose, Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way, Turning our tortures into horrid arms Against the Torturer; … What can be worse Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned In this abhorred deep to utter woe! … More destroyed than thus, We should be quite abolished, and expire. What fear we then? …—happier far Than miserable to have eternal being!.... He ended frowning. After debate, the demons vote to have Satan leave Hell to get revenge by destroying Mankind in Eden.
Book III: Satan escapes Hell; God in Heaven watches him, and speaks to His Son about it. ….Man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command, Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall He and his faithless progeny: Whose fault? Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of me All he could have; I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the ethereal Powers And Spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, Where only what they needs must do appear'd, Not what they would? what praise could they receive? What pleasure I from such obedience paid? ….they themselves decreed Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew, Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault…. They trespass, authors to themselves in all Both what they judge, and what they choose; for so I form'd them free: and free they must remain, Till they enthrall themselves; … they themselves ordain'd their fall….. But Mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine. Book IV: Satan lands in Eden, looks its beauty, and with nobody around, he considers his situation. …. horrour and doubt distract His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir The Hell within him; for within him Hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step, no more than from himself, can fly By change of place…. Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad; Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun, Which now sat high in his meridian tower: Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began. “O Sun! how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell … pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King: Ah, wherefore! he deserved no such return From me, whom he created what I was In that bright eminence, and with his good Upbraided none; nor was his service hard…. O, had his powerful destiny ordained Me some inferiour Angel, I had stood Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised Ambition! Yet why not?.... Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse, But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all? Be then his love accursed…. Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will Chose freely what it now so justly rues. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell…. O, then, at last relent: Is there no place Left for repentance, none for pardon left? None left but by submission; and that word Disdain forbids me…. So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear; Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold, By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know.” Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face….
Books V – VIII Adam and Eve talk about how great life is in Eden, and the angel Raphael tells Adam about The Creation and the War in Heaven. Raphael warns them about Satan, and leaves. Book IX: Satan, disguised as a serpent, tells Eve that he ate the Fruit of the Forbidden Tree and lived, becoming wise; if she eats, he says, she will become Godlike in wisdom, smarter than Adam. These, these, and many more Causes import your need of this fair fruit. Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste!
She thinks about it a while; finally deciding to eat. So saying, her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat! Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk The guilty Serpent; …. Greedily she ingorged without restraint, And knew not eating death. She decides to share her secret with Adam, and offers him The Fruit. He is horrified: How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost, Defaced, deflowered, and now to death devote! Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress The strict forbiddance, how to violate The sacred fruit forbidden! Some cursed fraud Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown, And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee Certain my resolution is to die: How can I live without thee! how forego Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined, To live again in these wild woods forlorn! Should God create another Eve, and I Another rib afford, yet loss of thee Would never from my heart: no, no! I feel The link of Nature draw me: flesh of flesh, Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe. Adam eats. The couple celebrates the night away, then wakes with headaches, arguing about who is to blame for causing their fall.
Books X God sends messengers to Eden; Adam and Eve hear voices proclaiming that they must die. Death, a monster sitting at the gates of Hell, smells human blood and begins to salivate. Satan tells Pandaemonium that he has triumphed over God, caused the Fall of Man, then asks them to applaud: Ye have the account Of my performance: What remains, ye Gods, But up, and enter now into full bliss? So having said, a while he stood, expecting Their universal shout, and high applause, To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears On all sides, from innumerable tongues, A dismal universal hiss, the sound Of publick scorn; he wondered, but not long Had leisure, wondering at himself now more, His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare; His arms clung to his ribs; his legs entwining Each other, till supplanted down he fell A monstrous serpent on his belly prone, Reluctant, but in vain; a greater power Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned, According to his doom: he would have spoke, But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue To forked tongue; for now were all transformed Alike, to serpents all, as accessories To his bold riot. Adam weeps, curses God for giving him life and Eve, curses Eve for tempting him – but takes no responsibility. By contrast, Eve suggests that they beg forgiveness. Adam agrees, and they pray.
Book XI: God is moved, and commands that Adam and Eve leave Eden but be given mercy through The Son. God sends the archangel Michael to expel them, but gently: Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveal To Adam what shall come in future days, As I shall thee enlighten; intermix My covenant in the Woman's seed renewed; So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace. Michael reveals a future of pain and sin and death for Adam, Eve and all folk that follow. Book XII: Adam and Eve consider suicide, but Michael reveals a plan for future salvation, so they decide to live on, in love and suffering. Angels begin to burn Eden down as they leave:
The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way. Reading Guide: John Milton, Paradise Lost II – XII
1. Book II: The Fallen Angels in Pandaemonium debate what to do. What is Moloch’s plan?
Does it seem to you like a good plan? Why or why not?
2. Book III: As Satan leaves Hell, whom does God blame for the fact that mankind will fall?
3. God says He made Man “______to have ______, though ______to ______.” 4. Book IV: According to Milton, where exactly is Hell? 5. Satan admits that “______and ______threw me down.” 6. Satan admits that his “will / ______what it now so justly rues.” 7. Satan says, “Which way I ______is ______, ______am ______.” 8. EXPAIN: What does this mean? 9. Satan asks himself if there is a way to gain God’s pardon, and answers, “None but by ______.” Why won’t he do that? 10. “So farewell, ______, and with hope farewell ______,” he says; “______, be thou my ______.” As he is saying this, what happens to his appearance? 11. Book IX: When Eve ate The Fruit, says Milton, “______felt the ______.” 12. When Adam sees Eve with The Fruit, he calls her “______, ______, and now to ______.” So why does he decide to eat, and die with her? 13. Book X: Satan expects applause after bragging about The Fall. Instead, what does he hear? 14. What happens to his body? 15. Book XI: God tells Michael to expel Adam and Eve “though ______, yet in ______.” 16. Book XII: As Adam and Eve leave Eden, “The ______was all before them, where to ______their place of rest, and ______their guide; / They, ______in ______, with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their ______way.”
Turn In Today: 3 Freewrites: The Mind in Hell; or, Stinkin’ Thinkin’
Reading Guide o Paradise Lost, Book I completed o Paradise Lost, Books II-XII as far as you got
Keep: Text/excerpts: Paradise Lost – will do rest tomorrow!