英国文学史

英国文学

	返回首页	美国文学	课程概述	教师简介	课程学习	学习资源	复习题库

Milton<-chapter 4<-contents<-position

    As for the theme of this epic, in Milton’s own words, “assert Eternal Providence and to justify the ways of God to men”, that is, to tell the reason why God drives Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. However, God is depicted like a tyranny, while Satan is lively and full of resources and courage. Milton eulogizes the rebellious spirit of Satan as well as the sincere love from Adam to Eve. To some extent, Milton unconsciously instills his firm fighting spirit into Satan and makes Satan server as his own mouthpiece, such as in the lines:
                                                       What though the field be lost?
                                  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 deifie his power
                                 Who from the terrour 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 advanc't,
                                We may with more successful hope resolve
                                 To wage by force or guile eternal Warr
                                Irreconcileable, to our grand Foe,
                                Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
                                Sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heav'n.

     Paradise Lost is always considered as one of the most important works in English literature. In this epic, Milton not only created a group of distinctive and lifelike characters, but also constructed it in a sublime and magnificent manner. There are many long and complex sentences. Usually a sentence is completed with several lines. Together with the employment of parallels, similes and allusions etc., the epic becomes more majestic yet more difficult to understand
     Milton is an anti-mimetic poet, like the Romantic poets whom he served as a model; and thus he is less interested in the "action" of men than in the "drama" of the mind. One effect of assuming the conventions of multiple forms, and of then belittling them as Milton does in Paradise Lost, is to deny the poet (both himself and his successors) the structural support that generic conventions lend. Paradise Lost is a reassessment of all the genres it subsumes, and that reassessment involves an alteration, a perfection, of their ideologies, accompanied by a repudiation of their usual structures. Biblical prophecy--most notably Revelation prophecy--provides Milton with an alternative structure (or structures) and simultaneously enables him to intensify the dramatic element in his epics.
     In terms of ideology, Paradise Lost expresses the poet's radicalism not only in its rejection of epic structure but in its inversion of the hierarchy of styles: the plain style is assigned to God, the grand one to Satan. In the process Milton fractures the customary relationship between poet and audience. Though the epic poet often asserted artistic superiority over his audience, he seldom asserted moral authority over it; and this is because he took the values he celebrated from the audience he was addressing. Milton, however, claims both artistic and moral superiority, thereby making the poet the generator of the values by which a whole culture is asked to live.

previous page next page