![]() In Book XIII of The Odyssey, she offeredto help Odysseus "devise the wisest course to take" (362). Athenaforewarned both Odysseus and Telemachus of future dangers in greatdetail, always including specific information about traps andpossible solutions. While divine counselis offered in both Paradise Lost and Homer's Odyssey,the extent of involvement is greater in The Odyssey. However, in Paradise Lost, the lack of divineintervention sets it apart from previous epics. Often in epics, the gods would intervene in thelives of humans. Milton especially manipulates his use of epic machinery to achievehis divine goal. Also, byciting divine inspiration from a member of the Trinity, Milton issupporting his case of "justifying the ways of God to men." As theauthor himself recognizes, he may now "assert Eternal Providence"( Paradise Lost 1.25). ![]() ( Paradise Lost 3.51-55)īy internalizing the Muse, Milton is able to underscore thetransition from an earlier culture to his current one. Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence Shine inward, and the mind through all herpowers This inner guide is again mentioned in Book III when Miltoncalls upon the Holy Spirit to The pagan Muses so valued in theshame culture have been replaced in a guilt culture by the Musewithin. The Muses from the earlierepics were remote figures observing the actions of those on Earth.But, as Milton states in Book I of Paradise Lost, the HolySpirit is internalized, a Muse "that dost prefer/ Before all tenplesth' upright heart and pure" (17-18). By calling upon the Holy Spirit instead of thetraditional Muse, Milton is illustrating another transition between these two cultures-the shiftfrom a shame culture to a guilt culture. This allusion to thepolytheistic world of pagan Muses links his post-Christian epic tothe ancient epics. ![]() Although Milton isreferring to the Holy Spirit, his first invocation is to the"Heav'nly Muse" ( Paradise Lost 1.6). The invocation to the Muse in Paradise Lost has beenreworked by Milton to provide a transition from the mythical world ofpast epics to the Christian setting of his epic. Nearly every epic convention isrevised in Paradise Lost, but the modifications of theinvocation to the Muse and the epic machinery best illustrateMilton's changes to epic tradition. He, therefore, adapted the established epicconventions to better achieve his majestic goal. Yet Milton,instead of just telling a story, created his epic with one grandiosepurpose in mind: to "justify the ways of God to men" ( ParadiseLost 1.26). Certainly, Paradise Lost accomplishes these aims as well. These previous epic narratives were culturally valuable notonly for their storytelling appeal, but also for their embeddedinstructions which were then contained for future generations. Unlike earlierepics, his was not created solely for entertainment or societalvalue. The Justification įrom the beginning of his Paradise Lost, John Miltonestablishes a divine motivation behind his work. ![]() A Sample 'A' Paper from English 230: Great Narrative Works 1997ġ) The paper has a clearly articulatedthesis in the introduction, one that is developed in different waysin each of the paragraphs of the paper.Ģ) The paper proceeds logically fromsentence to sentence and from point to point (although the studentmight have done a yet better job in providing a transition from thesection on invocation to the section on machinery ideally, the essaywould have tied together these two parts of the argument, especiallysince they are, in fact, intimately related).ģ) Rather than making numerous pointsbriefly, the student has chosen to concentrate on a specific topic sothat s/he can provide an in-depth and extensive interpretation of thetext at hand.Ĥ) The student has used a good deal oftextual evidence from ParadiseLost to support his/her case.ĥ) The student never rests at paraprase butalways seeks to interpret the descriptions s/he provides.Ħ) The paper has almost no grammatical andstylistic problems.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |