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The Western Canon Mailing List
Moderator: Paul John Barnette Jr.
Activation Date: March 8, 1997
Current Date: May 18, 1997  
Current Membership: 56
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I've just finished book six of Paradise Lost and 
decided to write another series of comments.

Book IV

I find the following quote by Satan rather interesting.

"O had his powerful Destiny ordained me some inferior
Angel, I had stood then happy; no unbounded hope had
raised ambition."

Here it seems that Satan is blaming God for his own
rebellion against God. God had placed Lucifer above
all other Angels in the Kingdom of Heaven, thereby
causing Lucifer to desire even more. Perhaps if he
were created to be only a lowly Angel, Lucifer would
not have been tempted to strive for more power. Milton
quickly has Satan refute this argument, but I still find
the idea an interesting one to ponder.

Book IV introduces Adam and Eve into the poem for the
first time. My favorite part is Eve's story of her
creation. Upon awaking she wanders to a pond and falls
in love with her own reflection. God's voice tells her
that she is only seeing herself and to go back and find
her true mate. She returns, sees Adam, and finding him less
desirable than her own reflection begins to return to the
pond. Adam stops her and persuades her to stay with him.

Milton has done an excellent job in adapting the story
of Narcissus to his own ends. Of course Milton is foreshadowing
Eve's temptation here by reinforcing the old biblical adage
"Vanity thy name is woman", but I enjoy this passage because
it shows that Adam, who is the only man on earth, still has to
convince a woman to stay with him, to accept him. I believe 
this to be more realistic than for Eve to simply wake up, see
Adam, and fall for him right on the spot. The necessity of man
to have to woo women is a time honored tradition, and I am not
surprised to see that Milton, himself having married three times,
would have placed the same requirement on the first man.


Book V

While the Angel Raphael is eating what we would call lunch with
Adam and Eve, Milton makes the following statement.

"Meanwhile at table Eve ministered naked, and their flowing cups
with pleasant liquors crowned: O innocence deserving Paradise! if
ever, then, Then had the Sons of God excuse to have been enamoured at
that sight; but in those hearts love unlibidinous reigned, nor
jealousy was understood, the injured Lover's Hell."

Milton is here pointing out that if this friendly lunch had occurred
after the fall of man, either Adam would be jealous of Raphael seeing
his wife naked or the three of them would probably participate in a
three-way sexual activity. Such is probably the case, but I am
surprised to see Milton taking the time to point this out to his
readers.


During this lunch meeting Raphael begins to relate to Adam the details
of the great rebellion which had occurred in heaven prior to the
creation of Earth. It is here that we learn the true reason for
Lucifer's decision to defy God. He is enraged at God for his decision
to place his newly created Son above all the Angels in rank and power.
Lucifer formerly had this position of esteem, and now he has been
replaced by the boss's son. Imagine that! Nepotism is the true root of
all evil! Let all of corporate America take heed!

But seriously...

I would like to know if there is any biblical support for this
explanation? I am afraid that I have to admit my ignorance on this
matter. Would someone please post an answer to this question? The
reason why I would like to know is because Lucifer's situation here is
very simular to Iago's situation in Shakespeare's Othello, and I would
like to determine if Milton is borrowing from Shakespeare or if they
are both borrowing from the Bible.


After finishing Book V I was struck by the following observation. If
one strips way the theological underpinnings of this work and views it
as being totally separate from the Christian Bible, one finds Milton's
Paradise Lost to read as though it is modern science fiction. This is
particularly true in regards to the descriptions of the worlds outside
the Earth and of the journeys that take place from one world to the
next. It is too long to quote here, but as support for this view I
offer the description of Raphael's journey from Heaven to Earth, lines
246-290 in Book V.

Of course I am not saying that Paradise Lost is a science fiction
work, only that many parts of it remind me of science fiction. Older
epics, such as the one's by Homer and Virgil, also contain fantastic
journeys and places, but they do not sound as scientific as many of
Milton's passages do. This is probably due to the fact that Milton is
writing a great epic poem during the birth of modern science. Newton
was alive while Milton was writing his poem, and Galileo, Kepler,
Copernicus and others were already dead. 


Book VI

By far Book VI is my least favorite one thus far. In it Raphael
relates to Adam the great battle in heaven between the forces of Satan
and the forces of God. Naturally enough Milton's description of the
battle is very simular, except for the supernatural aspects, to the
type of battles that were fought in his own time. I am particularly
put off by the Son of God, who comes in at the end to defeat Satan and
his followers and casts them into Hell. The picture of the Son of God
is here more like a supernatural General than the picture of Jesus in
the Gospels. 

Perhaps because many of the great classical epics, such as the Iliad
and the Aeneid, contain fierce battles, Milton felt compelled to
include the same in his work. Perhaps the fact that Europe had
recently suffered decades of religious wars made the picture of Jesus
as a just warrior more acceptable to the reader than I believe it does
today. Whatever the reason, I find this Book to overall to be a great
bore, but I can imagine that if ever Hollywood decided to make a movie
of Paradise Lost, a large part of it would be dedicated to Book VI.

The only part of Book VI that interested me was the secret weapon that
Satan forces created to defeat God's host. This was seen to be an
ultimate weapon, a doomsday device, that would overcome God's power in
the battle. In fact it actually appears to be no more than a large
cannon, but I quess that in Milton's day the cannon was a much feared
weapon. What caught my attention was the idea of a secret and
overpowering weapon, forged from the basic elements of the heavenly
world, a product of technology that even God's Angels were unable to
identify before its use. One of the unfortunate side effects of the
rise of modern science and technology has been its use in devising
ever more deadlier instruments of war, and this use of science was
well on its way during Milton's day. The atomic bomb of this century
seems to have been the fulfillment of this unfortunate desire to
create the ultimate weapon, one of the least flattering aspects of the
Modern age.

Thats all for now! I greatly encourage everyone on the list to either
respond to this or other postings, or perhaps compose an original
posting. We are at the halfway point with Paradise Lost and soon the
list will move on to another work. Please post you opinions!

Paul John Barnette Jr.


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