Transformation of the biblical plot in Milton's poem “Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost Paradise Lost Poem
John Milton and his poem "Paradise Lost"
Paradise Lost is an outstanding work of world literature, one of the brightest examples of literary epic, a creation that is extremely diverse in content and at the same time extremely complex and contradictory, which affected its fate among different generations of readers.
Since the plot of "Paradise Lost" is based on biblical legends, the poem was ranked among the books of a pious nature, It was considered as a poetic transposition of the Bible. Only in early XIX century, the English romantic poet Shelley questioned Milton's piety, but neither he nor other writers and critics, who noticed the deviation of the poem from religious dogma, reversed the widespread opinion. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did they really understand the true meaning of Milton's great creation. It turned out that Paradise Lost not only deviates from the church doctrine, but sometimes comes into direct conflict with it.
It is possible to understand the complex content of the poem only by standing on solid historical ground. But before we do this, it is useful to ask the question, is it worth our efforts a work created more than three hundred years ago?
In the countries of the English language, Milton is considered the second great poet after Shakespeare. Milton's sonorous, solemn verse, vivid and impressive images correspond to the majesty of the theme chosen by the poet. This theme is a man and his fate, the meaning of human life.
The combination of a philosophical theme with a religious theme in European poetry was by no means a new phenomenon, widespread since the Middle Ages. Even Dante, this last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times, in his "Divine Comedy" put in the form of a vision of a journey through the afterlife - "Hell", "Purgatory" and "Paradise" - an all-embracing philosophy of life. The development of secular culture during the Renaissance led to the ousting of religious themes from literature. But at the end of the Renaissance, at the end of the 16th and then in the 17th century, religious themes again penetrate into poetry. In England, this was embodied in the work of John Milton (1608-1674).
In a worldview and literary works Milton combined two different tendencies - adherence to the humanistic ideology of the Renaissance and puritanical religiosity. The father gave the future poet a humanistic upbringing, instilled in him a love of literature and music. At sixteen, as was customary at the time, Milton entered Cambridge University, graduated at twenty-one with a bachelor's degree and, after another three years, received a master's degree in arts. He turned down the offer to become a university teacher, since for this he had to take the clergy, settled in his father's estate and took up poetry, continuing to replenish his knowledge.
The general consensus was that it was necessary to see the world to complete his education, and at the age of thirty, not yet choosing any particular field for himself, Milton set off on a journey. Through Paris and Nice, he came to Genoa, then to Florence, Rome and Naples. Milton spent more than a year in Italy, this homeland of European humanism, where he communicated with scientists and writers. He was especially impressed by his meeting with Galileo, sick and disgraced, but who continued his scientific studies even after the persecution of the Inquisition, which demanded that he renounce seditious theories.
On the way home, Milton stopped in Geneva, home of the religious reformer Jean Calvin.
Galileo and Calvin embodied for Milton two streams of progressive European thought. In Galilee, this great scientist who became the symbol of the secular spider in its struggle against Catholic reaction, Milton saw a courageous fighter against obscurantists who sought to suppress free thought. For the young Englishman, Calvin was also a kind of symbol, the embodiment of religiosity, free from subordination to the church.
The humanistic worldview of the Renaissance did not always reject religion. No wonder one of the directions of thought of that time was called Christian humanism. Religious sentiments intensified during the decline of the Renaissance, its crisis. Spiritual dictatorship of the Catholic Church in public life era was broken. Many medieval prejudices have disappeared. But the emancipation of the individual was accompanied not only by the flowering of talents. A monstrous rampant of predatory egoism and complete immoralism began. This is especially clearly reflected in Shakespeare's great tragedies, for example, in King Lear, where one of the characters gives a very expressive characterization of the moral state of society: “Love is cooling down, friendship is weakening, fratricidal strife is everywhere. palaces of treason, and the family bond between parents and children collapses "..." the best time passed. Fierceness, betrayal, disastrous riots will accompany us to the grave "(" King Lear ", 1, 2, translation by B. Pasternak).
Humanism rehabilitated earthly life, recognized human striving for joy as natural, but only the privileged and wealthy strata of society could use this teaching. Having understood humanism very superficially, people from the noble milieu justified their unbridled desire for pleasure with them and did not take into account any moral norms. A paradoxical situation arose: the doctrine developed in the struggle against the shackles of feudal-estate society was used to justify aristocratic arbitrariness and debauchery.
In contrast to the flatly understood humanism, the progressive thought of the era was more and more persistently conquering for itself and assimilating the sphere of religion. By the beginning of the 17th century, England had taken significant steps along the path of capitalist development. The bourgeoisie grew into a great economic force, which was already cramped within the framework of the feudal monarchy. In need of an ideological support, the British bourgeoisie turned to one of the reformist currents of the then religious thought - Calvinism.
Here we are forced to recall the main moments in the history of religious movements at the turning point from the Middle Ages to modern times, without which it is impossible to understand Milton's Paradise Lost. The dominant ideological stronghold of the feudal system was the Roman Catholic Church, whose power extended to the entire Western Europe... The advanced anti-feudal movements began with a struggle against the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the 16th century, a reformation of the church in Germany, led by Martin Luther, took place. Most of the German states refused to obey Rome and to pay a huge monetary tribute to the Pope. The reformation of the church in England soon followed. The Anglican Church ceased to obey the Pope and recognized the king as its head. The changes concerned rituals, the church became more modest in comparison with the Catholic, but the reform did not suit the growing bourgeoisie. The first reform movement was followed by the second. It was based on the desire to free the church from the rule of the king and the bishops obedient to him. The teachings of the Geneva preacher Calvin were the best suited to the needs of the bourgeois hoarders. Calvin was opposed to the centralized feudal church. He created new form church organization - a community of believers, not controlled by anyone and arranging prayers without any rituals. F. Engels wrote: "The structure of the Church of Calvin was thoroughly democratic and republican; and where the kingdom of God was already republicanized, could the earthly kingdoms remain loyal to kings, bishops and feudal lords?"
However, among the English bourgeois, the new religious trend, which received the general name of Puritanism, split into two groups. The more moderate Presbyterians retained some semblance of the old church organization and recognized the spiritual and organizational leadership of the elders (elders), while the most zealous reformers denied all spiritual authority. They are called independents. If such parallels are permissible, then the Prosbyterians may be called the Girondists of the English Revolution, and the Independents - its Jacobins. Milton joined the Independents.
He returned from a trip abroad to the beginning of the intensification of the struggle between the king and the Puritan bourgeoisie, which ended in a civil war and a victorious Puritan revolution that overthrew the king, and took an active part in the revolution as a publicist. He presented theoretical works in which he substantiated the right of the people to overthrow a bad monarch and argued that the will of the people is the only legal basis for all power. When the victorious Puritans put King Charles I on trial, Milton proclaimed the right of the people to execute the king.
Milton occupies an honorable place in the history of social and political thought as the ideologist of the English bourgeois revolution and one of the founders of the theory of bourgeois democracy. However, already in the course of the Puritan revolution, he had to be convinced of the difference between the theory and practice of the bourgeois revolution. Milton shared the illusions of those revolutionaries who hoped that the overthrow of the king would lead to the creation of a truly democratic state. These illusions were shattered by the actual course of events. After the victory of the bourgeoisie over the nobility, power in the country was increasingly taken over by Oliver Cromwell, who led the struggle against the royal camp. Milton, who collaborated with Cromwell, urged him not to abuse his power. Cromwell suppressed all opposition in parliament, forced him to assign him the title of Lord Protector of the country, and even made this title hereditary. Having begun under the slogans of democracy, the bourgeois revolution in England ended with the one-man dictatorship of Cromwell.
A political turn, unexpected for Milton, prompted him to distance himself more and more from participation in government affairs in which he was involved. This was also due to the fact that Milton, who was visually impaired, became completely blind in 1652. He continued to fulfill the duties of a Latin secretary (diplomatic correspondence was conducted in the international language of the time, Latin) with the assistance of assistants.
When Cromwell died in 1658 and his weak-willed son Richard became the protector, Milton was encouraged and returned to political activity in the hope of restoring democracy. The pamphlet he wrote in favor of the "quick establishment of a free republic" did not meet with support. The people were depressed and tired, and the bourgeoisie needed a strong power to defend itself against the disaffected poor. The capitalists made an agreement with the aristocrats, and the monarchy was restored in the country.
The Restoration regime dealt harshly with former rebels, especially those responsible for the execution of the king. Milton miraculously managed to escape punishment. Blind, he lived in hiding from possible persecution, guarded by his third wife and daughters, as well as a few old friends.
Nothing could break the staunchness of revolutionary Milton. Now, after the defeat of the revolution, he returned to where he began his activity, to poetry.
Already in his youth, he created a number of small poetry, which testified to his outstanding talent. But, having gone into political struggle, he abandoned poetry. True, in the last years of the republic, Milton again wrote a small number of poems, but for fifteen years he devoted his main forces to publicistic prose. During the years of the Restoration, Milton created three large poetic works: the poem Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Returned (1671) and the poetic tragedy Samson the Fighter (1671). All these works were written on the subjects of the Old and New Testaments. They clearly testified that Milton remained true to his ideal of freedom and was still an enemy of the monarchy.
The very choice of subjects had a fundamental meaning.
The Bible was the main ideological weapon of the revolutionary bourgeois Puritans. It is appropriate here to recall the deep thought of Karl Marx about the ideological cover of bourgeois revolutions. “Just when people seem to be only busy with remaking themselves and their surroundings and creating something yet unprecedented,” K. Marx wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. spells, summoning the spirits of the past to their aid, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, costumes, in order to play out a new scene of world history in this borrowed language in a dress sanctified by antiquity "..." Cromwell and the English people used the language for their bourgeois revolution , passions and illusions borrowed from the Old Testament. "
In light of this, it is understandable why Milton was faithful to the Bible as a source of wisdom and poetic images and traditions. But it cannot be said that the experience of the bourgeois revolution passed without a trace for him. The appeal to biblical stories was an undeniable challenge in relation to the social and state order that was established after the Puritan revolution. But Milton looked at the revolution now, after it had passed, with different eyes. Paradise Lost is home to the best traditions of the Puritan revolution, but taken as a whole, the work is a critical revision of the political experience accumulated by Milton during the years of the Republic (Commonwealth), as the new system officially continued to be called even when its ruler seized more power than the one possessed by the king overthrown by the revolution.
Paradise Lost begins with a depiction of the war between heaven and hell; on one side, God, his archangels, angels - in a word, the whole host of celestials; to another fallen angel-Satan, the spirits of evil Beelzebub, Mammon and the entire synclite of demons and devils. It would seem that everything is clear and simple. But once you read the speech of the inhabitants of hell, this clarity turns out to be imaginary. The spirits cast down from heaven are plotting a rebellion against God. It is impossible not to pay attention to how they call it. "The King of Heaven", "Sovereign, the One Autocrat" - he is for those cast down into the hellish abyss a despot and a tyrant. For the Puritan Milton, God was a holy shrine. For the revolutionary Milton, any one-man power is unbearable. We understand, of course, that evil spirits say all bad things about the king of heaven, for whom it is natural to blaspheme God.
But one cannot fail to notice the aura of heroism that surrounds Milton Satan.
Rebel Lord,
With a stately posture surpassing everyone,
How the tower rises.
No, not at all
He has lost his former greatness!
The pale face darkened,
Whipped by lightning; gaze,
Glittering from under thick eyebrows
I kept boundless courage,
Unbroken pride ...
This is how Satan addresses his minions after defeat:
We're unsuccessful
They tried to shake His throne
And they lost the battle. What of that?
Not everything is lost: the fuse is preserved
Indomitable will, alongside
With immense hatred, thirst for revenge
And with courage - not to yield forever.
Isn't this a victory?
After all, we have
Remains what He cannot
Not by fury, not by force to take away
Unfading glory! If i
An adversary whose kingdom has shaken
From the fear of this hand,
I would pray on my knees for mercy
I would be ashamed, I would be ashamed
Would be covered and bitter would be a shame,
Than overthrow. By the will of fate
Imperishable is our empyrean composition
And the power of God; passing
The crucible of battles, we have not weakened,
But they have hardened and now rather
We have the right to hope for victory ...
Whose feelings are expressed in this courageous speech - a character created by the poet's imagination, or, perhaps, the very creator of this image, a revolutionary and spokesman for the ideas of revolution? and both. This speech is quite appropriate in the mouth of Satan, who was cast out of heaven and defeated in the struggle with the angelic armies of God. But Milton himself, who even after the restoration of the monarchy, remained a republican, a supporter of democracy, could say so about himself.
In Paradise Lost, there are many lines that violate the clear logic of biblical tradition. Two series of ideas coexist in Milton's mind. God is the embodiment of the highest good, Satan and his associates are the devil's incarnation; but the same god for Milton is the heavenly king, and as such he is associated with earthly kings, hated by the poet, and then the poet cannot but sympathize with those who rebel against the sovereign power.
There is another contradiction in the poem. Milton admires the heroic rebellion of Satan to the extent that it expresses intransigence towards any tyranny, earthly and heavenly. But the rebellion is not accidentally smothered in defeat. Not from the Bible, but in his own imagination, which reworked the impressions of modern times, the poet drew all the colors to describe the struggle between heaven and hell. Milton had the opportunity to be convinced that the English revolution, which revealed the limited goals and self-interest of the bourgeoisie, did not bring triumph to good on earth. Echoes of this conviction resound in the poem, where many words are said about the senselessness and harmfulness of wars and violence for mankind. Therefore, in the subsequent books of Paradise Lost, the rebellious fighter Satan is opposed to the Son of God, ready to suffer for all mankind. In this contrast between Satan and Christ, the denial of individualism and egoism is symbolically expressed, in contrast to which the idea of altruism and philanthropy is put forward. This is how its creator argues with himself throughout the poem.
We repeat, there is an undoubted inconsistency in this. Here it is pertinent to recall one of Goethe's statements. Talking with Eckermann, the author of "Faust" admitted that in one of the scenes of this great creation there is a clear violation of the logical sequence. “Let's see,” said Goethe, laughing, “what the German critics will say about this. Will they have the freedom and courage to disregard such a deviation from the rules. , which the mind cannot and should not be guided by. If fantasy did not create something incomprehensible to the mind, it would be worthless. Fantasy distinguishes poetry from prose, where the mind can and should rule. " This reasoning of the great German poet is very useful to the reader of Paradise Lost. Milton's poem is a creation of artistic fantasy, and it should not be approached with the requirements of reason and strict logic. Fiction has its own laws.
The beginning of Paradise Lost, in particular, is sinning with inconsistencies, but further the reader encounters unexpected turns of action and fluctuations in the author's assessments. In the third book, God says that man, all people succumb to sin. It turns out that it is possible to atone for the guilt of humanity only with a sacred sacrifice - to take upon oneself death. One of the immortal inhabitants of heaven must decide on this.
He asked, but
Empyreus was silent.
The heavenly choir was silent. No one
I did not dare to speak for a Man,
All the more so - to accept his guilt
Deadly, bring retribution
On your own head.
The English revolutionary romantic poet Walter Savage Lapdore put it this way in his Imaginary Conversations: “I don’t understand what prompted Milton to make Satan such a majestic being, so inclined to share all the dangers and suffering of the angels he seduced. I don’t understand, on the other hand, what could have prompted him to make the angels so despicably cowardly that even at the call of the Creator, not one of them expressed a desire to save the weakest and most insignificant of thinking creatures from eternal destruction. "
If Paradise Lost cannot be called an orthodox Christian work, it would be equally wrong to deny the poet has faith. Milton's thought revolved in the circle of concepts and representations of Puritanism, constantly coming into collision with his dogmas when they came into conflict with the principles of humanism.
The humanism of the Renaissance broke the church teaching of the Middle Ages about the frailty of earthly life. An enthusiastic hymn to man was created by the Italian Pico della Mirandola in his "Speech on the Dignity of Man", proclaiming man the most beautiful of everything created by God. But he also pointed out the duality of his nature: "Only man gave the Father seeds and embryos that can develop in any way ... He will give vent to the instincts of sensuality, run wild and become like animals. He will follow reason, a heavenly being will grow out of him. . He will begin to develop his spiritual powers, become an angel and a son of God. " Humanists believed and hoped that it was the best aspects of human nature that would prevail.
Pico della Mirandola painted at the end of the 15th century. A century and a half later, Milton saw that the hopes of the humanists were far from being realized. Milton joined the Puritans in his youth, for he believed that the moral rigor preached by them could resist both aristocratic licentiousness and bourgeois individualism. He became convinced, however, that the same vices often lurked behind the ostentatious morality of the Puritans. In this regard, the following passage in Milton's poem deserves attention, where an unexpected, seemingly, feature of Satan, whom the poet opposes to the hypocritical Puritans, is noted; the spirits of hell praise Satan and
Thank you for
That he is ready to sacrifice himself
For the common good. Not until the end
The virtues of the Spirits have died out
Rejected, to the shame of bad people,
Flaunting beautiful to look at
By actions inspired by pride,
And under the guise of zeal for good,
Vanity vanity.
A careful reading of the text reveals that behind a seemingly fantastic plot, reflections about life are hidden, testifying to the great insight of the poet, who is well versed in people and life circumstances. Milton has accumulated many such sober and sometimes bitter observations. But he was not interested in particulars and individual cases, but in a person as a whole, and he expressed his view of him, clothed a philosophical poem in a religious plot.
If in the first books the contrast between the forces of heaven and hell symbolizes the struggle between good and evil in life, then central theme Paradise Lost is a reflection of this struggle in the human heart. This topic is clearly defined in the conversations of the overthrown angels, discussing how they can continue to fight against God after defeat. Satan has heard that God is preparing to create a certain new world and a new being - man. To seduce him from the path of good - this is the goal that Satan now sets himself, so that evil will triumph.
Satan in religious mythology has always been the embodiment of the forces that destroy man. Milton raised naive medieval ideas about human nature to new philosophical heights. Drawing on the entire centuries-old history of mankind, which he still has to tell in the poem, Milton gives him a harsh characterization.
The forces of evil have united
Consent reigns
Among the damned demons, but a man
A creature possessing consciousness,
Mends discord with his own kind;
Though at the mercy of Heaven
He has the right to hope and a covenant
The Lord knows: eternal peace keep,
He lives in hatred and enmity,
Tribes ravage the land
By relentless wars, carrying
Destruction to each other ...
Milton's contemporary philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who belonged to the opposite political camp, nevertheless, in his assessment of modernity and modern man agreed with the poet and expressed it in a short aphoristic form; "Man is a wolf to man." Hobbes, however, believed that without violence and coercion, it was impossible to curb people's bad selfish instincts. In contrast, Milton maintained a belief in human reason and the power of persuasion.
The story of Adam and Eve, which is narrated below, has symbolic meaning... It contrasts two states of humanity - the original paradise existence in ideal conditions, when people were innocent and knew no vices, and life "after the Fall." Following the biblical legend, Milton claims that the "corruption" of humanity began from the moment when they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Embryo philosophical idea this parable is already found in the Bible. Milton developed it into a whole doctrine, linking it with the problem that was the central point of Calvinism and Puritanism. According to the latter, man is sinful from the beginning. His original sin must be atoned for by a strict life of repentance and restraint.
Milton solves the problem in the spirit of humanism. The books depicting the blameless life of Adam and Eve in Paradise speak of man as a creature that is good and good by nature. But the archangel Raphael, sent by God, warns that human nature is complex:
You were created perfect but perverse
There is good in yourself - you only have power,
Zane is gifted with free will,
Fate not subordinate or strict
Necessities.
There is no need to repeat the myth of the fall of man, eloquently expounded by Milton. The duality of the poet's worldview is reflected here as well. According to the biblical legend, Eve, and after her Adam, committed a sin. But could Milton, a man of great culture, recognize such a good as knowledge as a sin? The bliss of paradise is, according to Milton, an illusion that does not correspond to human nature, for in a person the physical and spiritual must be in harmony. The paradise life of Adam and Eve was incorporeal, and this is most clearly seen in their love. With the knowledge of good and evil, they first became imbued with a sense of their bodily nature. But sensuality did not kill spirituality in them. This is best manifested in the fact that, upon learning of Eve's misconduct, Adam decides to share the guilt with her. He does this out of love for her, and his love and compassion strengthens Eve's love for him. True, then a quarrel occurs between them, but it ends in reconciliation, for they realize the indivisibility of their destinies.
The Puritan Milton should have taken a harder attitude towards the hero and the heroine. But it is worth reading the lines dedicated to the bodily beauty of Eve, as it becomes obvious that nothing human was alien to the poet.
However, one cannot fail to notice that in "Paradise Lost" there is still no idea of the equality of man and woman. For Milton, a man in the highest sense is Adam. This tribute to the prejudices of its time cannot stifle the compassion with which the author treats his heroine. Even the "sin" committed by her, the author justifies, since it has as its source a truly human striving for knowledge.
The essence of Milton's philosophy of life was expressed in the speech of Adam after the expulsion of him and Eve from paradise. Eve desperately contemplates suicide. Adam calms her down with a speech about the great value of life. He admits that they are doomed to torment and trials, and is in no way inclined to underestimate the hardships and dangers of earthly life, so unlike heavenly bliss. But for all its difficulties, life in the eyes of Adam is not bleak. He says to Eve:
He predicted torments of hardship for you
And childbirth, but this pain
Rewarded in a happy moment
When, rejoicing, your womb
You will see the fruit; and I'm just a side
Touched by a curse - cursed is the Earth;
I must earn my bread in labor.
What a disaster! Idleness would be worse.
Labor will support me and strengthen me.
Active life and work - such is the destiny of a person and this is by no means a curse. Milton - and he does this more than once - corrects the Bible from the standpoint of humanism in the name of affirming human life and dignity.
Paradise Lost is a kind of encyclopedia of poetry. Archangel Raphael expounds to Adam the philosophy of nature - the origin of the Earth, the structure of the sky and the movement of the luminaries, talks about the living and dead nature, about the bodily and spiritual principles of life. Of course, all this appears in the guise of biblical mythology, but the attentive reader will notice that Milton's narrative is interspersed with concepts and views that are by no means ancient, but modern to the poet. Milton calmly admits of anachronisms. Biblical characters know that there is a telescope; they heard about the discovery of Columbus and mention the Indians he saw on the newly discovered continent. And when the forces of hell are looking for a means to cope with the heavenly host, they come up with gunpowder and shoot cannons!
All historical epochs are mixed in the poem. Alongside the legendary history of Israel events are set forth Trojan War, Roman history and tells about the fate of Julius Caesar, named the ancient British king Uther, the medieval king Charlemagne, the Italian scientist Galileo ("sage of Tuscany"). Paradise Lost poetry has a worldwide reach. Climbing a high mountain, Adam, accompanied by the archangel Michael, sees
The vastness where the cities towered
In the oldest and newest centuries,
The capitals of the notorious states,
From Flounder, where Khan Katai ruled,
From Samarkand, where the Oka flows,
Where is Tamerlane's proud throne,
And to Beijing - a magnificent palace
Chinese emperors; Then
The Forefather stretched out his gaze freely
Before Agra and Lagore - cities
To the golden Chersonese; and there,
Where the Persian King lived in Ecbatana,
And later Shah ruled in Isfahan;
To Moscow - the state of the Russian Tsar,
And to Byzantium, where the Sultan sat ...
We have to cut off this list in the middle - it is so great. This is just a prologue to what can be called Milton's philosophy of history, which the poet put into the mouth of the Archangel Michael. The Archangel shows Adam the future of the human race. At first, the peaceful labor of a farmer and a shepherd, but suddenly the idyllic picture is replaced by the terrible sight of the first death: a brother killed his brother. Death reigns in the life of mankind: some are killed by brutal violence, others
Fire, water and hunger; very many
Gluttony, hawkishness; generate
They are serious illnesses ...
Vices are taking over mankind more and more. Some indulge in pleasures, others are possessed by belligerence. The times will come, the archangel says, when
Only brute force will be honored
Her heroic prowess will be considered
And courage. Overcome in battles
Conquer peoples and tribes,
Return with prey, piling up
As many corpses as possible - this is the crown
The glory to come. Anyone who could
Reach triumph, they will dignify
A victorious hero, a father
Human race, offspring of the gods
And even a god, but they are truer
Deserve the title of bloodsuckers
And the plagues of humanity; but
Fame will be found on Earth
And laurels, and bearers of merit
The authentic ones - oblivion will swallow them up.
The Archangel foresees the punishment that God will inflict on the sinful human race - global flood; he prophesies about the appearance of the son of God - Christ, who with his torments will atone for the sins of people. But the great example of martyrdom for the salvation of mankind will be used by the churchmen - they will come as
wolves are fierce, accepting
The disguise of the shepherds, and will turn
The Holy Sacraments of Heaven for the Benefit
Selfishness and pride, darkening
By the tradition and deceit of doctrines
And superstition - the Truth ...
However, the time will come, and lies, violence, false teachings - everything that prevents people from living will be thrown into dust.
After all, the whole Earth will become Paradise then,
Edenic far surpassing
The vastness of happy days.
Having cognized the greatness and wisdom of the deity, Adam decides to live obedient to his will. The archangel teaches him:
Life ... not to love,
There is no need to despise. Live
Godly ...
Adam agrees with this. The concluding part of the poem is imbued with a spirit of humility and humility, but even in it, Milton's characteristic note breaks through:
I now comprehend
That to suffer for the truth is a heroic deed
To accomplish and the highest of victories
We have far from exhausted all the richness of the poem's ideas. Our goal was to help get closer to the true meaning of the work, which at first glance seems to be far from the issues of concern to humanity in our time. The thoughtful reader will discover the deep significance of Milton's poetry, the independence of the author's judgments, who used the biblical plot in order to express his understanding of life, which in many respects does not coincide with the meaning of the Bible.
In creating the poem, Milton drew on a centuries-old tradition of epic poetry. If the earliest epic poems were the product of folk art, then in later times, not a folk, but a literary epic arose, the beginning of which was laid by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Milton knew ancient and new poetry, he set himself the goal of reviving the classical form of the epic. But the times of a developed civilization were unfavorable for this. In Milton's poem, from an artistic point of view, a contradiction was also laid. Ancient epic was an expression of the collective consciousness of the people. A book or literary epic bore the indelible stamp of the individual consciousness of the author. It was necessary to have such a powerful individuality, which was inherent in Milton, to create a work of such great poetic power, so fully expressing the era and its contradictions, as Paradise Lost.
The style of the poem is distinguished by its sublimity. The characters' speeches sound majestic and solemn. Each of them is a lengthy monologue, imbued with pathos, for each speaking person is full of consciousness of the significance of the events taking place. Milton's magnificent eloquence has, however, different tones. It is easy to see this by comparing the furious appeals of Satan, the slow utterances of God, the instructive tone of the tales of the archangels, the dignified monologues of Adam, the tender speech of Eve. Let us note that Satan, as the leader of the fallen angels, is distinguished by a genuine incendiary speech, but, acting in the role of a serpent - the seducer of Eve, he reveals a kind of logic and cunning of the tempter.
The landscapes of Milton make a great impression, they are majestic and huge, they have a cosmic scale, so corresponding to the content of the poem. The poet possesses an extraordinary fantasy, a powerful imagination that allows him to color the meager lines of the biblical story with multicolored descriptions.
Much, very much in Paradise Lost bears the stamp of the time when the poem was created. But true poetry overcomes everything alien to new generations. And the majestic verse of Milton in the new, first published in 1976, translation of Arkady Steinberg, sounds completely unanimously for us. modern reader to comprehend the significance of the ideas of the work and to feel the greatness of the personality of the courageous poet-fighter.
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The Bible has inspired many geniuses. Many works are devoted to rethinking her plots. One of the most famous of these is Milton's poem "Paradise Lost". Let's find out more about this poem and its author, and also consider it summary and problems.
Who is John Milton and what is he known for
This name belongs to the famous British poet and politician of the 17th century.
This man was born into the family of a London notary, John Milton Sr. in 1608. He was quite successful in the profession, so he had sufficient funds to give his child an excellent education at the University of Cambridge.
The parents' money was enough to support the unemployed Milton. Therefore, after receiving his diploma, the poet idly spent almost 6 years at his parent's estate, entertaining himself with reading books and self-education. Milton later considered this period of his life the happiest.
In 1637, John Milton went to travel to Europe for a year. At this time, he lived mainly in Italy and France, where he was fortunate enough to meet many of the outstanding minds of that time.
In 1638 the writer returned to his homeland and began to live in London. Although he was still supported by his father, Milton finally found something to do - he became a home teacher. At first, John taught his nephews, and later gave private lessons to children from other wealthy families.
Active political and literary activity
Milton's time is far from the quietest period in British history. The closeness of the policy of Charles I led to the outbreak of the Episcopal Wars, which grew into the English Revolution of the 17th century.
These events did not leave Milton indifferent. As an ardent anti-Royalist, he wrote effervescent pamphlets in which he criticized the monarchy and defended civil rights and freedoms, and also opposed censorship.
After the execution of the king and the establishment of a parliamentary system of government, John managed to secure the position of government secretary for Latin correspondence.
Over the years in this position, John Jr. wrote dozens of pamphlets, and also made acquaintance with many of the great British writers of the time.
At this time, he married three times, but was never able to find happiness in family life. Biographers believe that financial difficulties were one of the reasons for this. After all, almost all his life Milton was supported by his father, but in 1647 he died, and the writer had to provide for himself, his wives and children. The poet, who had not previously bothered with such worries, was now forced to worry not only about his intellectual needs, but also to look for various ways of earning money.
In 1652 the writer lost his sight and until his death in 1674 lived in pitch darkness. In this state, he could no longer hold office in parliament, and with the restoration of the monarchy (albeit partial), Milton was deprived of benefits. He considered this period of his life the worst. But from the point of view of his legacy, this stage is the most productive. After all, already being blind, John Jr.wrote his greatest work- the poem "Paradise Lost".
John Milton put all his knowledge and observations into this book and created a truly masterpiece, which was equal not only to his contemporaries, but also to descendants, such as
Poem Paradise Lost
What was special about this work? In addition to beautiful poetry, the use of colorful metaphors and comparisons, the author was able to refresh the biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve.
In Paradise Lost, John Milton turned the centuries-old story of the creation of man and his expulsion from paradise into a gripping action game. Everything was here: the love story of Adam, and philosophical reflections on life, faith and his destiny, and a description of the war of angels with demons.
By today's standards, Paradise Lost doesn't seem to be anything special. But immediately after its publication in 1667, the readers of Milton's "Paradise Lost" evoked the most enthusiastic reviews. Tired of monotonous imitations of Homer and Dante, they were simply in love with the new poem.
Soon, Paradise Lost began to be translated into other languages and published outside of England.
Sequel to Paradise Lost - Paradise Returned
Paradise Lost's success helped Milton improve financial situation and return to its former glory. On this wave, the poet writes a sequel and in 1671 publishes Paradise Regained.
This book in artistic plan was inferior to Paradise Lost. It was not only 3 times shorter, but it was also a moralizing treatise, so for many it was frankly boring.
Background to writing Paradise Lost
The idea of the creation of the Fall first appeared in John Milton back in the days of revolutionary events in 1639. In those years, he made the first sketches and outlined a range of topics that could become the basis of the plot.
However, work in parliament, marriage and other concerns prevented the author from implementing his plans.
Only after losing his sight and hope, Milton decided to take up the pen. Of course, in a figurative sense, since he could not write on his own, and dictated the texts of the poem to his daughters and close friends.
In this regard, some biographers sometimes question Milton's authorship, putting forward theories that one of the poet's daughters could have composed such a bold work. And her father only edited her composition and gave his name as more recognizable. It is also possible that there was a joint work with one of the unknown young talents.
In favor of these theories is evidenced by the fact that over the course of 60 years of his life, the writer for some reason was not interested in the genre of the epic poem, but was better known as the author of treatises and poems.
However, we still will not be able to find out the truth, so we can only admire "Paradise Lost" and the genius of its creator, whoever he really is.
Structure
John Milton's book "Paradise Lost" is written in blank verse and consists of 12 parts. Initially, there were only 10 of them.
In later editions (starting in 1647), its plot was finalized and redistributed into 12 chapters.
In this form, the book has survived to this day.
main characters
Before looking at a summary of Milton's Paradise Lost, it's worth learning about actors works.
One of the most talked about heroes of Milton's Paradise Lost is Satan. Contrary to the biblical original, this character is endowed with human qualities. At the same time, he is incredibly powerful, smart and vain. Desiring power and self-affirmation, Satan rebelles against God. Despite the defeat, he does not give up and decides to take revenge on the sly, seducing Adam and Eve. However, revenge does not bring him full satisfaction.
It is believed that the prototype of Milton's Satan-rebel was "Prometheus" Aeschylus. Also, some literary scholars believe that in the character of the Lord of Hell, the poet collected the main features of his revolutionary friends, who at one time overthrew Karl, but could not retain power. And the described relationship between Satan and his demons is a veiled description of the working days of Parliament.
The image of the Lord in Paradise Lost is the embodiment of faith in Almighty God the Father. He sees the designs of the Devil, but admits them, realizing that in the end they will all bring good. Some researchers correlate this character with the embodiment of an ideal ruler and believe that by creating such a character, Milton was doing a "curtsey" to the restored monarchy.
Adam and Eve are heroes who are something between absolute Good and rebellious Evil. In Paradise Lost, they are not weak-willed toys, but have the right to choose. Moreover, unlike the Bible, these heroes are not only forbidden to eat the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge, but are warned about the intrigues of Satan. Because of this, their fall looks like a conscious decision. Moreover, the author portrays Eve as the main culprit. This heroine is shown to be weaker physically and intellectually. But at the same time, she turns out to be more cunning and manages to manipulate Adam.
At the same time, her husband is too idealized. He is not only smart and noble, but also curious. Despite his free will, Adam is very obedient and not inclined to rebel. Eve is the rebel in their marriage. Only with the acquisition of knowledge (after the Fall) do these heroes taste true bliss, however, after that they will experience bitter repentance.
The image of the Son of God is quite interesting in the poem. He is depicted not only as a noble, voluntarily sacrificing himself for the salvation of mankind, but also as an excellent leader, a brave commander (who helped the angels to defeat the demons). It is believed that in this hero Milton portrayed the features of an ideal ruler.
In addition to the listed characters, the angels Raphael and Michael play an active role in the book. They are the mentors of the human couple. Their looks are a bit boring as they are lusciously perfect and don't evoke much sympathy or admiration.
At the beginning of the poem, the action takes place in hell. Here the fallen demons voice their complaints to Satan. In order to somehow distract them from sad thoughts, the Ruler of Hell arranges a review of the troops. At the same time, although he is proud of his power, he does not know what to do next.
At the council of the hellish elders, various options are considered: to engage in the arrangement of the Underworld or again to raise a rebellion against Heaven.
Satan chooses a different tactic. Having learned about the creation of the New World and man, he decides to seduce people and thus take revenge on the Creator.
With the help of cunning, the Devil enters heaven. Here he is pleasantly surprised by the beauty of this place. However, the angels soon discover him and drive him away.
Realizing that the purpose of the Unclean One is to seduce people, the Lord sends Raphael to warn Adam and Eve. The Archangel tells Adam the story of the war with demons and the creation of the world by the Son of God. He also encourages a person to keep the commandments of the Lord.
Meanwhile, Satan sends a seduction dream to Eve. Impressed, the woman tells her husband about him.
In the future, the Devil enters heaven in the form of a fog and possesses a snake. Deftly manipulating the woman, he manages to convince her to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve likes the taste of the forbidden fruit so much that she persuades her and her husband to taste it. Adam, although he understands that he is doing wrong, loves his wife too much, does not want to be separated from her and agrees.
After eating the fruit, people experience carnal desires and satisfy them. However, when the passion cools down, they find insight and repentance.
The Lord knew about Satan's plan long before he entered heaven. But when Christ volunteered to become the atoning sacrifice, He looked to the future and realized that the ending would be successful. For this reason, God allowed the rascal to carry out his plan.
After the Fall, He commands the angels to bring those who sinned out of Paradise. Seeing their repentance, the Archangel Michael shows Adam the future until the coming of Christ to Earth and the destruction of Satan and his demons. People are leaving paradise, but their hearts are full of hope.
Analysis of the poem
Having considered the summary of Milton's Paradise Lost, it is worth analyzing the work.
Despite strict adherence to the biblical canon, the poet was able to describe in his book the life and problems of contemporary society.
Most literary scholars agree that in describing the relationship between the inhabitants of hell, the author depicted the reasons that led to the fall of his anti-royalist party and the restoration of the monarchy in England.
However, there are those who believe that by depicting the life of demons in hell, the poet ridiculed the basic problems of power in contemporary Britain. He veiledly showed how the government, instead of arranging the country, conducts demonstration reviews, arranges wars with other states and is mired in intrigues.
At the same time, paradise is depicted as Utopia, ruled by a wise and caring ruler and his faithful angels.
Other problems that Milton showed include family relationships. The author managed to outlive two of his three wives. Moreover, the first of them (Mary Powell, 20 years younger than the writer) fled from her husband to relatives a month after the wedding. Over time, John managed to return Mary home, but their relationship did not improve.
The poet married other wives when he was already blind, so he needed them more as nurses and nannies for children from his first marriage.
It was based on the not very successful, but rich experience of family life that the author described the marriage of the first people. In his interpretation, Adam is an ideal father and spouse. He loves his wife immensely, and is ready to commit suicide to save future children.
Eve (in Milton's understanding) is the main root of all family troubles. In general, she is shown as a good heroine, but too lustful. It's hard to look at something like that without a smile. After all, for the first time the writer got married at 34, then at 48 and 55 years old. Moreover, both of the last wives were 30 years younger than him. It is not surprising that the writer considered his spouses unnecessarily lustful, although in this case it was only the natural desires of young women.
Analyzing the "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, one cannot fail to mention the issue of the world order. The poet was one of the most educated people of his era and, of course, was interested in the structure of the universe. At that time, there was a heated debate about which of the systems corresponds to reality: Copernicus (heliocentric) or Ptolemy (where the Earth was in the center of the universe). Since the answer has not yet been found, Milton in Paradise Lost leaves the question open, although it concerns him.
Summary of "Paradise Returned" by Milton
After reviewing the summary of Milton's "Paradise Lost" and analyzing it, you should find out what the continuation of the poem is about - Paradise Regained.
This book consists of 4 chapters in total. They colorfully describe the story of the temptation of Christ by Satan and His victory.
Unlike the first book, this one was more like a religious treatise that Milton often wrote in his youth. By the way, it was her impressive dissimilarity to the boldness and lightness of Paradise Lost that gave rise to rumors that someone else was the author of Paradise Lost.
Selected quotes from Paradise Lost
One of the reasons for such an overwhelming popularity of the poem was not only its diverse plot and rich images, but also its beautiful syllable.
Below are some of the most famous quotes from Milton's Paradise Lost:
- "And even though in hell, But it is still worth reigning, for it is better to reign in hell than to be a slave in heaven ...". By the way, this phrase is a free interpretation of the famous quote by Julius Caesar: “It is better to be the first in the village than the second in the city (Rome).
- "Everywhere in Hell I will. Hell - I myself."
- "Maybe we will gain new strength in hope, if not, despair will inspire us."
- "Whether in suffering or in struggle, woe to the weak"
- "Oh, human disgrace! Harmony reigns among the damned demons, but a man, a creature possessing consciousness, makes strife with his own kind."
- "So why desire something that we cannot achieve by force, but as a handout, we ourselves will not take it?"
- "But everywhere I see the same source of all human evil - women!"
Milton John
Lost heaven
John Milton
Lost heaven
BOOK ONE
Book One first summarizes the theme of the work: listening to Man, as a result of which he lost Paradise - his abode; then the reason for the fall is indicated: the Serpent, or rather, Satan in the guise of the Serpent, who rebelled against God, involved in rebellion countless legions of Angels, but was, by God's command, cast down from Heaven along with all the hordes of rebels into the Underworld. Having mentioned these events, the poem immediately moves to the main action, introducing Satan and his Angels in Hell. There follows a description of Hell, which is not at all located in the center of the Earth (heaven and Earth, presumably, have not yet been created, and therefore, curse does not yet gravitate over them), but in the area of pitch darkness, more precisely - Chaos. Satan with his Angels lies in a boiling lake, humiliated, defeated, but soon, waking up from the shock, calls on a companion, the first after him in rank and dignity. They talk about their unhappy situation. Satan awakens all legions that were still in a daze and unconsciousness. Innumerable, they rise, line up in battle formations; their main leaders bear the names of idols later known in Canaan and neighboring countries. Satan addresses his companions, consoles them with the hope of conquering Heaven and informs about a new world and a new kind of creatures, which, as the ancient prophecies and traditions of the Heavenly Kingdom say, must be created; Angels, according to the opinion of many ancient Fathers, were created long before the appearance of visible beings. In order to reflect on this prophecy and determine further actions, Satan commands a general council to be assembled. Companions agree with him. From the abyss of darkness, Pandemonium emerges - the palace of Satan. The infernal nobles sit there and confer.
About the first rehearsal, about the Forbidden, pernicious fruit that death brought And all our troubles in this world, People deprived of Eden, for the time being, When we Greatest Man Raised, Blessed Paradise returned to us, Sing, High Muse! Descend from the heights of the Mysterious Sinai il Horeb, Where the shepherd was inspired by you, Who initially taught his people the Rise of Heaven and Earth From Chaos; when the hill of Zion and the Key of Siloam are dearer to you, the Verbs of God region, - I call You from there to help; my song Dared to fly over Helikon, Aspiring to lofty objects, Untouched neither in prose, nor in verse.
But first you, O Holy Spirit! - you prefer pure hearts to temples, Instruct me with your omniscience! You, like a dove, soared from time immemorial Above the abyss, fruitful it; Fill my darkness with light, lift up All that is perishable in me, so that I can find Decisive reasons And prove the goodness of Providence, justifying the Creator's paths before creation. Open it first, - for Hell and Paradise are Equally available to Your gaze, What prompted the first couple, In a happy canopy, among the blessed bushes, So sought after by the grace of Heaven, Who gave the Universe to her in power, Deny the Creator, His only prohibition to violate? - Hellish Serpent! Yes, it was he, envying and revenge, the Foremother seduced us with flattery; The insidious Enemy, cast down from the heights by His own pride, together with the army of Rebel Angels, whom he Leaded, with whose help the Throne of the Most High wanted to shake And equalize with the Lord, disturbing the Heavenly squads; but the fight was in vain. Almighty God An angry headlong cast down the obstinate, Enveloped in flames, into bottomless darkness, To torment in adamant chains And eternal, punishing fire, For their armed, audacious rebellion. Nine times the time has elapsed, That serves mortals as a measure of day and night, While in writhing, with his horde, The Enemy rushed about on fiery waves, Broken, though immortal. Fate doomed Him to a most bitter execution: to grief About irrevocable happiness and to the thought of eternal torment. He now circled around with Sullen pupils; Lurking in them and hatred and fear, And pride, and immeasurable longing ... Instantly, that only the Angels were given, He looked around the desert country, Prison, where, as in a furnace, fire blazed, But did not shine and was more likely to be darkness, flickering only then, In order to reveal to the eyes the pitch darkness, The vale of sorrow, the kingdom of grief, the land, Where there is no peace and quiet, where the Hope, close to all, is ordered a way, Where endless torment and fierce heat of Bubbling, inexhaustible streams of flowing sulfur. This is what the Eternal Judge has prepared for the Rebels, in the midst of perfect darkness And three times farther from the rays of Heaven and the Lord than the most distant pole is from the center of the Universe. How incomparable with the former height, Where did the fall take them away from! He sees his accomplices In the sultry surf, in a burning whirlwind of sparks, And next to a peer who was second in rank and villainy, and later Was in Palestine we honor as Beelzebub. The haughty Archenemy called to him, henceforth called Satan, And the terrible soundless dissolution With such bold words:
"- Are you in front of me? Oh, how low has fallen One who eclipsed the radiance of his radiant myriads In the heavenly spheres! abyss from above We have collapsed! His mighty thunder Hitherto was unknown to anyone. Cruel weapon! But let the All-Powerful Winner raise Anything against me! - I will not bend And I will not repent, let my shine have faded ... Even in me the determination has not dried up In the consciousness of my trampled Dignity, and proud anger seething, He told me to raise violent regiments to battle with Him Rebel Spirits, Those that despised His arbitrariness, Electing me as a Leader. We tried unsuccessfully to shake His Throne And lost the battle. Indomitable will, along with immeasurable hatred, thirst for revenge And courage - not to yield forever. Is this not a victory? After all, we have left what He cannot take away with fury or force. O t fear of this hand, I would beg on my knees for mercy, I would be disgraced, I would be ashamed
Would be covered and shame would have been bitter than overthrow. By the will of fate Imperishable is our empyrean composition And the power of God; Having passed the Crucible of battles, we have not weakened, But we have become hardened and now we have the right to hope for victory: In the coming battle, using cunning, Straining our strength, to depose the Tyrant, Who today, celebrating triumph, Rejoices in Heaven autocraticly! "
So the fallen Angel, overcoming sorrow, Boasted aloud, melting despair. His brother bravely answered him:
"- O Prince! The head of the porphyry-bearing forces, the Leader of the Seraphim armies of war, Threatening the throne of the Eternal King with Acts that inspire fear, In order to test His greatness in the Supreme: whether it is preserved by chance, force or fate. I see everything and bitterly crushed by the terrible defeat of our troops. We are expelled from the heights, defeated, Overthrown, as far as it is possible to defeat the god-like Sons of Heaven; but the spirit, but our minds Are not broken, and the power will return again, Though our glory and past delight Suffering has swallowed up forever. Could He, with the Weakest strength - overcome ours!) For us the spirit and power left? So that We would torture more strongly, satisfying His fierce revenge? Or, like slaves, Toiled hard, according to the laws of war, the Acolytes in Hell, in the scorching fire, Messengers in the bottomless, gloomy What is the use of our eternal existence And our strength, eternally unchanging, If we are destined to torment forever? "
John Milton
Lost heaven
BOOK ONE
Book One first sets out briefly the theme of the work: listening to Man, as a result of which he lost Paradise - his abode; then the reason for the fall is indicated: the Serpent, or rather, Satan in the guise of the Serpent, who rebelled against God, involved in the rebellion countless legions of Angels, but was, by God's command, cast down from Heaven along with all the hordes of rebels into the Underworld.
Having mentioned these events, the poem immediately moves to the main action, introducing Satan and his Angels in Hell. There follows a description of Hell, which is by no means located in the center of the Earth (heaven and Earth, presumably, have not yet been created, and therefore, curse does not yet gravitate over them), but in the area of pitch darkness, more precisely - Chaos. Satan with his Angels lies in a boiling lake, humiliated, defeated, but soon, waking up from the shock, calls on a companion, the first after him in rank and dignity. They talk about their unhappy situation. Satan awakens all legions that were still in a daze and unconsciousness. Innumerable, they rise, line up in battle formations; their main leaders bear the names of idols later known in Canaan and neighboring countries. Satan addresses his companions, consoles them with the hope of conquering Heaven and informs about a new world and a new kind of creatures, which, as the ancient prophecies and traditions of the Heavenly Kingdom say, must be created; Angels, according to the opinion of many ancient Fathers, were created long before the appearance of visible beings.
In order to reflect on this prophecy and determine further actions, Satan commands a general council to be assembled.
Companions agree with him. From the abyss of darkness, Pandemonium emerges - the palace of Satan. The infernal nobles sit there and confer.
About the first rehearsal, about the fruit
Forbidden, pernicious, that brought death
And all our troubles in this world,
He deprived people of Eden, for the time being,
When we are the Greatest Man
Raised, Blessed Paradise returned to us, -
Sing, the High Muse! Get off the peaks
Mysterious Sinai il Horeb,
Where the shepherd was inspired by you,
Originally Lecturing His People
The rise of Heaven and Earth
Out of Chaos; when is it nicer for you
The Hill of Zion and the Key of Siloam,
The verbs of God, I call
From there to help you; my song
Dared to fly over Helikon,
Aspiring to sublime objects,
Untouched neither in prose nor in poetry.
But first you, O Holy Spirit! - you are to the temples
You prefer pure hearts, -
Teach me your omniscience!
You, like a dove, soared from time immemorial
Over the abyss, making it fruitful;
Fill my darkness with light, lift up
All that is perishable in me, so that I can
The decisive reasons to find
And to prove the goodness of Providence,
By justifying the ways of the Creator before the creation.
Open up first - for Hell and Heaven
Equally accessible to Thy sight, -
What prompted the first couple
In a happy canopy, among the blessed bushes,
So sought after by the grace of Heaven,
Who betrayed the Universe to her power,
Deny the Creator, His prohibition
The only one to break? - Hellish Serpent!
Yes, it is he, envious and revenge,
The foremother has seduced us with flattery;
An insidious Enemy, cast down from the heights
By my own pride, together with the army
Of the rebel angels he
Headed, with whose help the Throne
I wanted to shake the Almighty
And to catch up with the Lord, revolting
Heavenly squads; but the fight
Was in vain. Almighty god
An angry headlong overthrew the obstinate,
Enveloped in flames, into the bottomless darkness,
To flour in adamant chains
And eternal punishing fire
For their armed, daring revolt.
Nine times the time is up
That mortals measure day and night,
While in writhing, with his horde,
The Enemy rushed about on fiery waves,
Broken, though immortal. Rock doomed
His bitter execution: to sorrow
About irrevocable happiness and thought
About eternal torment. He now circled
Gloomy apples around;
Hate and fear lurked in them,
And pride, and immeasurable longing ...
Instantly, that only Angels were given,
He looked around the desert country
A prison where fire blazed like in a furnace,
But it did not shine with visible darkness
Or rather it was, flickering only then,
In order to show the eyes of pitch darkness,
The vale of sorrow, the kingdom of sorrow, the edge,
Where there is no peace and quiet, where
Hope, close to all, is booked a way,
Where endless torment and fierce heat
Bubbling, inexhaustible jets
Flowing sulfur. Here's what a shutter
Here the Eternal Judge has prepared
To the rebels, in the midst of perfect darkness
He dreamed of creating an epic poem that would glorify the English people. He originally thought to write a religious epic work... The very idea of the poem was closely related to puritanical religious art.
In the 1630s, the plan for the epic canvas conceived by Milton changed. This reflected the ideological development of the poet: the concept took on a more concrete national character... Milton wanted to create Arthuriade - an epic that would revive the plots of the Round Table novels, glorify the exploits of the legendary king arthur- the leader of the British tribes in their struggle against the Anglo-Saxon invasion.
However, neither in the 1630s, nor in the 1640s, John Milton was unable to begin to implement the idea of \ u200b \ u200bthe epic poem. Only the experience of the 1650s-1660s helped him create (1658-1667) the poem Paradise Lost, which he thought about for many years.
John Milton. Portrait approx. 1629
The poem "Paradise Lost" analyzed here consists of 12 songs (Milton calls them books), it contains about 11 thousand verses. It was written in the so-called "blank verse", close to the Russian iambic pentameter.
In the 1660s, after the end of the English Revolution and the restoration of the Stuarts, Milton, with the whole concept of his poem, wanted to call not for an uprising against reaction, but for the gathering of spiritual forces, moral, moral improvement.
Russian critic Belinsky called John Milton's poem "the apotheosis of rebellion against authority", stressing that the revolutionary pathos of the poem is most vividly expressed in the image of Satan. This was the contradiction of the poem: the rebel and proud Satan, defeated, but continuing to take revenge on God, had to become a repulsive character, had to cause the reader's condemnation, and he, undoubtedly, turned out to be the most powerful image of the poem. Milton wanted to poeticize the idea of moral improvement, but Paradise Lost was perceived as a call to courage and continue to fight.
Milton's poem also has a peculiar sense of historicism. Milton shows that people, having left paradise and deprived of those idyllic happy conditions in which they lived before the "fall," entered a new, higher period of their development. The carefree inhabitants of the "garden of God" have become thinking, working, developing people.
Milton "Paradise Lost". Satan descends to earth. Artist G. Dore
Analysis shows that Paradise Lost is primarily a struggle poem. No wonder Milton at the beginning of the ninth book confidently says that he chose a plot more significant and heroic than any of his predecessors who turned to the epic genre. Indeed, Paradise Lost - heroic epic, created by the poet, who, although he did not personally participate in the wars of his time, was able to show the formidable element of war, her terrible and bloody labor, and not only the ceremonial battles of the heroes, praised the courage and valor of his contemporaries.
The epic features of Paradise Lost are not only in a lengthy description of the weapons and clothing of the warring parties, but also in the well-known hyperbolism (this applies especially to Satan), and in parallelism (God, his peers, his army - and Satan, his peers, his army ), and in the way Satan begins to speak three times, addressing the army, and is silent three times.
In Paradise Lost, the system of comparisons is also epic. Describing his heroes, John Milton often resorts to detailed epic comparisons, which are widely used in the poems of Homer and Virgil. So, in the second book of the poem, Satan is compared with the fleet, griffin, ship Argo, Ulysses (Odysseus), again with a ship.
But it was not only the gigantic battle scenes that captivated Milton. For all their effectiveness, they were only ingenious versions of already existing battle scenes, known from other epics. Bringing Paradise Lost to a decisive battle of good and evil in the ninth book, Milton abandoned epic battle poetics and showed this battle not in the form of a new cosmic battle, but in dialogues and monologues of people. The battlefield is the sun-drenched meadows of Eden, and it is not the trumpets of the seraphim, not the roar of rushing chariots, but the chirping of birds.
Moving from a cosmic scale to a description of human psychology, making the analysis of the spiritual world of the heroes the main object of the image, John Milton deduced Paradise Lost from the channel of the epic. Until now, as it should be in the epic, the events still prevailed over the characters. But in the ninth book, a lot changes. An epic prehistory (for, after all, Raphael's story of Satan is only a prehistory) gives way to an acute dramatic conflict, during which the very essence of a person changes. It is not typical for the hero of the epics of the 16th - 17th centuries to change. It is a holistic, complete image, an expression of an established social tradition. But Milton seeks precisely to show how the heroes of the poem have changed as a result of the events taking place. Adam and Eve, expelled from paradise, rise to a new, higher level of humanity.
In the ninth and partly tenth book of Paradise Lost, the dramatic element prevails over the epic. The transformation of an idyllic person into a tragic hero, a way out of the pastoral to a harsh reality (and this is main topic Milton's epics) takes place here. At the same time, Milton pays special attention to describing the experiences of Adam and Eve at the time of an acute crisis.
Closely related to the dramatic start of Paradise Lost speech characteristics characters. The presence of such characteristics makes Milton's portrait art even more distinctive.
Speaking about the oratorical abilities of Satan, John Milton accuses him of deceitful sophistry of speech. This is evidenced not only by the magnificent political philippics of Satan, purposeful and inspiring, but also by his conversation with Eve; the tempter's speech is clothed in an impeccable secular form. Satan in every possible way emphasizes his admiration for Eve - a woman, a "lady." He surrounds Eve with mystical eroticism, calls her "the sovereign", "the heaven of tenderness", "the goddess among the gods", "the lady above all."
A well-known opposition of oratorical and literary organized speech of Satan is Adam's speech in Paradise Lost - relatively poor in vocabulary, but laconic and expressive. In it, Milton tries to analyze the spiritual world of that sincere and yet inexperienced being, which was his man before the "fall."
But the special expressiveness of the speech portrait of Satan once again proves that, despite Milton's plan, it was Satan who was the most poetic character in the poem, and provided the author with material for creating a truly significant artistic image.
In Paradise Lost, it's not just humans who fight. The forces of nature constantly collide with each other.
When analyzing the poem, it is immediately striking that her poems and nature are closely related. The heroes are keenly aware of nature all the time: for example, Satan suffers in a hellish flame and becomes even darker among the dull expanses and mountains of hell. Straining all his forces, he overcomes the cosmic spaces of chaos in order to defeat nature, and softens at the sight of Eden, whose beauty is constantly praised by the first people.
Nature in Milton's Paradise Lost is not just the backdrop against which the heroes act; it changes along with the moods and feelings of the characters in the poem. Thus, in accordance with the chaos of passions seething in the soul of Satan, the world of chaos is revealed, which he overcome on the way to Eden. The pastoral harmony that surrounds people still sinless is replaced by a tragic picture of turmoil and destruction that burst into the world after the "fall" of the first people - this is a cosmic parallel to the deplorable and humiliating strife between Adam and Eve, reproaching each other.
How varied and concrete in Paradise Lost are the gloomy landscapes of hell and the fantastic booths of paradise, so colorless are the scenery of the sky, against which the puritanical abstractions of God and his son move. No amount of astronomical and cosmogonic contrivances helped John Milton to make these sets majestic. Their artificiality becomes especially noticeable next to the picturesque darkness of hell and the lush abundance of Eden.
Along with the elements of epic and drama, the author's digressions play an important role in Paradise Lost. They express the personality of a poet, a participant in fierce class battles; they dissect the stream of epic descriptions, emphasizing the ideological significance of certain parts of the poem in the development of a general concept.
The poet's worldview was formed in the fire of the revolutionary struggle. The revolutionary era also determined the peculiarities of his epic: a motley style, tending to the synthesis of genres. However, Milton's attempts to create a new synthetic genre were not crowned with complete success.
The religious and historical content of Paradise Lost is in irreconcilable contradiction. This is reflected in the sharp difference between images based on reality and allegorical images expressing a religious and ethical idea. The latter are close to the complex allegories characteristic of John Milton's analytical prose.
Taking care that an abstract concept would materialize as visibly and realistically as possible, Milton piled up the comparison in Paradise Lost for comparison.
So, for example, he found the comparison of the defeated armies of Satan falling from the sky with leaves torn off by the autumn wind insufficiently expressive, and he strengthened it by comparing it with the Egyptian hordes that died in the Red Sea. Satan himself is a comet, a thundercloud, a wolf, and a thief. The same Satan, having reached Eden and rejoicing at the end of the journey, makes several merry volts before descending - he rolls over before committing an evil deed! One of his sudden magical transformations is likened to the explosion of a powder magazine.