The deference with which Adam greets Raphael shows the human accepting his position in regard to the angel. Satan has no answer to this point except sophistic rigmarole.įurther instances of the crucial importance of both hierarchy and obedience occur in both large and small matters. Abdiel's point is that Satan's rebellion because of the Son is wrong because Satan is disobeying a decree of his obvious superior. When Abdiel stands up to Satan in Book V, Abdiel says that God created the angels "in their bright degrees" (838) and adds "His laws our laws" (844). Satan's rebellion because of jealousy is the first great act of disobedience and commences all that happens in the epic. The significance of obedience to superiors is not just a matter of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge it is a major subject throughout the poem. By not obeying God's rule, Adam and Eve bring calamity into their lives and the lives of all mankind. The proper running of the universe requires the obedience of inferiors to their superiors. The prohibition is not so much a matter of the fruit of the tree as it is obeying God's ordinance. In Paradise Lost, God places one prohibition on Adam and Eve - not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. God, being God, was by definition superior to every other thing in the universe and should always be obeyed. Conversely, if the king proved unfit or not superior to his subjects, it was morally improper to obey him and revolution could be justified. It was, therefore, not just proper to obey the king it was morally required. A king was king not because he was chosen but because he was superior to his subjects. The proper way of the world was for inferiors to obey superiors because superiors were, well, superior. The worldview of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Restoration was that all of creation was arranged in various hierarchies. This hierarchical arrangement by Milton is not simply happenstance. Even in Hell, Satan sits on a throne, higher than the other demons. On Earth, Adam is superior to Eve humans rule over animals. Angels are arranged in groups according to their proximity to God. God literally sits on a throne at the top of Heaven. The universe that Milton imagined with Heaven at the top, Hell at the bottom, and Earth in between is a hierarchical place. The first part of Milton's argument hinges on the word disobedience and its opposite, obedience. To understand the theme of Paradise Lost then, a reader does not have to accept Milton's ideas as a vindication of God's actions rather the reader needs to understand the idea of justice that lies behind the actions. Milton wishes to show that the fall, death, and salvation are all acts of a just God. Rather, Milton uses justify in the sense of showing the justice that underlies an action. Such a reading of justify would mean that Milton is taking it upon himself to explain the propriety of God's actions - a presumptuous undertaking when one is dealing with any deity. Milton does not use the word justification in its modern sense of proving that an action is or was proper. However, Milton's idea of justification is not as arrogant as many readers think. And, just as frequently, readers and those casually acquainted with Paradise Lost misunderstand what Milton means by the word justify, assuming that Milton is rather arrogantly asserting that God's actions and motives seem so arbitrary that they require vindication and explanation. Frequently, discussions of Paradise Lost center on the latter of these three to the exclusion of the first two. The purpose or theme of Paradise Lost then is religious and has three parts: 1) disobedience, 2) Eternal Providence, and 3) justification of God to men. Milton begins Paradise Lost by saying that he will sing, "Of Man's First Disobedience" (I, 1) so that he can "assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men" (I, 25-26). His purpose or theme in Paradise Lost is relatively easy to see, if not to accept. He was not always completely orthodox in his ideas, but he was devout. Milton's religious views reflect the time in which he lived and the church to which he belonged. One problem is that Paradise Lost is almost militantly Christian in an age that now seeks out diverse viewpoints and admires the man who stands forth against the accepted view. Modern criticism of Paradise Lost has taken many different views of Milton's ideas in the poem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |