A Brief Introduction to Paradise Lost by John Milton

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A Brief Introduction to Paradise Lost by John
Milton

• Dantes The Inferno from his Divine Comedy

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John Milton (Day One)

• Greatest 17th century English writer.
• Work reflects his Puritan beliefs as well as his
  comprehensive grasp of classic literature.
• Scholar, traveler, political writer, activist and
  staunch Puritan
• Wrote one of the greatest works in the English
  language, Paradise Lost
• Dictated the entirety of Paradise Lost because he
  went blind.

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The Devil cast out of heaven in Miltons Paradise
Lost
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Miltons concept of Heaven, Earth and Hell

• On the board
• This mythic distance separating heaven and hell
  accentuates the plummeting fall of the angel of
  light, Lucifer.

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Do handout 56
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Two very famous quotes from Paradise Lost

• The mind is its own place, and in itself can
  make a Heaven of Hell, or a Hell of Heaven.
• Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
• Why are these well known? Pick one to respond
  to.Ill give you the guidelines for your
  writing.

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Dante Alighieri (Day Two)

• (1265-1321)
• Medieval Italian Poet
• Importance on staying on a path of righteousness
• The Divine Comedy is his vision of the afterlife.

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Dantes Divine Comedy

• Divine Nature of the subject matter
• Comedy type of poetry that it is (it starts out
  somber, but ends on a happy note).
• Based on an allegorical journey
• The walk through a dark and confusing world
  represents the life journey of men and women.
• We often get entangled in our daily lives and
  lose our way.

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(No Transcript)
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• The work assumes two levels of meaning
• External (temporal)
• Intrenal (spiritual)
• Treatment of death and the afterlife aims to both
  comfort and warn
• The Divine Comedy is divided into three parts
  Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
• Dantes character begins in Inferno and climbs
  upward to attain a view of higher plains.

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By William Blake, a writer and artist. We will
study him too.
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• The upward journey represents the human ideal of
  striving for temporal and spiritual perfection.
• Virgil (a real guy- the ancient Roman poet who
  wrote Aeneid one of the greatest epics in human
  history) guides the narrator through Inferno.
• Each of the three parts of The Divine Comedy
  consists of 33 cantos (or sections) since three
  is a mystical number. One additional canto
  serves as a prologue (to 100 which was a that
  symbolized perfection).

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• The opening canto describes Dantes spiritual
  confusion and sets up the journey.
• On his allegorical journey
• He awakes to find himself lost in a dark, rank
  woods.
• Three beasts confront him representing major
  divisions of the Inferno the leopard, malice
  the lion, violence and the wolf, greed.
• These bar him from a magnificent mountain that
  attracts his attention.

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Another by William Blake, depicting Dantes Hell
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• Canto II actually starts the journey with the
  typical invoking of the Muse. He also places his
  trust in the poet-guide Virgil.
• Reader first views Inferno in Canto III. An
  ominous inscription is posted at the gate that
  warns of the hopelessness of the dead in this
  place.
• The first characters that Dante meets are those
  in a vestibule, waiting eternally, as everyone
  waited for them in life. After a life of
  refusing to commit themselves, they are now stung
  to frenetic motion by wasps.

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• Dante, as character, is horrified at the
  beginning of his journey. His optimism, however,
  is evident in the characters journey from
  Inferno on Good Friday, 1300, to hope on Easter
  Sunday, when he emerges from the abyss to freedom.

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Do Handout 60

• Part A Together
• Part B On Your Own

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Dantes Vision (Day Three)

• Dantes world is a combination of the concrete,
  abstract, and ethical.
• As readers see, hear, and smell the creation,
  they realize the allegorical implication and
  sense relevant moral issues. (That is why is has
  endured and is such a powerful text!)

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Do Handout 61
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Nine Levels of Hell Cont

• Beyond the wall to the city of Dis, separates the
  deliberate sinners from the foolish
• Violence, fraud, and eventually to Satan himself.
• Sins are evaluated, in almost every case, by the
  mores of the age in which they were committed.

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The Nine Levels of Dantes Hell

• From a vestibule to a pit of fire
• Characters at each level represent various sins.
• Ones degree of evil dictates depth and type of
  punishment.
• The first major levels and for the uncontrolled,
  those who became loose with morals,

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Nine Levels of Hell Cont

• The topographical detail of Inferno is vivid.
• Rocks, bridges, rivers, boulders, etc. represent
  moral issues that impede people in their journeys
  through life.
• Dantes mission is to alert the audience that
  only the unrepentant need suffer the horror of
  the Inferno.

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Do Handout 62
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The Politics behind The Inferno(Day Four)

• What is Anarchy?
• Dramatize it. . . . . . .

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Anarchy is. . . .

• A state of disorder that provokes conflict and
  violence.

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During Dantes time in Italy

• Two parties competed (one would take power then
  the other)
• The Ghibellines (imperial law and order as
  basis. Religion meant little to them)
• The Guelfs (papal supporters professed supremacy
  in religion)
• Neither party lived up to their ideals and both
  were selfish and greedy.

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Dantes Stance

• Although Dantes Florentine family supported the
  papacy, he sided with the imperial government.
• As a result, he was exiled from Florence for
  life.
• Firmly believed that God put the imperial
  government in place to preserve peace and justice.

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In The Divine Comedy. . .

• Dantes first guide (for the underworld), Virgil,
  embodies reason and philosophy.
• The second guide (on the higher level), Beatrice,
  embodies faith and religion.
• Dante finishes The Divine Comedy around 1315 but
  it is set in 1300.
• It criticizes the condition of Florence from the
  always clearer position of hindsight.

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In medieval Italy..

• People identified with their cities, not their
  nation.
• Dante considered himself Florentine, not Italian.
• Florence was the scene of rampant rivalry between
  political parties.
• And Dante used parts of The Inferno to deprecate
  political corruption and anarchy.

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Do Handout 63

• Complete Part A
• Then we will briefly discuss it and read the
  excerpt in Part B together.

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Final Thoughts. . . ..

• The Divine Comedy consists of three parts the
  horrifying Inferno, the less terrible Purgatorio,
  and the delightful Paradiso
• Dantes brilliant poem capitalizes on fundamental
  beliefs of his culture to comment on human beings
  and society.

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Creating Your Own Hell

• We will go over the analysis of Dantes hell
  together and what is expected of you