damp

In other words, prevent flight. Milton is invoking his muse, without whose inspiration his poetry will not be able to "soar." (In addition to the regular definition, "intended" here also means "extended" or "outstretched.")

In book 3...can you tell me what are the specific parallels and contants between the action in Heaven and the Son's decision with Hell and Satan's volunteering? (with line #s in the poem if possible) And which is more fun, Heaven or Hell, again, in book 3 of Paradise lost??

Parallel: Both volunteer while the masses hang back [ii.417-429] = [iii.217-226]

Contrast: Satan uses his volunteerism to glorify himself and intimidate the others [ii.465-477] while the Son's first consideration is to please his Father. [iii.266-273]

continued . . . Hi, i forgot to add a little thing in my last question...in book 3, the question which place is more fun, heaven or hell, and WHY?...thanks...this will be such a BIG help!!!

Hell is always more fun than heaven--in any book of PL or anyplace else for that matter (as long as you're on the outside looking in)--particularly in reverent depictions as in PL. Satirical scenes in heaven can be fun, but there is no way to interestingly portray unvarying bliss, love, peace, and (yawn) benevolence. The only fun in heaven in PL comes when Satan raises hell there.

Thanks for your explanation of the poetic style of PL. Can you also explain the language - why is he so difficult to understand? Any clues?

Milton's style is strongly influenced by Latin. His sentences do not follow the structure we are used to. For example you will often find the direct object placed before the verb.

She, as a veil down to the slender waist,
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
[iv.302]

Then there are the words. Since we are in a 17th Century context, sometimes even annotations don't help. If all else fails, there's that old standby, the dictionary. Sometimes words you think you know will have other, rare or archaic uses. And Milton is famous for finding them.

These, lulled by nightingales, embracing slept,
And on their naked limbs the flowery roof
Showered roses, which the morn repaired. . .
[iv.771]

That's how things were in Paradise.

Don't you think Milton symbolizes support for women's liberation when he makes Eve demand to go off on her own in Book 9 to get out from under the watchful eye of Adam?

Yeah but he squelches it in line xi.176; after all, don't forget, her "liberated" walk in the woods did turn into disaster.

describe "Free Will" in Paradise Lost please

Better yet, I'll let God describe it to you: iii.94-128; v.230-245; viii.633-643.

Milton's God insists that His creatures excercise their free will, even though He foresees the result. How is this possible? Can you help me figure out this apparent paradox amongst predestination/ free-will /foreknowledge?

Paradoxes do not have solutions. That's why they are called paradoxes. If you are on "Deal or No Deal" and I, as a true fortune teller, tell you that you are going to select Case #5, having free will, you can then decide to select Case #8, simply to prove me wrong. And I would then be wrong. But if I truly see the future, I can't be wrong . . . a paradox, to say the least.

God, Milton, and Adam get around this problem by burying it in the complexity of the situation. Even if God told Adam what the future would be (which, in a way, he did), then technically, Adam could've said "Well, just for the hell of it, I'm not going to eat the apple, just to show I can make God wrong." He didn't do that because a whole other set of complex emotional forces were propelling this story. No time for such trivial experiments. Yet, technically, with free will, he could have . . . or . . . could he?

How successful is Milton at his purpose:justifying the ways of God to man? Thanks!

I think Milton does as well as can be expected, given the prejudicial religious or anti-religious beliefs readers will bring to the poem, and the unsympathetic (dictatorial) position God is in as a character. Personally, I am moved by God's justice/mercy equation: "Man dies, or justice does" [III:209-212]--meaning justice requires he punish man, but mercy allows him to mitigate that punishment by sacrificing his Son.

I understand that the Tree of Knowledge appears to be an apple tree but what is tasted when they ate the fruit?

Well, they really enjoyed it, and apples do taste good. I’m guessing the apples tasted like apples.

Of course, you’re asking, or are being asked, what was the metaphorical taste, the taste of forbidden knowledge. The realization of newly imparted, and unwelcome, “knowledge” came later, as an aftershock. The initial “taste” had more to do with the “forbidden” aspect—the childish kick or thrill one gets in breaking the rules, especially with a cohort. The “intoxicated” couple “swam in mirth” and “burned in lust” among other things.

What's the theme?

One theme in Paradise Lost is the contrast between two kinds of irreparable loss: the loss which leads to hopelessness and unending evil [IV:108-113] and the loss which, though irreparable, is mitigated with love and hope [XII:466-478 ].

I was wondering where the part about Sin and Death being offspring of Satan and forming the "unholy trinity" comes from. Is this exclusively Milton's imagination at work?

Not exclusively. He found his inspiration in the Bible in the Epistle of James I:15.

How does Satan feel about being in Hell?

The obvious answer is in Satan's line--the most famous line in all Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." [I:263] But this comes after he has just arrived in hell, hot from the passion of war, spoken to Beelzebub, his second in command. Later, when Satan stands alone on the mountain, newly arrived on earth, he lets his guard down in a soliloquy where he expresses his waning confidence, regret, and ultimate resolve to evil. [IV:32-113]

How does Satana react to the fall from Heaven??

I think they made an album about it.

What happens in Eve's dream?

This is Satan's first attempt to corrupt Eve. Before he tempts her in the form of a serpent he comes to her in this dream disguised as a friendly angel who successfully tempts her to eat the forbidden fruit. Immediately upon eating the fruit she and the angel fly up into the sky like gods, when suddenly ... to be continued ... when you read lines 799-821 in book IV for yourself.

The rhyme scheme is a difficult one to plot out... what's your take on it? I'm guess it's based on the numerology of the words...there's got to be some perfect way that every line's mathmatical relationship cooresponds

Like Shakespeare, Milton's blank (non-rhyming) verse uses the rhythm of iambic pentameter. A line is composed of five long, unaccented syllables, each followed by a short, accented one. Pick and read any line at random and you will hear the rhythm:

The MIND is ITS own PLACE, and IN it-SELF
Can MAKE a HEAV'N of HELL, a HELL of HEAV'N.
[i.254]

What is wrong with the logic of Satan's argument urging Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge?

Actually some of it is pretty good. How can you avoid evil if you don't understand what it is, he argues. And how can you enjoy goodness if you don't understand the difference between goodness and evil, as the tree of knowledge offers? Makes sense to me. He also implies God is jealously guarding his own power which the tree can impart to Eve, making her God's equal. Sounds good, too.

Note how your question is leading, presumptuous? Maybe Satan did not beat his wife. Or do I underestimate you, and is it rhetorical? For in no way could Eve have been expected to outwit Satan's 'logic' in her state of naive innocence. I can't, and innocent I am not. What God was asking for was pure unquestioning faith and obedience.

please give your definition of "The Fortunate Fall" - thank you.

This is the philosophy that the good which ultimately evolves as a result of the fall--God's mercy, the coming of Christ, redemption, salvation, etc.--leaves us in a better place, with opportunity for greater good than would have been possible without the fall.

After Michael gives Adam all the prophecies of what is to come, both good and bad, as a result of his fall, Adam sums up the spirit of 'the fortunate fall' pretty well in his emotional speech at xii.469-478.

I need to know how the element of politics plays a part in Paradise Lost for a research paper. CGCG

Lots of politics here. To begin, the rebellion in heaven is a political upheaval. Part of what accounts for the "Satan as hero" phenomenon is that this can be likened to a freedom vs. dictatorship conflict. And lets not forget what precipitates it: God's appointment of his Son as co-ruler. Among us humans it's called nepotism.

The council in hell is a political debate, the results of which--either a return to battle or peaceful lower-world government-building--will effect how power is distributed among the devils [II:290-299]. When Satan proclaims his intention to go the journey to earth alone, we note a political slant [II:465-473].

Among other nasty effects produced by eating the forbidden fruit, it turns Eve political, as she ponders whether to share the magical fruit with her husband or keep the odds in her favor, in her imagined new goddess-like state.

Even some of God's motives can be termed political, as when he publicizes some of his actions to influence the masses [XI:67-71].

Paradise Lost is a about power, ambition, alliances, deceit, vengeance--in other words, "politics as usual."

why does raphael pause before telling adam the story of chaos?

I don't recall the pause or the story you're referring to. It does remind me, however, of another pause taken by Michael in his teachings to Adam. It takes place at the opening of Book XII. The first (1667) edition of PL was composed of ten books. In the later (1674) 12-book version, the last book of the 10-book version is separated into two books, and Milton added a short introductory "pause" to allow Adam to recover his emotions and to smooth over the transition from book to book.

what is a clue that tells you this is an epic poem?

When you feel like fainting when you see how long it is.

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I need help on examining the language and its implications in the last 5 lines of Paradise Lost (Words such as "natural," "wandering," "hand in hand," and "rest")

Now that the world is a fallen world, it has become "natural" for them to shed tears. Eve had previously shed tears in Book V, but the reason was the same. She had had an "unnatural" dream inspired by Satan, in which she ate the forbidden fruit.

They proceed hesitantly and with trepidation, with "wandering steps and slow," because they have no direction, both literally and in looking to the future. Their home in Paradise was all perfectly planned for them by God. Now they must find their own place of "rest" in the wild, to settle and build a new life, to rest from their physical journey and their emotional trauma, and from which to begin the "rest" of the history of this world.

Milton first introduced the pair to us walking "hand in hand" [iv.321], and so linked again as they retired to their nuptial bower [iv.689]. Their love survived some shaky moments after the fall. In the tragic finale, this symbol of reaffirmed union takes on greater poignancy.

I'm writing a report about the use of female characters in PL. Is it safe to say that the 3 women (if you include the muse) were created for their 'surperior' male counterparts only to serve them?

Yeah, that’s about the way it was, and everybody was okay with that back then.