ჯონ მილტონის

„დაკარგული სამოთხე“
First published in 1667.
Second revised edition – 1674.
Paradise Lost – an epic poem

Epic – extended narrative dealing with a hero

or a group of heroes attempting to achieve a
specific goal. The goal has to do the with
actions, events, or ideas that tend to define a
culture either through history, values or
destiny.
Epic poetry always begins in
medias res, or in the middle of
things.

This means that the poem begins,

and then usually gives you a back-
story returning you to where you
began, and then moving forward.
Paradise Lost is a new sort of Epic, Christian
Epic that focuses not on the military actions
that create a nation but on the moral actions
that create a world.

Milton finds true heroism in obedience to God

and in the patience to accept suffering without
the loss of faith.
Milton's poem explores a more spiritual
heroism: “better fortitude / Of patience and
heroic martyrdom / Unsung“.
The Aim -"assert Eternal
Providence" and "justify the
ways of God to men“.

Unrhymed iambic pentameter,

blank verse.
Iambic Pentameter
In a line of poetry, an ‘iamb’ is a foot or beat
consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable.
e.g.: deLIGHT, the SUN, forLORN, one DAY, reLEASE

‘Penta’ means five, so pentameter simply means

five meters.
A line of poetry written in iambic pentameter has
five feet = five sets of stressed syllables and
unstressed syllables.
Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
[from Paradise Lost]

Of Mans / First Dis/obed/ience, and / the Fruit

Of that / Forbid/den Tree,/ whose mor/tal taste
Brought Death/ into / the World,/ and all/ our woe,
With loss / of Ed/en, till / one great/er Man
Restore / us, and / regain / the bliss/ful Seat,
Sing Heav’nly Muse, …
 Themes
 The Importance of Faith and of
Obedience to God
 Fate and free will
 Sin
 Pride
 Innocence
 Revenge
 Light and Dark
Fate and Free will

“So will fall

He and his faithless progeny , Whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate! He made of me
All he could have; I made him just and right
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall”.
(3.95-9)
Fate and Free will
“They therefore , as to right belonged,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their maker or their making, or their fate
As if predestination overruled
Their will disposed by absolute decree
Or high foreknowladge”.
(3.111 – 6 )
Theme of Sin
‘’ A goddess armed
Out of thy head I sprung!
Amazement seized
All the Host oh Heaven.
Back they recoiled afraid
At first and called me Sin ,
and for a sign
Portentous held me
(2.757-61)
Theme of Sin

"Apostate, still thou err'st, nor end

wilt find
Of erring, from the path of truth
remote!" (6.172-3)
Theme of Pride

"How such united force of gods, how

such
As stood like these, could ever know
repulse?"
(1.629-30)
Theme of Pride

"For who can yet believe, though after loss,

That all these puissant legions whose exile
Hath emptied Heav'n shall fail to re-ascend,
Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?"
(1.631-4)
Theme of Pride

"fair angelic Eve,

Partake thou also! Happy though thou art,
Happier thou may'st be, worthier canst not be.
Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods
Thyself a goddess, not to Earth confined"
(5.74-8).
Theme of Innocence
"Flours of all hue, and without thorn the rose"
(4.256)

"Nor those mysterious parts were then

concealed: Then was not guilty shame,
dishonest shame Of nature's works, honor
dishonorable"
(4.312-14)
Theme of Revenge

"and enraged might see How all his malice

served but to bring forth Infinite goodness,
grace, and mercy shown On Man by him
seduced, but on himself Treble confusion,
wrath and vengeance poured"
(1.216-20)
Theme of Revenge

"and by proof we feel Our power sufficient to

disturb His Heav'n, And with perpetual inroads
to alarm, Though inaccessible, His fatal throne,
Which if not victory is yet revenge"
(2.101-5)
Dante divides evils into three categories: sins of
appetite, sins of will and sins of reason.

Pandemonium
Moloch is the example of the evil that comes
from the will.
Mammon exhibits the sin of the appetite (one
cannot serve God and Mammon).
Beelzebub the evil from the reason.
 Satan’s two guards – his daughter, Sin, and his
grandson, Death.

Sin was born when Satan, in Heaven, felt envy for Jesus.
Sins arise from disobedience and ingratitude toward
God.

Death the result of the unnatural union between Satan

and his daughter. Death is not simply a biological fact of
life but rather a punishment for sin and disobedience, a
punishment that nobody escapes.
Satan’s gradual degradation
Satan's gradual degradation is dramatized by the
sequence of different shapes he assumes.
He begins the poem as a just-fallen angel of enormous
stature,
looks like a comet or meteor as he leaves Hell,
then disguises himself as a more humble cherub,
then as a cormorant,
then a lion & a tiger,
then a toad,
and finally a snake.
Satan’s gradual degradation
His ability to reason and argue also deteriorates.
In Book I, he persuades the devils to agree to his plan.
In Book IV, however, he reasons to himself that the
Hell he feels inside of him is reason to do more evil.
When he returns to Earth again, he believes that Earth
is more beautiful than Heaven.
Satan, removed from Heaven long enough to forget its
unparalleled grandeur, is completely demented,
coming to believe in his own lies.
He is a picture of incessant intellectual activity
without the ability to think morally.
Satan’s gradual degradation
To sum up:
Satan’s character — or our perception of his
character — changes significantly from
Book I to his final appearance in Book X.
In Book I he is a strong, imposing figure
with great abilities as a leader and public
statesmen.
However, by the poem’s end he slinks back
to Hell in serpent form.
 Satan, Sin, Death

„A dismal, universal hiss, the

ground / of public scorn”
“ transformed / alike to
serpents, all as accessories”
Adam and Eve
Reason & Emotion / Sense & Sensibility

Adam (before the fall) – a strong, intelligent, and

rational character (as perfect as a human being can be)
Adam (after the fall) – loses his pure reason and
intellect

Eve – created to be Adam’s mate, inferior to Adam, but

only slightly; surpasses Adam only in her beauty.
Ironically, her greatest asset produces her most serious
weakness, vanity.
 God
Omnipotent
Omniscient
Omnipresent
After God leads Eve away from her reflection, she first
encounters Adam under a platan tree.

Platan (plane tree) - Milton alludes to Plato, the Greek

philosopher.

Plato’s arguments is the thesis that reality consists of

ideal forms that can only be perceived by the intellect.

Platan tree – Plato - Adam, suggesting that he is closer

to the ideal forms or essences of things, whereas Eve is
more part of the world of images, shade, and illusion.
Milton considers Mary, the mother of the Son (Jesus),
to be the “second Eve.”

As Sin and Death came into the world through Eve,

the Son would conquer Sin and Death through Mary.

Milton considers Jesus to be a “second Adam” who

corrects Adam and Eve’s disobedience through his
resurrection.

Eve and Mary, and Adam and Jesus, the fall and the
resurrection become intertwined.
გმადლობთ ყურადღებისთვის!