MILTON AND "SENSIBLE THINGS": INSTRUCTION IN "PARADISE LOST"
Abstract
John Milton's Paradise Lost can be profitably framed by his commentary on education because he insists on a method "to be followed in all discreet teaching" and purposes his epic "to the honor and instruction" of his country. Concerned with the human consequences of the Scholastics' emphasis on "intellective abstractions," Milton proposes a method that begins with arts that "are most obvious to the sense" and purposes "repair (ing) the ruins" occasioned by the Fall, thereby "regaining to know God aright." His belief that all creation is both material and spiritual leads to a concept of the artist as teaching about (substantial) things that lead to spiritual ones. Thus, his original conceptualization of Paradise Lost as a drama becomes significant evidence of his desire for the illusion of sensuous immediacy, through which "intellective abstractions" can be understood. Adam's original understanding of this link between things earthly and heavenly, for which Raphael's teachings provide the paradigm, the dis-joining occasioned by the Fall, and Michael's renovation of that link comprise the bulk of this study. By envisioning the poem as Milton's presentation of the "great chain of instruction," we come to understand why some of the most problematic features of the text--for example, the "monstrous" God, the materiality of the war in heaven, the status of the narrator, and the appeal of Satan--are the most instructive. Simply stated, in Milton's universe every rational being learns to live or learns at death about life.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
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