浅谈《失乐园》的主题毕业论文

【标题】浅谈失乐园的主题 【作者】李 婕 【关键词】撒旦；上帝；人类；英国资产阶级革命 【指导老师】张亚军 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionJohn Milton（1608-1674） one of the greatest poets at the end of English Renaissance, whose works have occupied a high position in the history of English literature, culture and ideology. Miltons father was a composer of church music, and Milton himself experienced a lifelong delight in music. The familys financial prosperity afforded Milton to be taught classical languages. In 1625, Milton was admitted to Christs College, Cambridge. While Milton was a hardworking student, he was also argumentative to the extent that only a year later, in 1626, he got suspended after a dispute with his tutor, William Chappell. It was at Cambridge that he composed“On the Morning of Christs Nativity” on December 25, 1629.In April 1637, Milton was nearing the end of his studies when his mother died and was buried at Horton. Only a few months later, in August, Miltons friend Edward King died as well, by drowning. In November, upon his memory, Milton composed the beautiful elegy, Lycidas. It was published in a memorial volume at Cambridge in 1638. The Civil War was brewing King Charles I invaded Scotland in 1639, and the Long Parliament was convened in 1640. Milton began writing pamphlets on political and religious matters; Of Reformation, Animadversions, and Of Prelatical Episcopacy were published in 1641, The Reason for Church Government in February, 1642. In the spring of 1642, Milton married Mary Powell, 17 years old to his 34, but the relationship was an unhappy one, and Mary left him to visit the family home briefly thereafter, and did not return. Milton had made plans to remarry, when Mary Powell returned. The two seemed to have reconciled, since their daughter Anne was born in 1646. The whole Powell clan moved in with the Miltons, because Royalists had been ousted from Oxford.The year 1652 was one of many personal losses for Milton. In February, Milton lost his sight. This prompted him to write the sonnet“When I Consider How My Light is Spent.” In May, 1652, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Deborah, and died a few days later. In June, one year-old John died. In 1655, Defensio Pro Se(“Defense of Himself”) was published. In 1656, Milton married Katherine Woodcock, but the happiness was short-lived. Miltons daughter Katherine was born in late 1657, but by early 1658, both mother and daughter had passed away. It is to the memory of Katherine Woodcock that Milton wrote the sonnet“Methought I saw my late espousd saint.” Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell died in October, 1658, and the days of the Commonwealth were coming to a close. In early 1659, Milton published A Treatise of Civil Power and Easy Way To Establish a Free Commonwealth. For his propaganda writings, Milton had to go into hiding, for fear of retribution from the followers of King Charles II. In June, 1659, both Defensio pro populo Anglicano and Eikonoklastes were publicly burned. In early autumn, Milton was arrested and thrown in prison, to be released by order of Parliament before Christmas. King Charles II was restored to the throne on May 30, 1660.In 1663, Milton remarried again, to Elizabeth Minshull, a match his daughters opposed. He spent his time tutoring students and finishing his lifes work, the epic, Paradise Lost. Among the greatest works ever to be written in English, the feat is all the more remarkable for Miltons blindness he would compose verse upon verse at night in his head and then dictate them from memory to his aides in the morning. Paradise Lost finally saw publication in 1667, in ten books. It was reissued in 1668 with a new title-page and additional materials. The book was met with instant success and amazement. History of Britain was published in 1670; Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes were published together in 1671. In summer 1674, the second edition of Paradise Lost was published, in twelve books. Milton died peacefully of gout in November, 1674, and was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate. A monument to Milton rests in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey.II. The Synopsis of Paradise LostParadise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousands individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books(in the manner of the division of Virgils Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification, the majority of the poem was written while Milton was blind, and was transcribed for him.The poem concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Miltons purpose, stated in Book I, is to“justify the ways of God to men” and elucidate the conflict between Gods eternal foresight and free will.Milton incorporates Paganism, classical Greek references, and Christianity within the poem. It deals with diverse topics from marriage, politics(Milton was politically active during the time of the English Civil War), and monarchy, and grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination, the Trinity, and the introduction of sin and death into the world, as well as angels, fallen angels, Satan, and the war in heaven. Milton draws on his knowledge of languages, and diverse sources primarily Genesis, much of the New Testament, the deuterocanonical Book of Enoch, and other parts of the Old Testament. This epic is generally considered one of the greatest works in the English language. The story was revised into twelve books after initial publication, following the model of the Aeneid of Virgil. The book lengths vary the longest being Book IX, with 1,189 lines and the shortest, Book VII, having 640. In the second edition, each book was preceded by a summary titled“The Argument”. The poem follows the epic tradition of starting in medias res(Latin for in the midst of things), the background story being told in Books V-VI.III. The Themes of Paradise LostA. The Conflict between Satan and God1. Satans RebellionSatan is the first major character introduced in the poem. A beautiful youth, he is a tragic figure best described by his well known words“Tis better to rule in Hell then serve in Heaven”. He is introduced to Hell after a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God. Satans desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to accept that all beings dont deserve freedom, declaring the angels“self-begot, self-raised”, thereby eliminating Gods authority over them as their creator. Satan is narcissistic, sad, and persuasive. Satans persuasive powers are first evident when he makes arguments to his angel-followers as to why they should try to overthrow God. Satans rebellion, or his spirit of daring against fate is remarkable in a time when all the others keep silent. He has almost all the personal charisma of a hero: mighty in constitution, unyielding in spirit, and eloquent in argument. Our sympathies are naturally on Satans side. Coleridge justly compares the situation of Satan to that of Napoleon. There is the same pride, the same Satanic ability, the same will, the same egotism. His character seems to grow with his fall. In Heaven, he was no more than a servant to God whom he despises. It is only when he is cast down in hell that exposes all the grandeur of the greatest mind. The result is definitely negative, both for Satan and for Milton. The same old question would rise in the readers head: Satan is the hero what does Milton have to tell us? Misunderstandings have flooded from this split-hole. To make Satan a hero is to defy Gods authority. This is too bold and crazy considering the political and religious background at the time.Satans persuasive powers are also evident during the scene in which he assumes the body of a snake in order to convince Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. First, he wins Eves trust by giving her endless compliments. And when she is perplexed(and impressed) by a“serpent” that is able to talk, Satan tells her that he gained the ability to talk by eating from the Tree of Knowledge and argues that if she were to also eat from the Tree, she would become god-like. He convinces her that the fruit will not kill her and that God will not be upset with her if she eats from the tree. Like his argument to his followers, Satan also argues against Gods omnipotence, stating“Why then was(eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) forbid? Why but to awe,/ Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,/(Gods) worshippers; he knows that in the day/ Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,/ Yet are but dim, shall perfectly be then/ Opened and cleared, and ye shall be as gods./ So ye shall die perhaps, by putting off/ Human, to put on gods.”12. Satans FallMiltons Satan feels guilt and doubt before he tricks Eve, knowing the results of his actions will curse innocents. Similarly, Satan has feelings of guilt when he first enters Paradise. But his feelings always turn to hate once he reflects on his own exile from Heaven.The role of Satan as a driving force in the poem has been the subject of much scholarly debate. Positions range from views of William Blake who stated Milton“wrote in fetters when wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell,(because)he was a true Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it” 2 o critic William H. Marshalls interpretation of the poem as a Christian morality tale.Why does Milton make out of Satan such a mighty and majestic figure? Does he play the role of a hero in Paradise Lost? Perhaps we need look more into the text to set a seal on the question. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven is at any rate an audacious declaration. It is not to be denied that Satan had not only the courage to revolt against Gods will but the persistence to carry it through to the very end. And readers, carried away by the valor and vitality of Satans tremendous adventures, are apt to forget there is any other part of the epic.“Indeed, while we are getting acclimated to the Miltonic world, there is no reason to hold back out sympathy with Satan, our admiration for his heroic energy”3 But as the epic progresses, we may discover more spectacular scenes and our sympathies with Satan would gradually shift.When Satan strives his way through the universe against enormous odds and finally enters Heaven, his way of struggling takes a very remarkable change. He does not unite all the necessary forces, that is, he does not depend any more upon the collective strength of all his fallen compatriots and wage a face-to-face war against Gods angels. Instead, he takes another strategy: destroy the innocent human being, who is the newly creation and beloved by God. This is a much easier job. Adam and Eve are unarmed and ignorant. They have to rely on the good angels protection. Without little effort, he succeeds in reaching his goal. He disguises himself as a friendly and intelligent serpent and tempted Eve, who is the weaker vessel, into eating the forbidden fruit, who in turn seduces Adam to share with her the same guilt. As a due punishment, they are both driven out of paradise. But, since the very moment Satan changes his strategy, his battle has already been lost. He rebels against his own self: such grand characteristics as courage, persistence, and etc. that mark a hero. He chooses dirty crafts and schemes and coward ness, which make him doomed to be defeated another time. And he is finally punished for this: God turns him into the shape of a serpent and he would eat the earth for food all his life. This is the second fall of the rebellious angels. And this time they are utterly fallen, both bodily and spiritually.B. The Depravity of Human BeingsThe fall of man is sometimes referred to as“fortunate fall”. As is well known, Paradise Lost has a vast but delicately balanced structure. The fall of man in the end balances the fall of angels at the beginning of the epic. There is much to be said of this conclusive action. This balance, or contrast, is not a casual or careless result; on the contrary, it is a delicate arrangement. Milton doesnt say his intention openly in the epic, but it can be seen clearly in this exquisite structuring. The situations were exactly the same: both man and Satan were expelled. Maybe God intentionally made them to rebel against him and then expel them. The one purpose was to teach them what happiness was through tasting bitterness. Before fall, Adam and Eve lived happily:On Earth he first beheldOur two first parents, yet the only twoOf mankind, in the happy garden placed,Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,Uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love,In blissful solitude.4Yet we have every reason to doubt they really knew they were in a happy land. In fact, they were in a state of ignorance. The only thing they knew was not to eat the fruit of a forbidden tree, because God told them not to. They didnt know why. We know from the Bible that there were two trees in the Paradise: one was the tree of knowledge; the other was the tree of life. If they had known the meaning of trees, they would have eaten the fruits of them and become as wise as gods and as much of longevity. But they were in a state of ignorance; they couldnt tell happiness from miserableness. But things changed after they stole the fruit of knowledge and were expelled from heaven. They began to know what shame was; they began to feel the sharp pain of life; they began to understand what happiness was; they began to long for the sweet old memory. The other purpose was to test who was faithful to God. God was well aware that if they, both men and angels, were not allowed to have free will, there would be no proof to testify their loyalty were sincere or not.The fall of man was the way of growing of man. It matured and strengthened, not weakened, man. The fall made man become a“man” in the true sense. Man changed from a careless and ignorant beast to a whole man, having sense and reason and free will, enjoying pleasant sex and constant love, yet knowing how to control devilish feelings and desires like pride, envy, hatred, revenge, greed, wrath, and etc. The obedience toward God and the fine qualities man retained from eating the forbidden fruit, such as love, sex, free will, hope and faith, made the image of man great and sublime. This is a more enduring and attractive sublimity a kind of inward sublimity, which makes man great.Adam and Eve, who are weaker, less active, and less spectacular in every way, finally outweigh Satan in our interest and sympathy because of their inward sublimity. When we dive into the waters and discovered the huge base beneath the iceberg, we cant help marveling at the greatness of nature. So we are surprised at the master hand of Milton when we finally find out the underlying unity in Paradise Lost: the high tone in sketching Satans rebellious behavior and spirit in the beginning of the epic is not to sing high of Satan, but to contrast with the obedience of Adam in the latter, and prove Gods supreme authority. No matter how great Satans power is or how exquisite his scheme, or how much effort he took to revolt against Gods will, his work is vain.C. Puritanism and Human Misery1. Puritanism embodies in the PoemRenaissance thinkers with their creative and critical daring reexamined the nature of God, and the relation of man to God. Frank Thilly in his A History of Philosophy points out: In this new age(Renaissance) attention was transferred from the heaven to the earth the same independent spirit is evident in religion. The individual threw away the fetters of the Church and requested a criterion based on the Bible and conscience. He refused the idea of a human media between God and him; and yearned to communicate directly with the object of his belief. Thilly is speaking of the new Church reformers.Religious reformation was partly a continuance of Renaissance. The new public and thinkers, strengthened by a new estimation of human nature, complained the Popes absolute power and the Churchs corruption. They wanted to readjust the Church according to their own conception and interest. In fact, there had been a lasting and fierce conflict in Catholic and Protestant theological theory and practice.One question must be made clear in the first Gods authority. While the Renaissance theologians accepted mans divine side as“god”, they took the existence of God as the necessary and essential prerequisite. Gods authority was the supreme authority. As a result, man must pay obeisance to God, absolute obedience. Some influential theologians took this assumption further to think that men should not only obey Gods authority, but that of Gods representatives in the temporal world, that is, the magistrates and kings. Aquinas, the greatest theologian in the Middle Ages, for example, remarked in his Summa Theologica that“faith in Christ does not excuse the faithful from the obligation of obeying secular princes.”5The other question in debate was how to worship God. Puritans were extreme at this. The origin of the term“Puritanism” partly answers the question. The word“Puritan” arose early in the reign of Elizabeth I, as an expression of impatient contempt for those military Protestants who, discontented with the attempt of the Elizabethan. Settlement of 1559 to solve the religious debate, wanted to carry the purification of what they regarded as Catholic abuses of religion to limits beyond compromise. Though Puritanism covered a wide variety of beliefs, there were some points the Puritans shared in common:Firstly, Puritans rejected any spiritual authority save that of the Bible“the pure Word of God”. Secondly, they were opposed to the appointment of official Church authorities, such as bishops. Thirdly, in keeping with this objection to temporal authorities imposed from above, they believed that the Voice of God spoke in each mans individual conscience, and that no priest or other intermediary could rightfully come in between. Fourthly, they insisted on extreme austerity of worship, believing that images, ornaments, altars, ritual, and embroidered surplices worn by priest were all no better than superstitions.What Adam does is right the thing Milton wants to tell: Complete Faith in God, Absolute Obedience to Him and austerity in Worship. To Milton, these are not only the most important virtues, but also the only way to life. The contrary way is death: the faithless has no hope of salvation; the disobedient, as the example of Satan and Adam, ends up in corruption and fall; and the sumptuous formality of worship such as image, ornaments, altars, rituals, and many other things characteristic of Roman Catholic Church, in Miltons opinion, would lead people astray from the true Christianity. Of course, there are many other virtues other than true faith and obedience to God, such as those qualities man got from eating the fruit of knowledge: free will, adamant love, knowledge and wisdom, etc. All these qualities add up to complete the man. These are the things which Satan, the devil, could never understand.“Paradise Lost is at once a deeply traditional and a boldly original poem”6. Milton uses the traditional epic as the proper artistic form to fulfill his ambition to be a poet, but the way he deals with the subject matter is quite different from the traditional classics. Deep inside, however, Milton is a fundamental traditionalist. He is the mouthpiece and trumpet of Renaissance humanism and Christian Puritanism. The exaltation of Man, and the proper relation between Man and God, or Puritan humanism, is always his consideration, which