Week 9 British Literature Assignments

  1. Here is a different online edition of Paradise Lost with line numbers, if you are using an online version: http://triggs.djvu.org/djvu-editions.com/MILTON/LOST/Download.pdf
  2. All: Read Books 4-7 
  3. All: Write a very brief summary of each book for 4-7
  4. Answer questions for books 4-7
  5. Ernie: Present your Book 4-7 summaries to the class
  6. Shane: Lead the class in answering the questions for Book 4
  7. Kolby: Lead the class in answering the questions for Book 5
  8. Heidi: Lead the class in answering the questions for Book 6
  9. Antonio: Lead the class in answering the questions for Book 7

Book Four

  1. Examine Satan’s soliloquy from lines 32-113.
    1. What is the basic dramatic purpose of such a speech – why should we hear all this? What impression does it give us of Satan?
    2. Follow Satan’s logic through this passage. How well does Satan understand the nature of God’s rule, and why does he say that he would never be able to reconcile himself to that rule?
  2. Examine the narrator’s “portraits” of Adam and Eve (lines 288-324).
    1. How is each figure described? How is the language that describes Eve different from the language that describes Adam? To answer this question, you really must read the descriptions out loud to yourself.
    2. What is the proper relationship of Adam and Eve to each other? to God?
  3. Read the fine account that Eve gives of her first day of life, lines 449 – 91. What is the significance of her first act, that of seeing her reflection in a pool? What warning, however mild, does this scene give us about Eve?
  4. Read lines 634 – 58 and 659 – 88.What is the difference between Adam and Eve with respect to their way of treating language?
  5. Examine lines 720-36. What does this brief passage tell us about Adam and Eve’s basic purpose on earth? Also, why is it important that Adam and Eve speak this evening prayer in unison and without rehearsal?
  6. Examine lines 1006-15, the end of Book Four. What effect does the ending have on your reaction to the long quarrel that has just taken place between Gabriel and the unmasked Satan?

Book Five

  1. Examine Eve’s bad dream (lines 31-93).
    1. Why is this dream so dangerous to Eve? What is the key temptation in it?
    2. How does Adam instruct Eve as to the meaning of her dream? (95-128) Describe his “explanation.”
    3. If you had to explain the function of dialogue in PL solely on the basis of this conversation between Adam and Eve, how would you describe this function?
  2. Concentrate upon the mutual “orison” (morning prayer) that Adam and Eve sing jointly. (153–208)
    1. What is the purpose of unfallen (i.e. “prelapsarian”) poetry? That is, what basic purpose does the morning prayer of Adam and Eve serve?
    2. Nonetheless, does this prayer or poem serve some further purpose? Does it somehow satisfy Adam’s and Eve’s desire to know more about the universe, more about the design of an “unspeakable” (156) God’s design?
  3. From lines 211 – 19, Adam and Eve set out to do their daily gardening. Clearly, tending the flowers and trees is an important activity in paradise. What does the need to perform this activity tell us about the “place” that Adam and Eve hold in the universe and about their responsibilities to God? (Think of the plants they tend as figures for the tenders themselves.)
  4. From line 350 onwards, Raphael holds a genial conversation with Adam and Eve. (The conversation, of course, is replete with a warning.)
    1. At line 451, Adam becomes curious about “things above his world” (456). How does Raphael answer him? Explain the promise he makes to Adam concerning his and Eve’s spiritual progress?
    2. In addition, explain the warning Raphael delivers to Adam from lines 500 – 05.
  5. By line 544, Adam has become very curious, and Raphael, gentle angel that he is, assents at line 562 to continue the story.
    1. Why does Raphael pause, even if only for a moment? Explain the reasons for his hesitation.
    2. Yet, Raphael does assent to speak of Chaos, of the War in Heaven, and — eventually — of the very act of creation. Contrast the narration that Adam hears with the kind of narratives that Satan has spun about some of the same events. In what way is Raphael’s knowledge of things different from that of Satan?

Book Six

  1. What purpose does the War in Heaven serve? (667 – 79, 699 – 709)
  2. From lines 749 – 74, the Chariot of Christ is described. What is the nature of this chariot?
  3. Find as many scenes, contrasts, etc. in Book Six as you can that relate to the War in Heaven. How many of them seem to have been intended humorously?

Book Seven

  1. The narrator makes his third invocation from lines 1 – 39. In what respect does this invocation to “Urania” mark a significant turning point in the poem? Also, how does the figure of Bellerophon reflect upon what Milton’s narrator has been describing in the first half of PL?
  2. By lines 87 – 89, Adam has become so curious that he asks Raphael, “How first began this heav’n which we behold/ Distant so high.” Observe Raphael’s response from lines 110 – 130. Explain the warning that these lines convey to Adam and Eve.
  3. Christ the Word goes to work from line 216 onwards.
    1. Contrast the figure of Christ in Books Six and Seven.
    2. Note that several passages describing the creation are taken almost verbatim from Genesis. What do you make of such extensive borrowing?
    3. What effect do the length and specificity of the narrator’s description of the creation have uponAdam and Eve?