![]() ![]() ![]() Yet the problems inherent in viewing Satan as a hero have led modern critics to reject this idea. Critics and writers such as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley believed Satan to be the hero of Paradise Lost. The most Achilles-like character in the poem is Satan, whom Milton surrounds with "epic matter and motivations, epic genre conventions, and constant allusions to specific passages in famous heroic poems" (Barbara Lewalski, Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms 55). Unlike classics such as the Iliad and the Aeneid, Paradise Lost has no easily identified hero. Milton's range of variations on epic conventions contribute to Paradise Lost's stunning effects. Formally, Paradise Lost contains many classical and Renaissance epic conceits: it begins in medias res it concerns heavenly and earthly beings and the interactions between them it uses conventions such as epic similes, catalogues of people and places, and invocations to a muse and it contains themes common to epics, such as war, nationalism, empire, and stories of origin. By doing this, he raises specific sets of expectations both for himself and for readers. In deciding to write an epic, Milton consciously places himself in the tradition of prior epic writers, such as the ancients Homer and Virgil, and the Medieval and Renaissance poets Dante, Tasso, Ariosto, and Spenser. ![]() Milton's concern about which genre to choose, therefore, was not simply a matter of seeking the perfect medium for his story, but the anxiety of a writer seeking to place himself within a centuries-old poetic tradition. These three genres of poetry have existed since ancient Greece, and by Milton's time they carried with them a set of connotations and expectations that most educated people recognized. He declares his intention to write in English rather than another language such as Latin, and then ponders what genre to adopt: epic, tragic, or lyric ( RCG 2). In Book 2 of The Reason of Church Government, Milton declares his desire to write a great work that will serve to glorify England as earlier poets had glorified their native lands and cultures: "what the greatest and choycest wits of Athens, Rome, or modern Italy, and those Hebrews of old did for their country, I in my proportion with this over and above of being a Christian, might doe for mine" ( RCG 2). Genre, therefore, is important not only as a mode of framing a story, but also as a model that produces expectations in readers. From the one point of view it is an expression of opinions and emotions from the other, it is an organization of words which exists to produce a particular kind of patterned experience in the readers" (2). Lewis wrote, "Every poem can be considered in two ways - as what the poet has to say, and as a thing which he makes. Watch a Mini-lecture on Epic Poem and Epic Hero Introduction Topics: "Answerable Style": The Genre of Paradise Lost ![]()
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