The Epic or “the Heroical”
“The best and most accomplished form of poetry”
(Sir Phillip Sidney)
STARTER
1. Look at these pictures. What do you think are
some of the features of the epic? Make a list.
2. Look at your hand-out. Read the summaries of
some famous epics and add to your list of
features.
Hopefully, you should have some of
the following features:
• A hero
• Descriptions of feats on the battlefield and the amour
worn and the exploits of the commanders
• Descriptions of voyages – covers vast tracts of space
and time
• Digressions (in this way, epics become almost
atemporal)
• Concerned with the loss and founding of nations
• Concerned with heavenly and earthly beings and the
interactions between them
• Inspiration sought from classical muses
But Milton wants to be different…
Pah!
I’m not going to write about “long and
tedious havoc fabled knights/In battles
feigned” or about “emblazoned shields” or
“gorgeous knights/At Joust and
tournament”.
Oh no!
Instead, I will write about “the better
fortitude of patience and heroic
martydom/Unsung”
Milton self-consciously identifies his work as
boldly revisionary and radical: “things
unattempted in prose or rhyme”
Use the questions on the next slide to think about how Milton’s Protestant work is
so radical in its rejection of classical and pagan martial themes.
To what extent does Milton play with our
expectations of the genre?
1.
Ultimately, what is the
main action of Milton’s
epic? Is it an action of
strength and heroic
courage?
2.
With what sort of courage is Milton
concerned? Is this a Christian, Protestant epic?
3.
Caroline Moore: “Milton is attempting to redefine the Instead of the
imperial winning or
epic to exalt a different , Christian sort of courage –
losing a nation,
“the better fortitude/Of patience” - which depends
what is won/lost?
not on action but restraint…”p.15/16
Are these internal
or external?
Caroline Moore: “…the epic
form spirals around a
supremely unheroic action –
picking an apple.” p.15 Instead
of an outward action, PL
revolves around a personal
Homeric
inward action of choice.
4.
Which character
most embodies
the heroic values
and martial codes
of an epic hero?
What attitudes
might Milton be
putting forward
about the
conventional epic?
and Virgilian epics tell of great
heroic adventures and mighty battles
concerned with the loss and founding of
nations. The individuals warriors are skilled
and cunning and return to great glory.
David Loewenstein: In many ways, Paradise Lost, for all its
apparent and classical and epic features, is critical of pagan
values whose heroic and martial codes it continually
reevaluates. After all, the character in PL who most nearly
embodies the old-style martial virtues and heroic ideology of
the epic tradition…is Satan in his unwavering pursuit of
personal glory and imperial ambition.” p.32-32
David Loewenstein:
“[Milton chooses] not to
write an epic on a more
traditional national an
imperialistic theme, and
instead [gives] his long
narrative poem more
universal subject matter
and much greater interior
emphasis.” p.31
“The epic is transformed
by Milton to have an
“intensely inward and
Protestant emphases” p.
32
Pause…
Is Milton’s poem an ‘anti-epic’?
Write for five minutes to answer this
questions
Narrator as epic hero?
Stephen M Fallon, ‘Milton as Narrator’ in Cambridge
Companion to Paradise Lost, p.4
An Epic which contains elements of
Tragedy
The work was originally conceived as a tragic drama
of temptation and loss: there are four drafts of a
tragic drama based on the Fall of man, one calleed
“Paradise Lost’ and one called “Adam Unparadiz’d”
Think about The White Devil. What
are some of the features of tragedy?
Make a list
Tragedy?
• Soliloquies (characteristic feature of Jacobean and Elizabethan
tragedy)
• Tragic hero
• Villain (Machiavellian)
• Destructive revenge
• Reversal of fortune
• Death on a grand scale
• Emotional Engagement: Tragic heroes tend to respond with strong,
overpowering emotions--pride, lust, grief, rage. This often results in
extremist attitudes and reactions.
• Rule-based Ethics: The tragic vision tends to stress the
consequences of disobeying the accepted order of things.
• Blank verse
What elements of tragedy can you
detect in PL?
“Unlike other epic poets, Milton makes central to his great
mythic narrative a domestic tragedy, as he attempts to retell
freshly the original story of the Fall…Milton brilliantly
elaborates a tragic drama of separation, temptation and
falling, followed by man’s terrible psychological and
emotional torment.” David Loewenstein p. 103
Read and highlight your hand-out
about PL and tragedy
Final task
As you read the Argument,
annotate any features which
you identify with the epic or
tragic genre
Further Reading?
• David Loewenstein, Milton Paradise Lost, A
Student Guide, pages 2-5, 31-37, 103-111
• Caroline Moore, The Connell Guide to John
Milton’s Paradise Lost, pages 13-20