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Vincent Willem van Gogh ( Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ‿vɑŋ‿ˈɣɔx] ⓘ; [note 1] 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings ...
- Vincent Willem van Gogh, 30 March 1853, Zundert, Netherlands
- 29 July 1890 (aged 37), Auvers-sur-Oise, France
The Inaccessible Island rail ( Laterallus rogersi) is a bird found only on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Tristan archipelago. This rail, the smallest extant flightless bird, was described by physician Percy Lowe in 1923. The adult has brown plumage, a black bill, black feet, and red eyes. It occupies most habitats on the island ...
William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare ( c. 23 [a] April 1564 – 23 April 1616) [b] was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. [4] [5] [6] He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon " (or simply "the Bard").
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- Synopsis
- Composition
- Style
- Characters
- Themes
- Interpretation and Critique
- Iconography
- See Also
- Further Reading
- External Links
The poem follows the epic tradition of starting in medias res (lit.'in the midst of things'), the background story being recounted later. Milton's story has two narrative arcs, one about Satan (Lucifer) and the other about Adam and Eve. It begins after Satan and the other fallen angels have been defeated and banished to Hell, or, as it is also call...
It is uncertain when Milton composed Paradise Lost. John Aubrey (1626–1697), Milton's contemporary and biographer, says that it was written between 1658 and 1663. However, parts of the poem had likely been in development since Milton was young. Having gone blind in 1652, Milton wrote Paradise Lost entirely through dictation with the help of amanuen...
Biblical epic
Key to the ambitions of Paradise Lost as a poem is the creation of a new kind of epic, one suitable for English, Christian morality rather than polytheistic Greek or Roman antiquity. This intention is indicated from the very beginning of the poem, when Milton uses the classical epic poetic device of an invocation for poetic inspiration. Rather than invoking the classical muses, however, Milton addresses the Christian God as his "Heav'nly Muse" (1.1). Other classical epic conventions include a...
Blank verse
The poem is written in blank verse, meaning the lines are metrically regular iambic pentameter but they do not rhyme. Milton used the flexibility of blank verse to support a high level of syntactic complexity. Although Milton was not the first to use blank verse, his use of it was very influential and he became known for the style. Blank verse was not much used in the non-dramatic poetry of the 17th century until Paradise Lost. Milton also wrote Paradise Regained (1671) and parts of Samson Ag...
Acrostics
Milton used a number of acrostics in the poem. In Book 9, a verse describing the serpentwhich tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden spells out "SATAN" (9.510), while elsewhere in the same book, Milton spells out "FFAALL" and "FALL" (9.333). Respectively, these probably represent the double fall of humanity embodied in Adam and Eve, as well as Satan's fall from Heaven.
Satan
Satan, formerly called Lucifer, is the first major character introduced in the poem. He is a tragic figure who famously declares: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (1.263). Following his vain rebellion against Godhe is cast out from Heaven and condemned to Hell. The rebellion stems from Satan's pride and envy (5.660ff.). Opinions on the character are often sharply divided. Milton presents Satan as the origin of all evil, but some readers have struggled with accepting this interpr...
Adam
Adamis the first human created by God. Adam requests a companion from God: God approves his request then creates Eve. God appoints Adam and Eve to rule over all the creatures of the world and to reside in the Garden of Eden. Adam is more gregarious than Eve and yearns for her company. He is completely infatuated with her. Raphael advises him to "take heed lest Passion sway / Thy Judgment" (5.635–636). But Adam's great love for Eve contributes to his disobedience to God. Unlike the biblical Ad...
Eve
Eveis the second human created by God. God takes one of Adam's ribs and shapes it into Eve. Whether Eve is actually inferior to Adam is a vexed point. She is often unwilling to be submissive. Eve may be the more intelligent of the two. When she first met Adam she turned away, more interested in herself. She had been looking at her reflection in a lake before being led invisibly to Adam. Recounting this to Adam she confesses that she found him less enticing than her reflection (4.477–480). Eve...
Marriage
Milton first presented Adam and Eve in Book IV with impartiality. The relationship between Adam and Eve is one of "mutual dependence, not a relation of domination or hierarchy". While the author placed Adam above Eve in his intellectual knowledge and, in turn, his relation to God, he granted Eve the benefit of knowledge through experience. Hermine Van Nuis clarifies, that although there was stringency specified for the roles of male and female, Adam and Eve unreservedly accept their designate...
Idolatry
Milton's 17th-century contemporaries by and large criticised his ideas and considered him a radical, mostly because of his republican political views and heterodox theological opinions. One of Milton's most controversial arguments centred on his concept of what is idolatrous, a subject which is deeply embedded in Paradise Lost. Milton's first criticism of idolatry focused on the constructing of temples and other buildings to serve as places of worship. In Book XI of Paradise Lost, Adam tries...
Criticism of monarchy
Although Satan's army inevitably loses the war against God, Satan achieves a position of power and begins his reign in Hell with his band of loyal followers, composed of fallen angels, which is described to be a "third of heaven". Similar to Milton's republican sentiments of overthrowing the King of England for both better representation and parliamentary power, Satan argues that his shared rebellion with the fallen angels is an effort to "explain the hypocrisy of God",[citation needed]and in...
Eighteenth-century critics
The writer and critic Samuel Johnson wrote that Paradise Lostshows off Milton's "peculiar power to astonish" and that Milton "seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that Nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others: the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful". William Blake famously wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "The reason Milton wro...
Christian epic
Tobias Gregory wrote that Milton was "the most theologically learned among early modern epic poets. He was, moreover, a theologian of great independence of mind, and one who developed his talents within a society where the problem of divine justice was debated with particular intensity." Gregory says that Milton is able to establish divine action and his divine characters in a superior way to other Renaissance epic poets, including Ludovico Ariosto or Torquato Tasso. In Paradise Lost Milton a...
The first illustrations to accompany the text of Paradise Lost were added to the fourth edition of 1688, with one engraving prefacing each book, of which up to eight of the twelve were by Sir John Baptist Medina, one by Bernard Lens II, and perhaps up to four (including Books I and XII, perhaps the most memorable) by another hand. The engraver was ...
Paradise Lostin popular cultureJohn Milton: A Short Introduction (2002 ed., paperback by Roy C. Flannagan, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-22620-8; 2008 ed., ebook by Roy Flannagan, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 9...Al-Akhras, Sharihan; Green, Mandy (2017). Satanic whispers: Milton's Iblis and the "Great Sultan". The Seventeenth Century, 32:1, pp. 31–50. doi:10.1080/0268117X.2016.1252279.Black, J., ed. (March 2007), "Paradise Lost", The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, vol. A (Concise ed.), Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, pp. 998–1061, ISBN 978-1-55111-868-0, OCLC...Bradford, R. (July 1992), Paradise Lost (1st ed.), Philadelphia: Open University Press, ISBN 978-0-335-09982-5, OCLC 25050319Gustave Doré Paradise Lost Illustrationsfrom the university at Buffalo LibrariesMajor Online Resources on Paradise Lost(archived 6 February 2011)Paradise Lost public domain audiobook at LibriVoxAristotle [A] ( Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs, pronounced [aristotélɛːs]; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills[1][2] and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike,[3][4] he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all time.[5][6][7] He ...
