Date of Award

2-1968

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Theology

First Advisor

Joseph Schwartz

Abstract

Since "retrospection and anticipation are the keys to both epic and mythological patterns," the reader expects the innocence of Adam and Eve to be shadowed, as indeed it is, by the presence of Satan and the foreknowledge of the Fall. Long before the pair are seen in the Garden, it is clear that theirs is a threatened innocence. Like Satan, the reader cannot lose the "bitter memory of what he [Satan] was, what is, and what must be" (IV, 1.25). Combined, then, in the first view of Eden is a dual perspective: it is seen against the experienced history of the first fall, which, at the same time, links to and anticipates the second. This overshadowing and, as will be seen, an authorized excess keep Milton's Garden from being an expression of wish fulfillment. The poet does not abandon himself in his description. He is not reveling in a game involving the remolding of the world nearer to his heart's desires.

Comments

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Download

Share

COinS