THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF JOHN MILTON’S PARADISE LOST

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT                                                                                                                              PAGE

TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… i

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ii

DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………………………………… iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………………………………. v-vii

INTRODUCTION

  • Organisation of the Thesis……………………………………………………………………………………. 40-41

CHAPTER ONE: THE LINEAR TIME ORDER

  • Summary of the Linear Narrative Level…………………………………………………………………… 42-43
  • Summary of the Anachrony……………………………………………………………………………………. 43-44
  • The Genettean Time Oder……………………………………………………………………………………… 44-45
  • Story Time…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 45-46
  • Narrative Time……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 46-47
  • Summary in Duration……………………………………………………………………………………………. 47-50
  • Scene in Duration………………………………………………………………………………………………… 50-55
  • Ellipsis in Duration………………………………………………………………………………………………. 55-56
  • Slow-Down-Scene in Duration……………………………………………………………………………….. 56-58
  • Pause in Duration………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 58-61
  • Frequency in Duration………………………………………………………………………………………….. 61-62

CHAPTER TWO: THE ANACHRONOUS TIME ORDER

  • Scene in Duration…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 63-68
  • Summary in Duration…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 68
  • The Epic Plot…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 69-71

CHAPTER THREE: MOOD & VOICE

  • Mood Perspective……………………………………………………………………………………………… 72-73
    • Non-Focalization & Narration of Events………………………………………………………………. 73-74
    • Narration of Speech……………………………………………………………………………………………. 75-76

CHAPTER FOUR: SURFACE STRUCTURES AND DEEP STRUCTURES IN

PARADISE LOST

  • The Surface Structure…………………………………………………………………………………………… 77-79
    • Paradise Lost and its Palimpsests………………………………………………………………………….. 79-80
    • Intertextuality of Paradise Lost……………………………………………………………………………… 80-81
    • Paratextuality of Paradise Lost………………………………………………………………………………. 81-82
    • Metatextuality of Paradise Lost…………………………………………………………………………………… 82
    • Hypertextuality of Paradise Lost…………………………………………………………………………………. 83
    • Architextuality of Paradise Lost…………………………………………………………………………….. 83-84
    • CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………………… 85-86

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ABSTRACT

Paradise Lost was written sometime in the 17th Century by John Milton as a Christian epic with a Christian redefined meaning of heroism. Using the epic structure, Milton successfully outlines the genealogy of man, even the state of the world before man was brought into it by God. Milton does this by tracing the linear stories of man from Genesis, through the Messianic and redemption stories, and the introduction of the eschaton by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In Paradise Lost, Milton talks about three objectives. They are: the fall of man, an epic aiming to surpass all other epics, and justifying God’s ways to men. My thesis is a structural discussion of the three objectives by way of narratology. In order to prove Milton’s three objectives, my research discusses the structure of the narrative using Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980). At the second level, my research focuses on the “Intertextual” elements of Paradise Lost using Gerard Genette’s Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982).

At the end of my discussion, it is obvious Milton’s epic is not a Miltonic Version Bible, but a work of art, borrowing its topic from the Bible and the epic form from icons Homer and Virgil. Indeed Milton has outgrown his occasion and withstood the test of time since Paradise Lost encapsulates the genealogy of man.

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Preliminary Remarks

John Milton’s Paradise Lost in sibylline words professes about man’s rebellion in Eden that degenerates into “sin” and “death,” till the “Son” restores man. In “theoditic poetry” (Hillier 2011), Paradise Lost manifests as a “hypertext” (Genette 1982) of the Christian Bible and the ancient Homer, Virgil, etc as its “hypotext” (Genette 1982). This implies that, the epic of John Milton, called Paradise Lost, whose title is a replica of the story of the lost Christian Paradise as we know it since antiquity, is as a whole written to the likeness of the Christian Bible (by topic and subject matter), but in an art form, following the epic forms and traditions of the ancients. Paradise Lost was read sometimes in the churches in Milton’s contemporary as a replica of the Christian Bible until later its study was limited to the classroom.

Using Genettean three category models especially Time and its various subcategories, John Milton in Paradise Lost foregrounds the essential events and professes to his readers why man falls and why there is the need to justify the fall. For instance, the “War in Heaven,” which consequentially sends Satan and his “apostates” to suffer in Hell-fire, is told in “Analepsis” (flashback/retrospect), that is supposed to have happened outside the “Linear Time Order” of Paradise Lost. In Paradise Lost, we encounter a three-tier Satan: Satan in Heaven as Seraphim (Bk. V, VI), Satan in Hell as a fallen angel (Bk. I, II), and a victorious/antagonist Satan in Eden who causes the fall of man but later transformed into a snake walking on his belly (Bk. IX, X). He persuasively tells us why he is rebelling against God, thereby throwing more light on the past events and the reason why we need to sympathise with him in his fallen state. In Genesis 3:6,

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, she took of the fruit thereof, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took

of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (King James Version).

But in Paradise Lost, Eve tastes the “Forbidden Fruit” without the immediate knowledge of Adam until later after a sustained dialogue the latter also tastes the fruit in solidarity with the former.

In the exordium of Book IX, Milton claims that every night, Urania, the “Celestial Patroness,” the Muse of Christian inspiration comes to dictate the Biblical story of the tragic fall of Man to him in his sleep:

If answerable style I can obtain

Of my Celestial Patroness, who deigns

Her nightly visitation unimplor’d,

And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires

Easy my unpremeditated Verse. (IX.20-24).

By all standards, Milton in these lines is comparing himself to the Biblical “Exodutic Moses,” the first “Hebraic Messiah” (Hillier 2011), who was inspired and given the Ten Commandments by God on Mount Sinai or “Oreb.” Like Moses, “prophet” Milton wants to write Urania’s own words, because his project, as he claims, is unattainable unless inspired. Therefore to remain steadfast and by his topic, Milton invokes Urania to direct his course in the telling, so that he will not derail into upholding pagan culture with its overemphasis on bellicose heroism.

The question then is: is Milton merely filling the gaps in the Bible? Is Paradise Lost a Miltonic Version Bible? The answer to these questions is No. Milton in his “distinctive theology” (Hillier “2011) may have a Christian mandate as part of his grand agenda but the resultant product called Paradise Lost transcends its Christian Midrashim. It is a work of art in dualistic “great argument,” whose artistry aims to surpass any other literary enterprise before or after. This is evident in its tripartite objectives (the topic of the fall of Man, whose

artistic projection aims to surpass its pace-setters, in a way of justifying God’s grace and providence to man), discussed in “poetic theodicy” (Hillier 2011).

Milton’s Purpose

Milton has structured his purpose into three objectives. My thesis is based on structural discussion of the three objectives by way of narratology, using structuralist narratologist, Gerard Genette’s narrative categories: time, mood and voice, articulated in his structuralist text, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980) and Gerard Genette’s “Palimpsest,” that is, the concept of a text within texts, or a text evoking other texts before it, articulated in his Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982).

The tripartite objectives of Paradise Lost as proposed in the proem of Book I are: (i) Man’s first sin of disobedience which results in the loss of Eden till Man’s restoration by “one greater Man;” this is a moral/ethical and thematic objective (I.4); (ii) a grand epic aiming to surpass any other literary enterprise (I.12-16); this is a literary and artistic objective; and (iii) asserting everlasting love of God and His providence thereby justifying God’s ways to Men; this is a theological and religious objective (I.26).

Of the tripartite objectives, the first objective is a trajectory: transgression → consequences

→ restoration, which is thematic, because it is the main thrust of Milton’s epic. The second objective is a proposition aiming at surpassing any other literary enterprise, hence an aesthetic objective, because it backgrounds the poem’s “theology” and foregrounds its artistry and literary merit. The third objective is the dualist “great argument” of (a) asserting Eternal love of Providence thereby (b) justifying God’s ways to men; this third objective is theological in conception (religious/Christian), because it aims at explicating the scriptural message of God’s supremacy. I will therefore examine the first and third objectives in the

context of thematic signals emanating from the surface structure, while I discuss the second objective in terms of the artistic signals gleaned from the same macrotext.

In his Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982), Genette developed the idea of interrelationships in texts and argue that a text cannot exist without the influence of texts before it. In Genettean palimpsest, a text that borrows from earlier texts is referred to as a “hypertext” and the original text on the other hand is the “hypotext.” Genettean palimpsest argues that no text can exist without the influence of other texts. Genette’s concept of Transtextuality will be one of my focuses in the last chapter as I anatomise the palimpsestual elements of John Milton’s Paradise Lost to see how far the narrative is influenced by texts before it.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Two categories of literature are envisaged here: Literature Review on Paradise Lost, and Literature Review on narratology, my major critical approach.

Literature Review on Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost explores the question of why evil is in the world; it is a poetic philosophy into the evolution of all the things we consider in Christian sense as evil, including aging, ailment, etc, and finally death. It is also about Love. It offers love to us in diverse ways (agape, storge, philia and erotic loves). It is a massive poem which runs into thousands of lines of verse in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is a piece of literature very much obsessed with “linear time order” (Genette 1982), closely related to the structure of the Holy Bible or the “History of Christians” (Hillier 2011).

Hillier (2011) proposes that the proem of Book I of Paradise Lost “projects” God’s

providential love to man:

Of Man’s First disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat (I.1-5).

Let me state concisely here that Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic in all respect, and it follows closely Virgil in his style of long sentences before a break. Hillier (2011) states that all epic proem functions on a “taxonomic” tripartite structure. It begins with “the declaration of subject,” followed by an invocation to a “Muse,” and finally a discussion of the “subject.” Hence the proem of the Iliad identifies “Achilles’ anger;” the Odyssey’s Odysseus’ adventures; and the Aeneid, Aeneas’ Odyssey. To Hillier (2011), Milton’s Paradise Lost does a lot more. That is, “the single heroic action” of Adam is “divided into two” heroic parts: “the catastrophic fall and compensatory rise” of Adam and the Son respectively. The former initiates the “fall” and the latter “accomplishes its restoration” (38). It also includes the Son’s restoration of the lost Eden, “His redeeming work on the cross,” and finally, His resurrection and regaining the Heavenly throne, and sits at the right-hand of God.

Hillier (2011) further argues that Milton brings on board “oxymora” to explain the complexity of the “theanthropic” nature of the Son, who is “Son both God and Man” III.316; He is “human face divine” III.44, to champion his “Christology.” Hillier (2011) adds that Milton’s “Cosmos” functions by an “oxymoronic” axiom in many ways. In Book I, Hell is described as: “black fire” II.6, “darkness visible” I.64, “fiery Deluge” I.68, “wide womb of uncreated night” II.150, “darkness light” II.220; Eternal anarchy is described as: “hot,” “cold,” “moist,” “dry” chaotically; the stars are like “living sapphire” II.1050. In Eden the fruits are like “vegetable Gold” (IV.220) etc. To Hillier (2011), these oxymora cause Milton’s readers to accept the “Incarnation mystery” in place of “reasoning.”

Paradise Lost, like all other epics is, as the poet himself indicates, a “heroic song,” sung by its host to glorify its hero. Critic Andrew Snider, in an essay “Milton and the Muse: Was Paradise Lost Lovingly Ripped Off?” (2014), asserts that, “music” and “images” play essential role in Paradise Lost. That is, in the proem of Book I, the host, invokes the Holy Ghost to aide him to “sing” his subject; in the Heavenly Council of Book III, God the Father declares that Man shall fall but gracefully rise after “divine justice,” and the Angels sing “loud Hosannas filled/ Th’eternal Regions” III.348-349. In Book V, Raphael relates to Adam the appointment of the Son by the Father as Heir to Heaven, and the Heavenly Angels celebrate and sing songs of joy. Also, in Book VII, Raphael relates the creation of the World to Adam and, and how the Angels sing Hymns and glorify God and His creation. To Snider,

With visions of muses, angels singing of Christ’s being born and cherubs playing golden harps while lifting their voices into  song, …it is evident Milton is trying to bring his worlds together to show that music, literature and religion can go hand in hand (“Milton and the Muse: Was Paradise Lost Lovingly Ripped Off” 2013 pp. 2).

Snider further argues that, music “furthers” and “imagineers” Paradise Lost. That is, in Hell where Satan and his fallen Angels dwell, in Heaven where God and the Heavenly Angels dwell, in God’s creation, or the solitude of Eden, the dwelling place of Man, and finally the contrast of “light” and “darkness” are all used to dichotomise the struggle between God who represents Good, and Satan who represents Evil. To Snider, these literary elements transform Milton’s epic into a “masterpiece.”

Paradise Lost is a poem that is also very much obsessed with time. That is, from Satan’s destined journey from Hell to Eden in Books I and II (the “prelapsarian”/pre-fallen state of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence), through Adam and Eve’s transgression and subsequent fall in Books IX and X (the lapsarian/fallen state), to Michael’s revelations in Books XI and XII (the “postlapsarian”/post-fallen state of Adam and Eve after their expulsion

from Eden/their progeny), all these Books manifest the passage of time like an arrow moving on a straight line. It stretches from Genesis to Revelation, where the interval between man’s creation, man’s fall and man’s restoration, till the “Second Coming,” or the passage “from the beginning, to come Lord Jesus” (John Lightfoot, Erubhin 1629 pp. 115), or from “the first Adam’s Fall to the second Adam’s (Jesus’) redemption, that is, His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, and, implicitly, His glorified session, interceding for humanity until the eschaton” (Hillier 2011 pp. 38), man’s fate is filled up with suffering, loss and death.

To clarify Milton’s notion of time in Paradise Lost further, I refer to the writings of both Christian Philosopher Saint Augustine of Hippo and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne. Saint Augustine in his Confessions (AD 397) argues that, even though man does not know what is ahead of him, there is no doubt the passage of time in man’s life is filled up with aging and death:

Who can deny that things to come are not yet

Yet already there is in mind an expectation of things to come (Confessions: Book XI).

Also, Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor (1642) on the discussion of the nature of time in man’s life argues complexly and he concludes that, time is linear and finite, metaphorically echoing the life stages of humanity (childhood → maturity

→ decay → death):

“Before Abraham was, I am” is the saying of Christ, yet is it true in some sense if I say it of myself; for I was not only before myself but Adam, that is, in the idea of God, and the decree of that Synod from all eternity. And in this sense, I say, the world was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a beginning. And thus was I dead before I was alive; though my grave be England, my dying place was Paradise; and Eve miscarried of me, before she conceived of Cain (84).

This inevitability of time as an arrow travelling on a straight line is well entrenched in Milton’s Paradise Lost. They are (1) the creation of the world including man (first told by Satan in the debate in Pandemonium in Book II):

There is a place

(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav’n

Err not) another World, the happy seat

Of some new Race call’d Man, about this time

To be created like to us (II.345-349).

This is the first life stage of Adam and Eve. (2) Gaining consciousness (told by Eve and  Adam in Books IV and VIII respectively). Eve’s speech is presented first:

That day I oft remember, when from sleep I first awak’t and found myself repos’d

Under a shade on flow’rs, much wod’ring where

And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.

… ‘What thou seest,

What there thou seest fair Creature is thyself, With thee it came and goes (IV.449-469).

Adam’s speech:

For Man to tell how human Life began

Is hard; for who himself beginning knew? Desire with thee still longer to converse Induc’d me. As new wak’t from soundest sleep

Soft on the flow’ry herb I found me laid (VIII.250-254).

This is the maturity stage of Adam and Eve. (3) The main action of the temptation and subsequent fall of man (dramatised in Book IX): Satan’s speech to Eve:

these, these and many more

Causes import your need of this fair Fruit.

Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste (IX.730-732)

The omniscient narrator’s telling on the fall:

He ended, and his words replete with guile Into her heart too easy entrance won:

Fixt on the Fruit she gaz’d, which to behold (IX.733-735)

her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck’d, she ate:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe, That all was lost (IX.780-784).

This is the beginning stage of decay. The sin of man is the beginning of man’s deterioration.

  • The last and final stage of man is death. This is alluded to by the omniscient narrator in Book XII where Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden after their first disobedience of tasting the forbidden fruit:

The World was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:

They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow,

Through Eden took their solitary way (XII.646-649).

Here, it should be observed that, man’s Adam and Eve’s life have travelled its journey to the end, because sin has caused their deterioration and death in the future. Hence the narrative unfolds on the finiteness of time, invoking a sense of an ending.

Milton’s distinctive artistry is found in his theoditic topic, which begins from man’s rebellion in Eden to the Son’s saving grace on Earth. That is, its idiosyncratic nature of critiquing the ancients after identifying itself in their canon. This is immediately realised by John Dennis in his book The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry (1704), where he argues that, in order to outgrow its occasion, Milton’s Paradise Lost needed to isolate itself from the ancient thematic preoccupation, which it rightly does:

That great Man had a desire to give the World something like an Epick Poem; but he resolv’d at the same time to break thro’ the Rules of Aristotle… he had discernment enough to see, that if he wrote a Poem which was within the compass of them, he should be subjected to the same Fate which has attended all who have wrote Epick Poems ever since the time of Homer; and that is to be a Copyist instead of an Original… Milton was the first who in the space of almost 4000 Years, resolved, for his Country’s Honour and his own, to present the World with an Original

Poem; that is to say, a Poem that should have his own Thoughts, his own Images, and his own Spirit (274).