I may be something of a literary snob, but I am not a heartless literary snob. I understand that, but for poetry lovers and bibliophilic masochists, one does not voluntarily read Paradise Lost, especially if one does not have at least a passing familiarity with 17th century English. And yet, this is one of the great re-shapings of Western literature, not just because it fleshes out the Book of Genesis, but because it commandeers the players of that story, Adam, Eve, God and Satan, and re-casts their roles as heroes and villains. This may or may not have been intentional on Milton's part, his sympathies having run strongly to the protestant. But it's certainly clear that, with the advancement of liberal democracy since the poem's first publication, the way we view the players here, and even the players in the Bible, has changed with the evolution of society's values.
Paradise Lost is a 5,000 line poem that was meant to be performed for an audience. This is not just apparent in its structure, with the action at the beginning and the explanation for the action later on, it is in the prominence of the narrator's role throughout. The narrator reveals to the reader the sight of Lucifer and his host of rebel angels thrown down into Hell. The narrator spies on first their recovery and then their council which decides to send Satan out from Hell on a mission to find the new Earth of God's creation. The narrator flies us through the cosmos with Satan as he works his way passed the gates of Hell and into paradise where, disguising himself as a serpent, he tempts Eve into committing the first sin, the disobedience of God, eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. And it's the narrator who sadly recounts to us the consequences of that sin as Adam grows angry with Eve, then angry with his plight, before ultimately becoming resigned to his fate as first man and first woman are educated about the world and then thrown into it, exiling them forever from Eden.
Reading these words, it is an easy thing to close ones eyes and imagine a long ago town square where a blind Milton summoned the attention of his fellow Englishman with a new kind of drama which put energy and excitement into an old and tired tail his listeners would have heard a million times before. The vivid descriptions of the foulness of Hell juxtaposed by the beauty of Eden fire the imagination, just as its detailed recountings of the arguments between God and Christ, between Satan and his captains, between Adam and Eve, bring life to characters who, being that many of them are objects of worship, deserve nothing less. It makes real, and personal, a story that otherwise seems remote, animating drama from lore. But in doing this, it throws up some interesting surprises.
There can be no question that, viewed through a 21st century lens, Satan is the protagonist and antihero of Paradise Lost. Adam and Eve are slavish adherents to God's will until Satan subverts that blind faith, prodding the pair to put their own actions, their own needs, ahead of god, ahead of others. What would have read as selfish and impious to the 17th century reads now as a clear and concise statement of individual freedom, the right to act as one wishes and be what one wishes to be. The Satan of Paradise Lost is an American individualist. God of Paradise Lost is a tyrant who demands fealty for the sake of fealty. And when his children let him down, as he knows they will, he punishes them with the withdrawal of his affections and the revocation of his largess. True, Satan does these things for his own selfish and petty motives, but the symbolism here is nonetheless difficult to ignore.
This is a powerful and beautiful recreation of a biblical story which has had profound implications for the way that men treat women, for the way we view evil, and for the way that we all view power and those who have it. It's difficult, no question, but it's well worth it. You just might want to have a dictionary handy, one with lots of old English words. (5/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment