In Lines 1-26 Milton invokes the Muse, who is the same Muse who inspired the first Christian-Judeo theologist (the shepherd). He asked to be exposed to knowledge not obtainable through human means.
I find it interesting that he says, “What in me is dark Illumine” (Milton line 21-22). After reading 27-83, I find it interesting that he uses light imagery to talk about himself. We are lead to believe that light represents good and dark evil; I don’t know exactly where I am going with this thought.
I am confused about God’s role in this story. Since this is an epic, shouldn’t the main character be the hero. God seems like a minor character. We are following Satan and his struggle; God also seems like a bully to me. Why must we “justifie the wayes of God to men” (Milton line 25)? If God’s way was just and fair would it need justifying? On that note, why are Satan and his follower’s punished so severely? What does this say about God? Don’t all subjects have the right to rebel?
Milton has some justifying to do, because I don’t know how I feel about how he is portraying God. God seems like a Corleone and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Maybe this is my Catholicism speaking, but I really don't think you can question the motives of God. The difference between God and humanity lay in the idea that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, and based on this, we can infer that God's actions/motives are based on information not accessible to humanity. By these standards, I also think Milton's idea of justifying God's actions to man is impossible. To do that, Milton would need to understand God and understanding God is a HUGE claim to make.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing to consider: the right to rebel is a natural right, but if the rebellion fails you can't expect the rebels to get away with just a slap on the wrist.Unless he threw him out of heaven, God would essentially be telling Satan "Hey you rebelled, and its all cool, just don't rebel again". Back during World War II, Britain and France let Germany get away with invading random European countries and look at the huge mess that caused.
I've said too much, did that help?
I totally agree; that's why I find that I am confused about Milton's point besides immortalizing himself. Justifying God seem's like a task that those in a religious place wouldn't need to be completed. For those who are not as religious, why would they care? This seems more like a reason for creating a brilliant Judeo-Christian mythology.
ReplyDeleteWe also must remember that the German's wouldn't have fallen under such the influence of evil if they weren't beat down from the financial punishment they were being force to pay after the first world war. At what point does punishment (the righting of a wrong) become the reason for that evil is born?
If God is omnipotent and always right, then the rebellion against him had to be wrong. Thus, their punishment would seem just for going against what is known to be right. Man can make mistakes in judgment, but god doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI think the light imagery is merely saying that the good around Satan illuminates his evil. Without the good, there would be nothing to contrast and "show" his evil persona.