Analysis of Hell in Paradise Lost ,Book-I by John Milton

O f all the narrative passages in Paradise Lost, Book-I , John Milton’s description of Hell stands out unique by virtue of its graphics pictorial quality
and its evocation of a sense of gloomy terror. Though Milton was aware of the Renaissance concept that heaven and hell are no specifics topographical
locals, but states of the mind itself, he clings to the medieval concept of Hell of having topographical entity. Milton presents Hell as a place designed
for the eternal punishment of the fallen angels. Hell is a place for removed from the celestial seat of bliss. It is situated in the nethermost depth of
abyss, and it takes nine days and nights to fall into this dreadful pit from heaven. Hell is an assemblage of all the arbitration human emotions – pains,
despair, envy, restlessness, heartlessness, heartburn etc. This scene of barren desolation is thus described by Milton –

“A Dungeon horrible on all rides round,

Serves only to discover sights of woe ….”

Here is sinister wilderness, ‘a dismal situation waste and wild’. While Satan surveys Hell as far as he can see and observe, He finds it a vast, gloomy
and dreary region. It is like a huge underground prison house terrible to behold.

Hell is a burning reign, a place of sultriness, a burning oven, a places where one is trapped and gaoled far ever. From the burning furnace of Hell the
constantly flickering flames issue no light. They only provides phantasmagoria of dim visibility. The medieval notion that the flame of Hell give no
light is derived by Milton instigates that the damned and the doomed are deprived of the sight of God, who is the form of light. It is a place where
fire exists without light and darkness is almost tangible and this darkness itself reveals the sight of misery. Hell is a region of sorrow and misery,
helplessness and eternal torment. A look at Hell reveals:

“Regions of sorrow, doleful shades where peace

And rest can never dwelt, hopes never comes

That comes to all, but fortune with out end”.

Hopes being totally absent, there are only never ending torture. And there is no release from here for the fallen angels. It is very unlike the place
from whence they fell.

Hell is a lake of ever burning sulfur, a flood of fire, which constantly overwhelms and engulfs the victims imprisoned in this dreadful gloom. Such a
place, encapsulated by utter darkness has been designed by God for the fallen angels as a mark of punishment for their foul revolt. The ‘floods and
whirlwinds of tempestuous fire’ make it most torrid clime. It is all wrapped up in smoke and foul smell. Like a volcano it blasts vapour and blown off
rocks. Here is the burnt surface at the bottom.

The lakes of ever burning fire are, thus, one part of the Hell only. On another half of this terrible dungeon lays an open space, a vast tract of solid
ground of ‘burning marl’. Such a place of course, heat and insufferable anguish is Hell where peace and rest are impossible. Peace, rest hope and
calm, that which make life enjoyable and worth living, one completely absent in Hell. This is a place of perfect perdition where to exist is to
experience the worst death in a deathless world.

Milton's Universe

Milton’s Hell is described partly as the readers might see it and partly through Satan’s eye. The objective and subjective torments of Hell are thus
mingled where from we can experience ours’ as well as Satan’s mind.

Towards the end of the Book-I Milton has another view to show of Hell. On the near side of the burning ground stands a massive structure of
architectonic excellence, the capital and place of Satan, Pandemonium, amidst the bowels of precious curse, gold. It is a mir acle of
architecture. Milton describes how this army of builders prepares many calls from which beauty gilded forth in every form.
 C. S. Lewis observes that Milton’s description of Hell is never concrete, there being no definition of such things as the size of Hell, the exact nature
of its tortures or the degree of heat that Satan feels. Renowned critic Prof. Hellen Gardiner has rightly observed – “Its all enclosing dreadfulness
typifying dwarfing awareness of remorse, distance from God, pain from which its inhabitants can never escape. Though terrible, it is not formless sea
and land exist and from its soil issue forth destruction unavoidable”. One should also remember that Milton’s graphic description of Hell intensifies
the tragic intensity and overwhelming effect. Here is the concrete world for the abstract idea. Here is the opposite of Heaven but ‘mind is its own
place’ for Satan who is even ready to brave the hell.

Milton's Use of Epic Simile in Paradise Lost, Book-I

"Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd;
The next in majesty; in both the last:
The force of Nature could no further go;
To make a third she join'd the former two."

John Dryden (1631 - 1700)

English poet, playwright, and literary critic, 1688. Referring to John Milton in relation to Homer and Virgil.

Epic simile is, in simple words, an elaborate comparison that travels beyond the point of comparison and gives a complete poetic picture of some
scene or incident suggested to the mind of the poet. They are used for illustration and ornamentation. They add dignity to the style. Such long-tailed
similes stand by itself illuminating and beautifying much more than the ordinary narrative.

No doubt similes are a vital epic part but a group of critics of epic similes as used by Homer, Virgil or Milton points out that epic similes are elaborate
comparisons extended beyond the original point of similarity and developed into independent pictures often irrelevant and moved a far-away from
the initial connection. Thus, it is generally regarded as excursions of the imagination beyond the needs of narrative. However, such criticism does
not do justice to the epic similes used by Milton, particularly in Paradise Lost Book I. In this context, one should remember Addison’s famous
observation about the essential characteristic of Milton’s epic similes:

“When Milton eludes either to things or persons he never quits his similes until it rises to some very great idea, which is often foreign to the
occasions that gave birth to. He runs on with the idea till he has raised out of it some glorious image to inflame the mind o f the readers and to give
it that sublime kind of entertainment which is suitable to the nature of a heroic poem”.

There can be no doubt that the variety of scene and incident introduced through these similes is one of their charms. Milton’s similes answer the
demands of the narrative; their images stuffed with poetic scenes, characters and events that compose the poem. They release certain imaginative
forces that have controlled and directed like any other factor of the story. An analysis of some of the important similes in Paradise Lost BookIshould
show the validity of the above observation.

The first simile is the one in which Miltoncompares the huge bulk of Satan with that of the monstrous size of the mythical Titans or giants who are
fabled to be of the greatest in size ever born. Milton extends the simile into a comparison of Satan with Leviathan. It serves to build up the suggestion
of awe and mystery that Milton intends to accumulate round Satan. The suggestion of Satan’s huge dimensions is emphasized by another simile in
which Satan’s massive, ponderous, round shield is compared to the moon –
“The broad circumference

Hung on his shoulders like the moon”.

Immediately onwards Milton digresses by referring to Galileo viewing the moon through his telescope. This reference to Galileo though not related to
the Original object of analogy, serves to add – a super terrestrial dimension to the poem.

Another significant simile is the one which compares the innumerable angels fallen and groveling in the lake of fire to the cloud of
locusts.Milton’s comparisons of angels with locusts are significant because the locusts are messengers of disasters and their association with the angel
serves to suggest the evil nature of the fallen angel. Milton in another simile compares the fallen angels with the autumnal leaves thickly strewn on
the streams in vallambrosa. The reference of fallen leaves is very appropriate since it suggests and reinforces the fallen nature and diminished glory
of the angels in hell.

Finally, one should also mention another very significant simile in which the thick airy could of angels in pandemonium is compared to bees:

“As bees

In springtime, when the sun with Taurus rides.

Pour forth their populous youth above the hire

In clusters;”

The diminutive size of the bees and the angels is a clear painter to the fact that in spiritual essence the angels in hell are funny.

Milton’s similes, it is fair to say in the conclusion serve to suggest dipper realities and do not merely exist as grand images and rich decorative
embellishments. Altogether, Milton’s similes testify to the wide range of his knowledge, observation, memory and classical scholarship and familiarity
with the course of ancient histories. These add to the pomp and magnificence of his narrative, breaking into them pleasantly and preventing us from
feeling a sense of monotony.

Paradise Lost as an epic

Paradise Lost as an epic
(collated from various sources)
Abandoning his earlier plan to compose an epic on Arthur, Milton instead turned
to biblical subject matter and to a Christian idea of heroism. In Paradise Lost—
first published in 10 books in 1667 and then in 12 books in 1674, with a length of
almost 11,000 lines—Milton observed but adapted a number of classical epic
conventions that distinguish works as Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey and
Virgil’s The Aeneid.
Among these conventions is a focus on the elevated subjects of war, love, and heroism. In Book
6 Milton describes the battle between the good and evil angels; the defeat of the latter results in
their expulsion from heaven. In the battle, the Son (Jesus Christ) is invincible in his onslaught
against Satan and his cohorts. But Milton’s emphasis is less on the Son as a warrior and more on
his love for humankind; the Father, in his celestial dialogue with the Son, foresees the sinfulness
of Adam and Eve, and the Son chooses to become incarnate and suffer humbly to redeem them.
Though his role as saviour of fallen humankind is not enacted in the epic, Adam and Eve before
their expulsion from Eden learn of the future redemptive ministry of Jesus, the exemplary
gesture of self-sacrificing love. The Son’s selfless love contrasts strikingly with the selfish love
of the heroes of Classical epics, who are distinguished by their valour on the battlefield, which is
usually incited by pride and vain glory. Their strength and skills on the battlefield and their
acquisition of the spoils of war also issue from hate, anger, revenge, greed, and covetousness. If
the classical epics deem their protagonists heroic for their extreme passions, even vices, the Son
in Paradise Lost exemplifies Christian heroism both through his meekness and magnanimity and
through his patience and fortitude.
Like many classical epics, Paradise Lost invokes a muse, whom Milton identifies at the outset of
the poem:
Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Horeb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the heav’ns and earth
Rose out of chaos; or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God: I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

This muse is the Judaeo - Christian Godhead. Citing manifestations of the Godhead atop Horeb
and Sinai, Milton seeks inspiration comparable to that visited upon Moses, to whom is ascribed
the composition of the book of Genesis. Much as Moses was inspired to recount what he did not
witness, so also Milton seeks inspiration to write about biblical events. Recalling the classical
epics, in which the haunts of the muses are not only mountaintops but also waterways, Milton
cites Siloa’s brook, where in the New Testament a blind man acquired sight after going there to
wash off the clay and spittle placed over his eyes by Jesus. Likewise, Milton seeks inspiration to
enable him to envision and narrate events to which he and all human beings are blind unless
chosen for enlightenment by the Godhead. With his reference to “the Aonian mount,” or Mt.
Helicon in Greece, Milton deliberately invites comparison with Classical antecedents. He avers
that his work will supersede these predecessors and will accomplish what has not yet been
achieved: a biblical epic in English.

Paradise Lost also directly invokes Classical epics by beginning its action in medias res.
Book 1 recounts the aftermath of the war in heaven, which is described only later, in
Book 6. At the outset of the epic, the consequences of the loss of the war include the
expulsion of the fallen angels from heaven and their descent into hell, a place of infernal
torment. With the punishment of the fallen angels having been described early in the
epic, Milton in later books recounts how and why their disobedience occurred.
Disobedience and its consequences, therefore, come to the fore in Raphael’s instruction
of Adam and Eve, who (especially in Books 6 and 8) are admonished to remain
obedient. By examining the sinfulness of Satan in thought and in deed, Milton positions
this part of his narrative close to the temptation of Eve. This arrangement enables Milton
to highlight how and why Satan, who inhabits a serpent to seduce Eve in Book 9,
induces in her the inordinate pride that brought about his own downfall. Satan arouses
in Eve a comparable state of mind, which is enacted in her partaking of the forbidden
fruit, an act of disobedience.
Milton’s epic begins in the hellish underworld and returns there after Satan has tempted Eve to
disobedience. In line with Classical depictions of the underworld, Milton emphasizes its
darkness, for hell’s fires, which are ashen gray, inflict pain but do not provide light. The torments
of hell (“on all sides round”) also suggest a location like an active volcano. In the Classical
tradition, Typhon, who revolted against Jove, was driven down to earth by a thunderbolt,
incarcerated under Mt. Aetna in Sicily, and tormented by the fire of this active volcano.
Accommodating this Classical analogue to his Christian perception, Milton renders hell chiefly
according to biblical accounts, most notably the book of Revelation. The poem’s depictions of
hell also echo the epic convention of a descent into the underworld.
Throughout Paradise Lost Milton uses a grand style aptly suited to the elevated subject matter
and tone. In a prefatory note, Milton describes the poem’s metre as “English heroic verse without
rhyme,” which approximates “that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin.”
Rejecting rhyme as “the jingling sound of like endings,” Milton prefers a measure that is not
end-stopped, so that he may employ enjambment (run-on lines) with “the sense variously drawn
out from one verse into another.” The grand style that he adopts consists of unrhymed iambic
pentameter (blank verse) and features sonorous rhythms pulsating through and beyond one verse
into the next. By composing his biblical epic in this measure, he invites comparison with works
by Classical forebears. Without using punctuation at the end of many verses, Milton also creates
voluble units of rhythm and sense that go well beyond the limitations he perceived in rhymed
verse.
Milton also employs other elements of a grand style, most notably epic similes. These explicit
comparisons introduced by “like” or “as” proliferate across Paradise Lost. Milton tends to add
one comparison after another, each one protracted. Accordingly, in one long passage in Book 1,
Satan’s shield is likened to the Moon as viewed through Galileo’s telescope; his spear is larger
than the mast of a flagship; the fallen angels outstretched on the lake of fire after their expulsion
from heaven “lay entranced / Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks / In Vallombrosa”
(literally “Shady Valley,” outside Florence). The fallen angels resemble, moreover, the Egyptian
cavalry that pursued the Israelites into the parted Red Sea, after which the collapse of the walls
of water inundated the Egyptians and left the pharaoh’s chariots and charioteers weltering like
flotsam.
Paradise Lost is ultimately not only about the downfall of Adam and Eve but also about the
clash between Satan and the Son. Many readers have admired Satan’s splendid recklessness, if
not heroism, in confronting the Godhead. Satan’s defiance, anger, willfulness, and
resourcefulness define a character who strives never to yield. In many ways Satan is heroic when
compared to such Classical prototypes as Achilles, Odysseus, and Aeneas and to similar
protagonists in medieval and Renaissance epics. In sum, his traits reflect theirs.
But Milton composed a biblical epic in order to debunk Classical heroism and to extol Christian
heroism, exemplified by the Son. Notwithstanding his victory in the battle against the fallen
angels, the Son is more heroic because he is willing to undergo voluntary humiliation, a sign of
his consummate love for humankind. He foreknows that he will become incarnate in order to
suffer death, a selfless act whereby humankind will be redeemed. By such an act, moreover, the
Son fulfills what Milton calls the “great argument” of his poem: to “justify the ways of God to
man,” as Milton writes in Book 1. Despite Satan’s success against Adam and Eve, the hope of
regeneration after sinfulness is provided by the Son’s self-sacrifice. Such hope and opportunity
enable humankind to cooperate with the Godhead so as to defeat Satan, avoid damnation,
overcome death, and ascend heavenward. Satan’s wiles, therefore, are thwarted by members of a
regenerate humankind who choose to participate in the redemptive act that the Son has
undertaken on their behalf. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/383113/John-
Milton/11764/Paradise-Lost
Homer and Virgil were the two great masters of the Classical epic. Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid
have invariably served as models for all writers of the classical epic. Milton was a great classical
scholar and he sought to write an epic. He dreamt of immortality and he aspired to be one with Homer
and Virgil as the author of a classical epic. Milton turned his great classical and Biblical learning to a
poem to “assert eternal providence, and justify the ways of God to men”.

“I may assert Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.”

Milton achieved eminent success in making Paradise Lost a classical epic. In spite of certain drawbacks
and limitations, Milton’s epic is entitled to take its rightful place among half a dozen classical epics in
the world. The first essential feature of the epic is its theme. The theme of an epic must have a
national importance or significance; that is, the epic must be a true and faithful mirror of the life and
of a nation. Homer represented the national life, thought and culture of the Greeks in the Iliad, and
Virgil gave expression to the hopes and aspirations of the Romans in the Aeneid. The Fall of Man is the
theme of the epic.

“Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe,”

The epic action has three qualifications. First, it should be one action, secondly, it should be an entire
action, and thirdly, it should be a great action. In short, the action of an epic should be one, entire
and great. All these three qualities of epic action are followed by Milton.

The action of Paradise Lost is one and there is a unity of action. The central action is the Fall of Man,
and everything in the epic as, the battle of angels, the creation of the world, is made subordinate to
this central action. There are digressions at the beginning of the third and seventh books, but they do
not affect the unity and central action of the poem. The whole action of Paradise Lost is single and
compact. In the second place, its action is entire which means that it has a beginning, middle and an
end. The action in Paradise Lost is contrived in hell, executed upon earth, and punished by heaven. In
the third place the action ought to be great, by greatness of the action, Aristotle means that it should
not only be great in its nature but also in its duration. The entire action of Paradise Lost has a stamp
of grandeur and greatness about it. Milton’s subject is greater than Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid.
It does not determine the fate of one single person or nation; but of the whole human race.

Milton plunges into the middle of the action. Milton, in imitation of the great poets, opens his Paradise
Lost, with an infernal council plotting the fall of man.

The characters of the epic must have dignity and variety. In Paradise Lost, we have a wide variety of
characters marked with qualities. In Paradise Lost, we have human as well as superhuman characters.
Adam and Eve are human characters, whereas God, Christ and Satan are superhuman characters.

An epic must have a hero with great qualities. Identification of the hero is different in Paradise Lost.
Adam can be called the hero of the epic. He is not a warrior or a conqueror but a noble figure.

An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a sublime
and noble poem characterized by loftiness of thought and sentiment.

An epic is not without a moral. Moral forms an integral and intrinsic part in Milton’s poem. It seeks to
“vindicate the ways of God to man, to show the reasonableness of religion and the necessity of
obedience to the Divine Law”.

Milton, in conformity with the epic practice, begins Paradise Lost by invoking the Muse to help him in
his great task. But since Milton seeks the aid of the Heavenly Muse, the Holy spirit,

“And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all temples the upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for thou know’st:”

He requests:

“what in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support,”

In an epic poem the poet narrates very little in his person. The characters themselves carry forward
the mission of the poet.

Lastly the language of an epic must be sublime and rise above the language of common parlance.

“- - What though the fields be lost?

All is not lost”

Aristotle observes that a sublime style can be formed by three methods --- by the use of
metaphors, idioms and by lengthening phrases with the addition of words. Milton employs all these
three methods to give the air of grandeur to his epic. His similes and metaphors are epic in nature.
Latin words are frequently introduced. The style of Paradise Lost is the truest example of grand style.
In one instance, Satan says:

“The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n”

In another instance:

“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

Milton’s Paradise Lost is a classical epic. But we must also be aware of its limitations. The introduction
of allegorical persons like Sin and Death, the frequent allusions to heathen mythological fables, the
intervention of grotesque incidents, the frequent indulgence in puns and excessive display of learning
and the unnecessary use of technical terms as in the description of Pandemonium are some blemishes
in the style of the poem.

One other point must also be noted. An epic is an objective poem, and personal reflections are out of
place in it. But the most sublime parts of Paradise Lost reflect the individuality of the poet. How ever
this has added to the interest of the work as a poem though it is not, strictly speaking, permissible in
an epic.

http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group-i/english-literature/277-paradise-lost-
classical-epic.html

Epic Conventions 
. 
.......In Paradise Lost, Milton used the classical epic conventions—literary
practices, rules, or devices established by Homer that became commonplace in epic poetry. Some of these practices
were also used in other genres of literature. Among the classical conventions, Milton used are the following:

(1) The invocation of the muse, in which a writer requests divine help in composing his work.

(2) Telling a story with which readers or listeners are already familiar with; they know the characters, the plot, and the
outcome. Most of the great writers of the ancient world—as well as many great writers in later times, including
Shakespeare—frequently told stories already known to the public. Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected
plot twists, no surprise endings. If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and theatergoer, consider that many
of the most popular motion pictures today are about stories already known to the public. Examples are The Passion
of the Christ, Titanic, The Ten Commandments, Troy, Spartacus, Pearl Harbor, and Gettysburg.

(3) Beginning the story in the middle, a literary convention known by its Latin term in media res (in the middle of
things). Such a convention allows a writer to begin his story at an exciting part, then flash back to fill the reader in on
details leading up to that exciting part.
(4) Announcing or introducing a list of characters who play a major role in the story. They may speak at some length
about how to resolve a problem (as the followers of Satan do early in Paradise Lost).

(5) Conflict in the celestial realm. Divine beings fight and scheme against one another in the epics of Homer and
Vergil, and they do so in Paradise Lost on a grand scale, with Satan and his forces opposing God and his forces.

(6) Use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a literary device in which a character in a story fails to see or understand
what is obvious to the audience or readers. Dramatic irony appears frequently in the plays of the ancient Greeks. For
example, in Oedipux Rex, by Sophocles, dramatic irony occurs when Oedipus fails to realize what the audience
knows—that he married his own mother. In Paradise Lost, dramatic irony occurs when Adam and Eve happily go
about daily life in the Garden of Eden unaware that they will succumb to the devil's temptation and suffer the loss of
Paradise. Dramatic irony also occurs when Satan and his followers fail to understand that it is impossible ultimately to
thwart or circumvent divine will and justice.

"Paradise Lost": A Classical Epic

Characteristics of an Epic

An epic is the highest type of narrative poetry. It is a long narrative poem in which the characters and the action are of heroic proportions. From the works
of Homer and Virgil, certain characteristics have become established in the West as standard attributes of the epic. The main attributes are given below.

(i) The hero is a figure of great national or international importance. Moreover, the characters must belong to the highest class in a society, raised above
the common man by birth, position, manners and appearance. They must be kings and princes descended from heroes, and even from the gods, compelling
in their deportment and arresting in their personal appearance. In Paradise Lost the hero is Adam, who incorporates in himself the entire race of man.

(ii) The setting is ample in scale, sometimes world-wide, or even larger in the classical epic. The scope of Paradise Lost is cosmic, for it includes Heaven,
Earth and Hell.

(iii) The action involves heroic deeds: Paradise Lost includes the war in Heaven, the journey of Satan to discover the newly created world, and his audacious
attempt to outwit God by corrupting mankind.

(iv) The action should be an entire action, complete in itself. By this is meant that it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

(v) The next characteristic of the epic poem according to Aristotle is that it must have greatness, by which is meant that it must produce far-reaching
consequences in which the destinies of great men and nations are involved.

(vi) Gods are also used in the epic as a tragedy, as deux ex machina; the intervention of supernatural machinery advances the plot and solves its
complications. It not only gives ample scope for the exercise of the poet’s imagination, it also provides a proper spiritual support for the heroic deeds.

(vii) An epic poem is a ceremonial composition and deliberately given a ceremonial style proportionate to its great subject and architecture. Hence, Milton’s
Latinised diction and stylized syntax, his resounding lists of strange and sonorous names, and his epic similes, that is, sustained similes in which the
comparison is developed far beyond the specific points are appropriate.

(viii) The poet begins by stating his theme, then invokes a Muse in his great undertaking and addresses the Muse.

MAIN ATTRIBUTES OF MILTON’S EPIC:

“PARADISE LOST“

(i) Universality of the Subject-matter in “Paradise Lost“

Milton’s Paradise Lost is not a national epic like the Iliad or the Aeneid; nor is it an epic after any of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human
species-an epic of our entire planet or indeed of the entire astronomical universe. The vast compass of the story, its space, time, characters and purpose
make it unique among the world epics and fully entitle its author to speak of it as involving:

“Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”

It is a poetical representation of the historical connection between the created World and the immeasurable and inconceivable Universe of Prehuman
Existence. The newly created Earth with all the starry depths about it has as yet but two human beings upon it, and these are the persons of the epic. The
grand purpose of an epic is to connect, by stupendous imagination certain events of this pre-supposed Infinite Eternity with the first fortunes of this favoured
planet and its two human inhabitants. Now the person through the narration of whose acts this connection is established is Satan, a central character of
the epic.

Milton’s Paradise Lost has a wider scope and larger significance than either the llliad or the Aeneid, because it deals with the whole human race and indicates
the destiny of all humanity through the sin of the first man created by God. Thus Milton promotes a universal view of man’s life on this earth and shows
how he has a past, a present and a future devised for him by the might of God and as a result of his own exertions. This is the didactic or philosophical
view of an epic. Milton says that he has undertaken to write of the Fall of Man and to justify the ways of God to men. Man is born endowed with free will
and great powers, but he is subject to the decrees of the Almighty who is filled with love for his own creations. We can make or mar our destiny since we
are given freedom to work out the will of God or suffer from the consequences of disobeying Him. This is a cosmic or eternal view which is bound to inspire
all of us with hope for the future. Coleridge commented on the universal appeal of Paradise Lost saying “it represents the origin of evil and the combat of
evil and good, it contains a matter of deep interest to all mankind, as forming the basis of all religion and the true occasions of all philosophy whatsoever.”

(ii) Unity of Action in “Paradise Lost“

There is a perfect unity of action in Paradise Lost as in the great classical epics of Homer and Virgil. The theme ofParadise Lost is ‘Fall of man'; everything
in the poem either leads up to it or follows from it. The plucking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge by Eve is the apex of the whole architecture of Paradise
Lost. The lines,

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through her all works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost:

are the central lines round which everything else in the poem turns. The war between God and Satan, followed by Satan’s fall, is only a prelude to the main
action. Satan defeated and punished, sought to take revenge on God by bring about the fall of man. Hence the fall of Satan does not constitute a separate
action, as contended by some critics. The whole action of Paradise Lost is single and compact. There are some episodes, as that of Sin and Death, which
are the necessary appurtenance of the classical epic. Since Milton’s characters are mostly supernatural-God, Angels, Devils – with but two human beings
who are also more like angels than men, this makes the action ofParadise Lost also different from other epics. In Paradise Lost it concerns the whole
creation: “everything is done under the immediate the visible direction of Heaven”.

(iii) Beginning, Middle and end of “Paradise Lost“

Paradise Lost begins not at the beginning, but in the middle, then retraces the earlier history bit by bit and finally takes the story forward to complete the
narration in a striking end. The fall of man is a long story, and its beginnings are to be traced back to Creation itself by the Almighty. But Milton chooses to
deal with the Fall of Satan or Lucifer in the first book. This is a striking episode which arrests our attention, for we are introduced to Satan lying stunned in
the sulphurous lake of endless fires after having been hurled down from high heaven by God. This is according to the classical convention that the action
of an epic should plunge abruptly into the middle of the action. Who was Satan, why he fell, are the questions that engage our attention, and the poet then
proceeds to tell us all about these in the later book of the poem.

(iv) Invocation of “Paradise Lost“

There is an introductory invocation or prayer to God to inspire and bless the poet to complete his task properly. This is a common feature of all ancient
epics. But the ancient epics appealed to gods and goddesses in whom the moderns no more believe. Instead, Milton prays to God to give him the necessary
inspiration to complete his task. Here he brings out his faith in the concept of God according to the tenets of the Christian religion.

In the invocation to the Muse, Milton follows a poetic tradition adopted from antiquity-but in such a way so as to fill it with significance. The Heavenly Muse
is in reality the divine inspiration which revealed the truths of religion of Moses and also the spirit of God which dwells in the heart of every believer.

(v) Hero and other associates in “Paradise Lost“

The characters introduced into an epic poem are all endowed with powers and capacities of heroic proportions. For only then are our imagination and
sympathies roused to their fullest extent, and we are thrilled by their exploits. Not only is the hero of outstanding personality, but his associates are also
of heroic mould and stuff. This we find in the description and sketch of Satan, Beelzebub and the other fallen angels.

In one respect ‘Paradise Lost’ differs from the classical epics and that is in the number of the characters portrayed. The earlier epics were rich in
characterization with many mortals and gods taking part in the action. Their personality and the motivations of all the participants in the different phases
of the story, capture the interest of the readers; and there is also constant suspense about their fates. The subjects-matter of the fall of Adam and Eve
obviously precluded any such generosity of characterization, especially of human beings.
(vi) Speeches of Elaborate Length in “Paradise Lost“

Speeches of elaborate length are another feature of epics. A part from the poet’s explanations and descriptions of the background and scenery, the
characters themselves speak fully explaining their thoughts, feelings and motives for our understanding. There is often a good deal of repetition, but this
very repetition adds to a sense of the magnitude the fullness of the action. Besides direct reporting adds to the vividness of the narrative, and we feel as if
we are spectators or participants in the scene or action.

(vii) Similes and metaphors and allusions in “Paradise Lost“

Another feature of epics is the frequency with which figures of speech are employed. Similes and metaphors are most common. Book I abounds in a peculiar
type of smiles which is called the Homeric Similes. They offer scope for the poet to exhibit his varied knowledge of nature, books and men in all aspects of
life. Their appropriateness, picture sequences and beauty add to our enjoyment of the poem as a whole.

Next to similes, we have allusions, references to different aspects of older tradition, folklore, mythology, art and related activities of human beings in
different parts of the world. Milton was one of the most learned of the world’s poets. All that was known to the ancient world and to his own contemporaries
in all branches of human endeavour is found referred to in one context or the other in Paradise Lost. This is another source of pleasure and profit to the
reader.

(viii) Grand Style of “Paradise Lost“

The next essential characteristic of an epic is its grand style. A great action needs a worthy style for its adequate presentation, and Milton’s poetic style
in Paradise Lost is the last word of sublimity in English poetry. Paradise Lostexcels as a poetic work both for the loftiness of its theme and for the grandeur
of its style. Truly, Tennyson called Milton “mighty mouthed inventor of harmonies” and “God gifted organ-voice of England.” The language of Paradise
Lost bristles with Latinisms and to some extent this fact lifts the style above the common place. Anything common or trivial would have spoilt the effect of
the great epic.

(ix) Human Interest in “Paradise Lost“

Above all, the human interest in the poem centres round the figure of Adam, who is the central character of Paradise Lost. The Epic, like the Tragedy, is
according to Aristotle, a story of human action. Paradise Lost is essentially a story of human action; though there are only two human characters in the
epic – and they make their appearance as late as the fourth book of the poem – yet their act of disobedience is the central theme of the epic; and this act
of eating “the fruit of that forbidden tree” is of tremendous significance, for on it depends the fate of the whole human race. The last two lines of the poem
describing the departure of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden are pregnant with deep pathos, and appeal to every human heart:

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow Through Eden took their solitary way.

(x) Sublimity in “Paradise Lost“

An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. There is no room for pleasantry and fun and light-hearted gaiety in a classical epic.
Milton’s Paradise Lost is a sublime and noble poem characterised for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater ideas than those which Milton has
presented in the first, second and sixth books. The seventh book. The seventh book, which describes the creation of the world, is equally wonderful and
sublime.

(xi) Moral Tone of “Paradise Lost“

An epic is not without a moral. Besides giving a general representation to passions and affections, virtues and vices, the epic poet does not leave out a
moral which he expects his readers to imbibe. The moral forms an integral and intrinsic part of Milton’s poem. It seeks to “vindicate the ways of God to
men, to show the reasonableness of religion and the necessity of obedience to the Divine Law.”

Dryden’s objection against “Paradise Lost“ as a classical epic

Dryden, however, doubted its claim to be called an epic, because, (1) it is not heroic enough; its main theme is not a war but the tale of man’s loss of his
happiness; (2) unlike other epics it ends unhappily; (3) again, unlike other epics, it contains only two human characters, the other being “heavenly
machines”.

The objections are either superficial or conventional. It is a needless restriction on epic poetry to say that it must always have a war as its main theme.
Similarly, the fact that epics generally end happily does not mean that all epics must end so. Besides, as Johnson points out, Paradise Lost does not end
unhappily. “If success be necessary,” he says, “then Adam’s deceiver was at last crushed; Adam was restored to his Maker’s favour, and therefore may
securely resume his human rank.” If Adam loses the eternal Paradise, he gains “a Paradise within him happier far.”

Dryden’s third objection is sufficiently refuted by Addison. He says that though the number of characters in Milton‘s epic are not many, yet each of the
characters is represented in more than one aspect. Thus we have Adam and Eve as they are before their fall and as they are after it. God is revealed as
the Creator, the avenger of man’s wrongs and as man’s redeemer. Satan has three different aspects of his character. He is God’s enemy, man’s tempter
and a great leader to his followers. Besides, abstract characters such as Sin and Death, are introduced. And surely, God and the angels, good and bad, are
also characters. They are not merely “heavenly machines.”

To sum up: Paradise Lost is an epic. And it possesses all the essential characteristics that Aristotle demanded of an epic poem. (1) Its action or plot has
unity, entirety and sublimity. The subject-matter, viz., the fall of man, forms the centre of the poem. Everything else moves round it, leads towards it or
follows from it. Milton secures the unity of action by starting at the middle of the story and by opening the poem with the i nfernal council debate in Hell
where man’s fall is plotted. The story is also told in its entirety. We are told, all that went before to cause man’s fall and all that followed as its result. The
action is also sublime; there cannot be any more sublime theme than the fall of our first parents and the war in Heaven. (2) The characters of Paradise
Lost are also true epic characters. They are majestic and they are as many and as various as the peculiar nature of the poem allowed. (3) Its language is
also sublime and appropriate to the characters. It is a perfect model of epic diction.

There are other incidental characteristics of epic poetry also in it. Like other epics, Paradise Lost treats a war; it employs “long-tailed” similes: it obeys the
convention of invoking the Muse.

http://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/paradise-lost-a-classical-epic/

The Genre of Paradise Lost

In his Preface to Paradise Lost, C. S. Lewis wrote, "Every poem can be considered in two ways — as what
the poet has to say, and as a thing which he makes. From the one point of view it is an expression of opinions
and emotions; from the other, it is an organization of words which exists to produce a particular kind of
patterned experience in the readers" (2). Genre, therefore, is important not only as a mode of framing a
story, but also as a model that produces expectations in readers. In Book 2 of The Reason of Church
Government, Milton declares his desire to write a great work that will serve to glorify England as earlier
poets had glorified their native lands and cultures: "what the greatest and choycest wits of Athens, Rome,
or modern Italy, and those Hebrews of old did for their country, I in my proportion with this over and above
of being a Christian, might doe for mine" (RCG 2). He declares his intention to write in English rather than
another language such as Latin, and then ponders what genre to adopt: epic, tragic, or lyric (RCG 2). These
three genres of poetry have existed since ancient Greece, and by Milton's time they carried with them a set
of connotations and expectations that most educated people recognized. Milton's concern about which genre
to choose, therefore, was not simply a matter of seeking the perfect medium for his story, but the anxiety
of a writer seeking to place himself within a centuries-old poetic tradition.
In deciding to write an epic, Milton consciously places himself in the tradition of prior epic writers, such
as the ancients Homer and Virgil, and the Medieval and Renaissance poets Dante, Tasso, Ariosto, and
Spenser. By doing this, he raises specific sets of expectations both for himself and for readers.
Formally, Paradise Lost contains many classical and Renaissance epic conceits: it begins in medias res; it
concerns heavenly and earthly beings and the interactions between them; it uses conventions such as epic
similes, catalogues of people and places, and invocations to a muse; and it contains themes common to
epics, such as war, nationalism, empire, and stories of origin.
Milton's range of variations on epic conventions contribute to Paradise Lost's stunning effects. Unlike
classics such as the Iliad and the Aeneid, Paradise Lost has no easily identified hero. The most Achilles-
like character in the poem is Satan, whom Milton surrounds with "epic matter and motivations, epic genre
conventions, and constant allusions to specific passages in famous heroic poems" (Barbara
Lewalski, Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms 55).
Critics and writers such as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley believed Satan to be the hero
of Paradise Lost. Yet the problems inherent in viewing Satan as a hero have led modern critics to reject
this idea. As Lewalski writes, "by measuring Satan against the heroic standards, we become conscious of
the inadequacy and fragility of all the heroic virtues celebrated in literature, of the susceptibility of them all
to demonic perversion" (78).
Another possibility for the hero of Paradise Lost is the Son of God, but although he is an important force
in the poem, the story is not ultimately about him. The most likely possibility, therefore, is Adam. Adam
resembles Aeneas in many respects: he is the father of a new race, responsible for founding civilization on
earth. But unlike Aeneas, Adam's primary heroic act is not heroic at all: it is the first act of disobedience.
The heroism celebrated in Book 9 as "Patience and Heroic Martyrdom" stands in stark contrast to traditional
epic heroism (PL 31-2).
Is Adam's disobedience an indictment of traditional heroism? If the quiet Adam is the true hero ofParadise
Lost, and Satan with all his heroic oratory is not, then Milton is simultaneously entering into a dialogue
with previous works about the nature of heroism, reconfiguring the old model, and effectively redefining
notions of heroism for his seventeenth-century English Protestant audience.
The hero is not the only epic tradition to be reconfigured in Paradise Lost; the poem also plays on readers'
expectations about epic form. Although it most resembles an epic, Paradise Lost contains elements of many
other genres: there are elements of lyric poetry, including the pastoral mode, as in the descriptions of
Paradise, the conversations between the unfallen Adam and Eve, and their joyful prayers to God in the
Garden (PL 4.589-735). There is an aubade (PL 5.136-208), a type of symposium (Raphael's visit, PL 5-8),
and examples of georgic verse (PL 4.618-33, 5.209-19,9.205-225). There are also elements of tragedy, as
in Book 9 when Milton, preparing his readers for the fall, writes, "I now must change / Those Notes to
Tragic," and continues throughout the book to employ tragic conventions, as when he apostrophizes Eve
(PL 9.404-411) and describes the earth's response to the eating of the fruit (PL 9.782-4 and 9.1000-4).
Throughout the poem Milton makes use of soliloquy, another tragic convention. And even the ten-book
structure of the 1667 edition, according to John Leonard, "might owe something to English tragedy, forming
five dramatic acts of two books each" (Introduction to PL xi). In fact, Milton's first attempts to write the
story of man's fall took the form of a tragedy that he later rejected in favor of epic. Scott Elledge writes that
Milton favored tragedy because of its "affective and curative powers," which are no less present in Paradise
Lost than in his more formal tragedy, Samson Agonistes(Introduction to PL xxvi). As Barbara Lewalski
writes, the incorporation of multiple genres into the poem invites us "to identify certain patterns and certain
poems as subtexts for portions of Milton's poem, and then to attend to the completion or transformation of
those allusive patterns as the poem proceeds" (20).
Cordelia Zukerman and Thomas H. Luxon
In its framework 'Paradise Lost' is a classical epic. It is written in the form of a classical epic. Milton
conceived and executed the grand scheme of the poem in accordance with the design of Homer's 'Iliad' and
Virgil's 'Aenied' - The great epics of classical antiquity. To a great extent he conforms to the rules of the
epic poetry laid down by Aristotle. In conformity with the classical tradition 'Paradise Lost' opens with a
proposition followed by an invocation in the manner of Homer and Virgil. Its theme is classical. Like
classical epics, it contains several episodes. It is saturated with Milton's classical learning. It is written in a
grand style befitting its grand theme and characters. It is full of classical allusions.It contains Homeric
similies. It has a great hero and deals with great action. It conforms to the Aristotlean theory of the epic
poetry.

Paradise Lost is one of the finest examples of the epic tradition in literature. It is an epic poem in blank verse by the
17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 (though written nearly ten years earlier)
in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, re-divided
into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the
versification; the majority of the poem was written while Milton was blind, and was transcribed for him.

Like the classical epic writers, Milton chooses a grand theme and succeeds in lending “Paradise Lost” with perfect
unity of plot. Everything in the poem leads up to or flows from it. The plucking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge,
the war between God and Satan, followed by the fall of Satan, long descriptions of hell and heaven and the seduction
scene are events which are closely woven together and seem part of a single and a compact action.

In the tradition of epics, Milton plunges into the middle of the story, ‘in medeas res’ instead of the beginning. From
the middle of the story, he traces the past and then goes forward with the story. In the course of the events, Milton
convincingly shows the utter powerlessness, helplessness and depravity of evil beside the almighty strength, beauty
and benevolence of God. It becomes clear that evil never succeeds under any circumstance. Milton shows this in the
defeat of Satan:


“So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay

Chain’d on the burning Lake, nor ever thence

Had ris’n, or heav’d his head, but that the will

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven

Left him at large to his own dark designs-----” (209-213)

War like speeches is another feature of epics. Through these speeches, the poet actually explains the background
and the physical details of the landscape reiterate the themes. The characters speak for themselves, fully explaining
their thoughts, feelings and motives. Milton presents the war-like speeches of Satan, in a way that makes him emerge
as a leader with heroic qualities. This is particularly true of Book-I, where Satan has been visualized with heroic
dimensions. He displays unyielding courage and shrewdness as a leader while justifying his motives and actions.
From the very first speech, he appears to be a great orator with profound leadership qualities.

“What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; th’ unconquerable Will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield:

And what is else not to be overcome?” (105-109)

Like a great leader, Satan arranges a council meeting and gives his band of fallen angels the urge to wage another
war against the Supreme Victor. A thorough analysis of their defeat is done to formulate a new strategy. He, like a
great leader praises his army and motivates his followers by calling them Princes, Knights and Warriors and at the
same time also chides them into wakeful attention:


“Wake up or be fallen forever”

He then goes on to justify their present plight, as “that strife was not inglorious” (623-24) as now they would be
better off as:

“Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heaven.” (261- 263)

So convincing are his words that the fallen and dejected angels are stirred: “They heard, and were abasht, and up
they sprung----” (331) with the dark hell echoing with their slogans and the flashes of their blazing swords and
shields. Milton gives it a majestic slant by describing the scene in these lines:



“Highly they raged

Against the highest, and fierce with grasped arms

Clashed on their soundings shields, the den of war

Hurling defiance towards the vault of heaven.”

The extensive use of similes, metaphors and allusions are another feature of epics. Book-I of Paradise Lost is a
suitable example of Milton’s exceptional skill in using similes and metaphors to good effect. His appropriate use of
similes, metaphors and allusions add to the grandeur of the poem. He draws many references from classical
literature and mythology adding a grand dimension to his narrative. For example he tells us that the palace of hell is
far beyond the magnificence of “Babylone, or great Alcairo”, and the army of rebel angel far exceeds those,


“That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side mixed with auxiliary gods; and what resounds In fable or romance
of Uther’s son, Begirt with British and Armoric Knights; And all who since, baptized or infidel; Jousted in Aspramount
or Matalban, Damasco, Morocco, or Tribisond,When charlemain with all his peerage fell By Fontarabia.”

The epic simile which compares Satan to “that Sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works, Created hugest that
swim th’ Ocean stream” from Line 200 to 220 is again a shining example of Milton’s poetic genius.

Another noteworthy aspect to consider is that classical epic writers followed the tradition of the use of supernatural
machinery and features. This enabled the poets to magnify their narratives and raise them to grand levels. Milton
excels in this area in his use of the supernatural in the poem. There are only two human characters in the epic, Adam
and Eve. The rest of the characters including God, angels, Satan and the fallen angels are supernatural beings. As
Paradise Lost primarily deals with these supernatural powers and agencies, there is little scope for the expression of
human sentiments. However the human sentiments of Adam and Eve, of their fear and repentance are depicted
convincingly. The anguish rising from the sense of divine displeasure are powerfully described.

The real genius of Milton lies in the fact that he has been able to render supernatural powers as human beings and
ascribe human sentiments to them. As Dr Johnson says, “The sentiments, as expressive of manners, appropriated
to characters are, for the later part, unexceptionally just.”

To conclude it would be very apt to say that Paradise Lost fulfills the requirements of the epic conventions laid down
by the classics. English literature will remain indebted to Milton for his remarkable contribution to the genre of epics
by following the classical tradition that “justifies the ways of God to men”. By transforming the classical secular epic
into a theological and universal one, he has enriched the epic tradition.

The Rape of the Lock as a mock-heroic poem

Alexander Pope’s masterpiece “The Rape of the Lock” is one of the greatest mock-heroic poems
in English literature. He has drawn the real picture of his contemporary society. In the mock-
epic, Pope reveals himself as the spokesman of his age. He has written the poem in epic style. The incident
of the poem is of trivial nature but the treatment is heroic. In fact, a mock heroic poem is not satire on
heroic poetry. The purpose of a mock heroic poem is satirical.

A mock-epic is narrative poem which aims at mockery at laughter by using almost all the
characteristic feature of an epic but for a trivial subject. In it there are invocation to muses, proposition
of subject, battles, supernatural machinery, journey on water, under world journey, long speeches,
coffee houses, Homeric similes and grand style but all for a simple family dispute instead of a national
struggle.

The central incident in “The Rape of the Lock” is theft of a lock of hair and the ensuring quarrel
between two families. All the main features of epic surround this incident. The style is elevated; there is
the celestial machinery in the form of the sylphs, a voyage to the underworld and battles. By placing this
incident in such frame work, Pope hoped to show the rape as trivial and so to reconcile the two families.
He failed in this purpose, but he has given lasting pleasure to his readers even since.

In an epic poem the action of the mortals was not enough, it was always intervened by the divine
powers. So in “The Rape of the Lock” Pope therefore added four bodies of fairy creatures– sylphs,
nymphs, gnomes and salamanders. They are nothing but parody of gods and goddess in the epic poems.
The use of this supernatural machinery in The Rape of the Lock considerably heightens the mock epic
effects of the poem.

An outstanding mock-heroic element in the poem is the comparison between the arming of an
epic hero and Belinda’s dressing herself and using cosmetics in order to kill. Pope describes a society-
lady in terms that world suit the arming of warrior like Achilles. In The Rape of the Lock, like epic
heroes,Belinda pays due homage to her own beautiful image reflected in the warrior-

“A heavenly image in the glass appears

To that she bends, to that her eyes she nears.”

In a nutshell, it can be said that without any doubt that The Rape of the Lock is one of the finest
piece of mock-epic. But it is not just a parody of epic tradition. It gives Pope a position of a great artist and
moralist.

Paradise Lost as an epic

Milton’s Paradise Lost may properly be classed among the greatest
epic poems and its theme is neither mythical nor historical. It is not a national
epic like the Iliad or the Aeneid, but it is an epic of the whole human species
of our entire planet or astronomical universe. The theme of Paradise Lost is
Biblical and religious and it follows Greek model of epic poetry. The central
event of this epic poem is the fall of man, which is derived from the Old
Testament.

Paradise Lost is an epic of art, an immortal creation of Milton’s

imagination and genius. It has the following characteristics. (i) Sublimity of
both subject matter and style, (ii) Universality of theme, (iii) Unity of action
(iv) Beginning, middle and an end, (v) Invocation to God, (vi) Council of war
and speeches of elaborate length, (vii) extensive use of epic similes,
metaphors, and classical allusions, (viii) grand style, (ix) human interest, and
(x) a moral tone.

Paradise Lost has sublimity both in its subject matter and style. It
begins in the following way: “Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit of that
forbidden Tree”. Milton introduces the subject matter saying that his epic will
deal with the fall of Man (Adam, the first grand Parent of Mankind) from
heaven and his restoration to a new Paradise (earth). The first six lines
indicate that the poet is going to deal with disobedience, death, loss of Eden,
and restoration through one greater Man.

In Paradise Lost, Milton has blended three great civilizations, classical,

Hebrew and Christian. Its interest transcends the limit of a nation and
comprehends the Christendom and the Jewish andMohammad worlds as
well. To be more exact, this poem represents the origin of evil and combat
between good and evil. From this viewpoint, it contains matters of deep
interests to all mankind.

Paradise Lost has a unity of action and design. It says of the fall of man
and its consequences, followed by his redemption. Thus it has a beginning,
middle and an end. At the same time like other epics it begins in the middle
of the action. Paradise Lost opens with the usual epic invocation “Sing
Heavenly Muse”. This invocation is a kind of Christian prayer to the Holy Spirit
read by the Christians into the second verse of Genesis. The poet calls upon
the Holy Spirit to raise and support him in his noble venture of writing an epic,
higher than classical epics and help him “justify the ways of God to men”.

Again Paradise Lost contains plenty of epic similes, metaphors, and

classical allusions. It also displays catalogues, speeches and council of war.
The setting of the epic is very vast, i.e. cosmic. It includes Heaven, Earth and
Hell.

To sum up, Milton deserves appreciation for creating an epic which

excels classical epics in its sublimity of the theme and style, in universality, in
human interest, in its enduring appeal, in its moral tone and what not. Milton
triumphs over all the poets both modern and ancient in the technique of
writing epic.

Milton’s description of Hell in Paradise Lost, Book-1

Of all the narrative passages in Paradise Lost, Book-1, John Milton’s

description of Hell stands out unique by virtue of its graphics pictorial quality
and its evocation of a sense of gloomy terror. Milton presents Hell as a place
designed for the eternal punishment of the fallen angels. Hell is a place for
removed from the celestial seat of bliss. It is situated in the nethermost depth
of abyss, and it takes nine days and nights to fall into this dreadful pit from
heaven.

Hell is presented in several ways within Paradise Lost but there are
three main techniques used by Milton. These include through his own
commentary, through Satan and his speeches and also through Beelzebub.
Additionally Hell is also presented through the techniques used by Milton, his
structure, style and use of language. Throughout Paradise Lost Hell is
presented as a place, but also as a stat of mind, which Satan refers to in his
speech. Milton uses many opposites in Paradise Lost, contrasting Heaven with
Hell, God with Satan, and good with evil. The contrast between light and dark
exists in all of these opposites. The narrator characterizes the angels’ physical
appearance as full of light, and the devils’ as shadowy and dark. Milton also
uses light to symbolize God and God’s grace. The absence of light in Hell and
in Satan himself represents the absence of God and his grace.

The opening scenes reveal Hell as a fiery, glittering place that reflects
the corrupt souls of the devils. Milton establishes two opposing poles of evil
and good, dark and light, and the action shifts to Earth, a region blessed by
Heaven but vulnerable to the forces of Hell. Milton’s first description of Hell
is full of negative emotive words, ‘obdurate pride’ and ‘steadfast hate’ are
adjectives used by Milton to describe Hell and the emotive words appeal to
the readers emotions‘dismal’, ‘wast’. ‘A dungeon horrible’ suggesting
torture, suffering and punishment, which is Milton’s intention as he wants
you to think of Hell like this, with a pictorial image produced by his use of
language.

Another significant feature to note is the hopelessness of Hell. Man

can partly bear his pains and sufferings. Because he has an optimistic view
that it will end sometime. But the complete hopelessness or frustration
creates an inner disintegration. The fallen angels, who have brought Hell upon
themselves, have no least hope, to get rid of from this ever damnation. So,
they have to face it for eternity.

All the description of Hell are certainly terrifying and awe-inspiring.

No doubt Milton’s object in describing Hell is two-fold. Firstly, it indicates the
torments of the fallen angels. They have lost the bliss and joy of heaven
forever. Secondly, in infuses (impart) a feeling of horror in the minds of
readers.

From Satan’s talk we learnt that Hell is originally a part of Chaos.

Essentially, Chaos is a region of disorder, uncertainly and darkness. It is
opposed to the order, certainly and light of heaven. As Hell is originally a part
of empire of Chase, we have to imagine it as being situated below haven. In
fact, Hell is situated even below Chaos. In Dante’s Divine comedy, Hell is
situated at the center of the earth but in Milton it is in the lowest depths
Chaos.

Summing up our discussion, it can be said that, undoubtedly Milton

give a vivid and effective picture of Hell in the Book-1 of Paradise Lost. It is a
Place of torment, evoking the quality of sinister wilderness. It is a hopeless
dungeon where all activity is inspired by the aim of wearing against
Omnipotence. It is also to be noted that, the fallen angels are symbolically the
human sinners on this earth.

Pope’s attitude to the character of Belinda in "The Rape of the Lock"

 The Rape of the Lock is the truest and loveliest satirical picture of the
days of Alexander Pope. It is a poem ridiculing the fashionable world of his
time. In this mock-heroic work Pope satirized feminine frivolity. Belinda, the
principal female character of the poem is the representative of the women
belonging to
the upper class society which has been the target of Pope’s satire.

There are several aspects of the personality ofBelinda as portrayed

by Pope in “The Rape of the Lock”. It will be wrong to regard her purely as a
goddess, or as a pretty spoiled child, or as a flirt. She is a combination of all
three, and yet much more than such a combination. We see her as a coquette,
an injured innocent, a sweet charmer, a society belle, a rival of the sun and a
murderer of millions. She has, indeed a Cleopatra-lick variety.

When Belinda is introduced in the poem, she is said to have such

brightness in her eyes as to surpass the brightness of the sun. But at the same
time, she is represented as being a lazy woman who continues to sleep
till twelve in the day. On waking up she again falls asleep to be awakened
ultimately by the licking tongue of her pet dog, Shock. After opening her eyes,
she reads a love letter which is waiting for her and which makes her forget
the vision that she has seen.

Toilet was the chief concern of these aristocratic ladies. On of the most
celebrated passage in The Rape of the Lock is the one in which Belinda is
described at the dressing-table. We are told that, before commencing her
toilet operations, Belinda offered a praying to the cosmetic powers. The poet
makes fun of her church, toilet is her goddess and the cosmetic are her
offerings in her prayer. Her God is the pagan god of beauty and charm.
Assisted by her maid, Betty, Belinda improved her natural charms-
“The fair each moment rises in her charms,
 Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace
And call forth all the wonder of her face”

Pope has praised Belinda for her beauty and charm. She is the nymph,
the maid, the fair, the virgin, the goddess who is the rival of the sun’s beams.
She is attended upon by a large number of aerial beings for the protection of
her chastity. Her lock is not only sacred but as a symbol of her chastity, it is
called an ‘inestimable prize’. When her hair was cut off she flew into a rage
fierce than mortal indignation.

Time and again, Ariel warns Belinda of the approaching danger to her,
but she does not care, she is headless. The sylphs try their utmost to make
her aware

of the Baron who is nearing her to cut off the lock of hair from her head. But
she seems to be indifferent. This willing indifference leads Ariel to believe that
she is amorously inclined toward a gallant.

To sum up Pope’s attitude to Belinda is very mixed and complicated,

mocking and yet tender, admiring and yet critical. The paradoxical nature of
Pope’s attitude is intimately related to the paradox ofBelinda’s situation. In
this poem Belinda is the representative of the decadent aristocratic society.
Joseph Andrews as A Social Satire
Henry Fielding is widely studied today as one of the chief begetters of
the modernist movement in novel and as a master who embodied in realistic
prose a panoramic survey of the contemporary society. With the novelty and
vitality of the writings of Henry Fielding exerted a major influence on the
succeeding writers and dominated the English fiction until the end of the
19th century.

Fielding’s brilliant tour de force Joseph Andrews is an astounding

encapsulation of the 18th century English social life and manners. It mirrors
with rare force and realism, the blemishes of mankind in its true face. The
novel, in its entirety, is an impassioned satire on the moral and social ills that
beset the 18th century English society. In this novel we are confronted with a
chameleonic society that frequently changes its appearance to gratify personal
lusts of various kinds. The social life portrayed by Fielding is scrutinized in
every facets of this society. The novel depicts human beings camouflaged in
various shades of vanity, hypocrisy and narcissism. Here, Fielding essentially
becomes a spokesman of his age and seeks to come out strongly against the
affected behavior of the so-called respectable society of the day. The reader
becomes a witness of characters who have a life of their own, but it is the
essence of humanity, distilled through Fielding’s own vision. It is presented to
us through the lines:
“I describe not men, but manners, not an individual, but species”.

Fielding's exploration begins with his survey on the nature and

temperament of women of his time. Women of all classes were snobbish and
amorous to some extent . The sensuality of women is reflected at its best
through the representatives like Lady Booby, Mrs. Slipslop and Betty. Lady
Booby feels greatly attracted by Joseph’s manliness and personality and seeks
in vain to evoke his sexual response to gratify her sensual appetite. Mrs.
Slipslop also follows her mistress’ path and tries to win Joseph as a lover. Even
Betty falls in love with Joseph and seeks in vain to have sexual gratification
from him. All these amorous intentions show a fair picture of the amoral side
of the 18th century women.
 The society that Fielding portrays in Joseph Andrews is extremely
inhuman, callous, indifferent, uncharitable and narcissistic. The insensitive
hardness of this society is clearly exposed in the stage-coach scene in which
we find inhuman stubborness. When Postillion tells the Coachman that
someone is groaning within a ditch, he bids the postillion to "Go on, Sirrah, we
are confounded late”. Then there is a lady who reacts in a contemptible
manner, when Postillion relates Joseph’s nakedness : "O Jesus, a naked Man!
Dear Coachman, drive on and leave him". Thus both the coachman and the lady
decide to leave Joseph to his own lot, the coachman because he is behind
schedule, and the lady because she cannot tolerate the idea of aiding a
naked man. Seeing the gentlemen, Joseph appeals to them and details the
circumstances of his situation, upon which an old gentleman cries: "Robbed!
Let us make all the haste imaginable, or we shall be robbed too", showing again a similar
willingness as the others have displayed to abandon Joseph. In addition, the
other gentleman, who studies law, deems that they should not abandon
Joseph at all, although for contemptible reasons. Although he agrees with
the rest that "he wished they had past by without taking any notice", his final
conclusion is that they would be held accountable for murder if Joseph died
in that situation and he therefore thought “it adviseable to save the poor
creature's life, for their own sakes”. Although Joseph does require clothing to
fight against the cold in his enfeebled state, both the lawyer and the older
gentlemen do not condescend to vouchsafe any assistance. The coachman
also declines, in spite of his two large coats, because of fears that "they
should be made bloody" At last, it is the postillion, "a lad who hath been since transported
for robbing a hen-roost, voluntarily strips off a great coat, his only garment" and swore that
he would rather remain in a shirt than "suffer a fellow-creature to lie in so miserable a
condition". Here Fielding shows the contrast between the attitude of the rich
passengers and that of the poor Postillion. What sets him apart is not his
class, but the fact that he alone dismisses his own comfort and he is the only
person who considers Joseph a "fellow-creature" worthy of such rescue.
Fielding emphatically declares: "High People" are "People of Fashion", but that
they are not "higher in their Dimensions" nor in "their Characters" The incident gives
ample scope to Fielding for satirizing the pretences and affectations of an
essentially inhuman society.
 Fielding also provides some glimpses of the chaotic, greedy,
opportunistic and insincere sides of the 18th century society. The chaotic
side is exposed by the robbery incident. It is also revealed by the incident in
which a villain attempts to rape Fanny. Human greed is exposed by the
characters of the surgeons and the clergymen. The surgeon refused to treat
Joseph because was unable to pay fees. The clergymen of the time were the
most selfish and materialistic. Parson Barnabas and Parson Trulliber are the
true embodiments of corrupt clergy. Then there is a squire who is fond of
hunting hares, tries to satisfy his lustful desire for Fanny taking advantages
of her poor condition. The insincerity of the society is also revealed by the
depiction of the justices, who were as dishonest as the clergymen and the
squires. Justice Frolick, for instance, goes out of his way to send Joseph and
Fanny to prison, without any trial, only to satisfy a whim of Lady Booby.
In brief, Joseph Andrews is a fine social document that represents an
inclusive picture of the 18the century English society. The novel directs its
satire not only against particular individuals but also against the follies and
vices of the entire society.

“Joseph Andrews” a comic epic in prose

It is true that we can term “Joseph Andrews” as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ because it has almost all the prerequisites
that are important for labeling it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’.

Fielding himself termed it as a ‘comic epic poem in prose’ in the “Preface to Joseph Andrews”. The impetus for the
novel, as Fielding claims in the preface, is the establishment of a genre of writing "which I do not remember to have
been hitherto attempted in our language", defined as the "comic epic in prose": a work of prose fiction, epic in length
and variety of incident and character. Fielding has combined the ideal of ‘comic epic’ and the ‘prose epic’ to produce what
he termed as ‘comic epic poem in prose’.The comic tone of the novel is enhanced by the mock-heroic style, for Fielding
admitted burlesque in the diction. It is instrumental in heightening the ridiculous nature of situation and affectations.

A heroic epic has a towering hero, grand theme, a continuous action, a journey to underworld, wars, digressions, discovery,
high seriousness, a high moral lesson and bombastic diction in it and in“Joseph Andrews” there is an ordinary hero, a
journey from one place to another place, mock-wars, digressions, discovery, humour, a high moral and a bombastic diction in
it. Unlike a heroic epic, the hero of “Joseph Andrews” is an ordinary boy. He is a foot-man of Lady Booby who has fallen
in love with him. But Joseph is very virtuous and chaste and therfore is dismissed from his job. We can call “Joseph
Andrews” as “The Odyssey on the road” because both the works, Homer’s “Odyssey” and Fielding’s “Joseph
Andrews” in the first place involve a journey. Like Odysseus, Joseph Andrews after the displeasure of a lady, sets out on
his way home and meets with many misfortunes on the way. So it would be fairly justified to call Joseph Andrews “ an
epic of the highway full of adventures, horseplay and not too decent fun.”

Through the journey of Joseph, Fielding satirizes the society of the day and ridicules them. The corrupt and hypocritical
clergy, Parson Trilluber and Parson Barnabas, individual like Lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop, the Squire of Fools and the Squire
of False Promises have been satirized.
The element of wars and conflicts is very important in an epic and it is no exception in “Joseph Andrews”. First of all, there
is a conflict between lusty advances of lady Booby and Mrs. Slipslop and chastity of Joseph. Also there is a conflict between
generosity of Parson Adams and misely Parson Trulliber and Mrs. Tow- Wouse.Then we see some real action in the form of
a war in an inn where Joseph was insulted by the host. Parson Adams was annoyed and challenged the host. There started
the first war between both the parties. The funny situation of the bloody fight in which Parson Adams gets doused in hog’s
blood is described in Homeric terms. Then Parson Adams rescues Fanny from a ruffian and then, a squire attacks Parson
Adams with his hounds and a fierce battle is fought between hunter’s hounds and parson Adams. Joseph’s encounter with
the dogs let loose on Parson Adams is described in epic-style. Similarly There are many other epical elements in the novel
to call it a comic epic.

Another epic convention is the use of digression. There are two major digressions in “Joseph Andrews”. There
are, seemingly, irrelevant stories of Leonara and Mr. Wilson. Epic writers considered them as embellishments. Fielding,
however, makes the interpolations thematically relevant. For, these are not irrelevant in reality.

The formula of discovery, as described by Aristotle, an essential element of an epic, has also been used by Fielding. In the
end of the novel, we see that Joseph is recognized to be Mr. Wilson’s child and Fanny as the sister of virtuous Pamela.

High seriousness is an important element in epic. But in “Joseph Andrews” there is a great deal of comedy and humour,
because it is a comic epic novel; indeed in Joseph Andrews the comic point of view is sustained throughout the novel. But
behind this comedy, there lies a serious purpose of reformation. We have a gamut of vain and hypocritical characters in
Parson Trilluber, Parson Barnabas, passengers in the stage-coach, Mr. Tow-wouse, Mrs. Slipslop, Peter Pounce and the
various Squires. The surgeon and the lawyer and the magistrate are also some other example of hypocrisy and vanity. Each
of these characters provides a great deal of humour and amusement under a serious purpose.

Every epic has a moral lesson in it and this is no exception with a comic epic. Fielding’s views on morality are practical, full
of common sense and tolerance, liberal, flexible and more realistic. These are devoid of prudish and rigid codes. Fielding
wanted to tear the veil of vanity and hypocrisy.

The use of grand, bombastic and elevated language is an important element in an epic. It has heroic diction. But in “Joseph
Andrews” we see that Fielding has used prose for poetry because it brings us close to the real and actual life and it is much
more suitable for Fielding’s purpose of dealing with comic epic. However, his use of prose is very good, up to the mark and
apt for his novel.

So, we can conclude that the theory of the ‘comic epic poem in prose’ as described by Fielding in the preface of “Joseph
Andrews” manifests itself in the novel. Fielding has assimilated the rules and adapted them to his way of writing so well
that we are not consciously aware of the formal principles which give unity to his materials. According to Thornbury, “Joseph
Andrews” by Fielding is:

Joseph Andrews: A Picaresque

The title page of Henry Fielding’s first novel reads as, “The history of the adventures of Joseph
Andrews and of his friend Mr. Abraham Adams, Written in imitation of the Manner of
Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote.” The allusion to Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote is
significant as it shows Fielding’s indebtedness to Cervantes . Parson Adams is indeed a truly Quixotic
figure, and the structure of the book also follows Cervantes’ picaresque model. Joseph Andrews is a
novel of adventures met while travelling on the road. Joseph loses his employment in Lady Booby’s
service in London, on his way home to the country to his sweetheart Fanny, he meets Parson Adams.
Together they run all kinds of adventures meeting a host of characters from low and middle-class layers
of society: innkeepers, chambermaids, country squires and clergymen.

The picaresque tradition belongs to Spain and derived from the word “picaro”, meaning a rogue or a
villain. The picaresque originally involved the misadventure of the rogue-hero, mainly on the highway.
Soon, however, the rogue was replaced by a conventional hero – gallant and chivalric. The comic
element lay in the nature of the hero’s adventures, through which, generally, society was satirized.

Fielding’s affinity with picaresque model appears first of all in the representation of rogue and villainous;
secondly, in the humorous style which often takes a mock-heroic turn, and in the geniality of
temperament; thirdly, in the portrait of characters of certain lower classes of men and women; and
finally, in the humorous or satiric descriptions of the contents of the chapters and the introduction of
side stories or episodes into the main narrative.

Thus, the journey in Joseph Andrews is not a mere picaresque rambling, a device solely for the purpose
of introducing new adventures such as we find in the classic picaresque story, , but an allegorical
journey, a moral pilgrimage, from the vanity and corruption of the city-life to the relative naturalness
and simplicity of the country. The picaresque motif helps Fielding to fulfill his aim of ridiculing the
affectations of human beings. The different strata of society can be represented through the picaresque
mode. The travelers meet squires, innkeepers, landladies, persons, philosophers, lawyers and surgeons,
beggars, pedlars and robbers and rogues. Fielding’s satire is pungent as he presents the worldly and
crafty priests and the callous, vicious and inhuman country squires. Malice, selfishness, vanities,
hypocrisies, lack of charity, all are ridiculed as human follies.

The Picaresque novel is the loosest in plot – the hero is literally let loose on the high road for his
adventures. The hero wanders from place to place encountering thieves and rogues, rescuing damsels
in distress, fighting duels, falling in love, being thrown in prison, and meeting a vast section of society.
As the hero meets a gamut of characters from the country squire to the haughty aristocrat, from
hypocrite to ill-tempered soldiers, the writer is able to introduce with the least possible incongruity, the
saint and the sinner, the virtuous and the vicious. The writer has a chance to present the life, culture
and morality prevalent in his time, and to satirize the evils.

Fielding acknowledged his debt to Cervantes, whose Don Quixote is the best known picaresque novel in
Spanish.
Like the Don Quixote and Panza, Parson Adams and Joseph set out on a journey which involves them in
a series of adventures, some of them burlesque, at several country inns or rural houses. Like the Don,
Parson Adams is a dreamy idealist. But there are differences, too, between Joseph Andrews and the
picaresque tradition, vital enough to consider Fielding’s novel as belonging to the genre of its own.

The central journey in Joseph Andrews is not mainly a quest for adventure as it is in the picaresque
tradition. It is a sober return journey homewards. Joseph and Lady Booby are taken to London and the
reader is given a glimpse of society’s ways in that great city.

It is in Chapter 10 of Book I that the picaresque element enters the novel, with Joseph setting out in a
borrowed coat towards home. The picaresque tradition is maintained uptil the end of Book III. Joseph
meets with the first misadventure when he is set upon by robbers, beaten, stripped and thrown
unconscious into a ditch. A passing stage-coach and its passengers very reluctantly convey Joseph to
an inn. The incident gives ample scope to Fielding for satirizing the pretences and affectations of an
essentially inhuman society.

The Tow-wouse Inn provides a grim picture of callous human beings – the vain and ignorant surgeon
and the drinking parson. Once again kindness and generosity come from an apparently immoral girl,
Betty the chambermaid. With the arrival of Parson Adams, the picaresque journey takes on a more
humorous tone, with plenty of farce. The encounter with the “Patriot” who would like to see all cowards
banged but who turns tail at the first sight of danger, leads to the meeting with Fanny. She is rescued
by Adams in proper picaresque-romance style with hero. Several odd characters are met on the way –
such as the hunting squire – the squire who makes false promises. Then comes the abduction of Fanny
– and the reintroduction of something more serious.

We also have the interpolated stories, which belong to the picaresque tradition. In his use of this device,
Fielding shows how far he has come from the picaresque school.

To conclude, Joseph Andrews has a rather rambling and discursive narrative, which makes us to
believe that it is a picaresque novel. But, on the whole, it is not a picaresque novel rather the
picaresque mode has helped him in the development of his comic theory – that of ridiculing the
affectations of human beings.

Concept of Morality in Joseph Andrews

Henry Fielding undoubtedly holds moral views far-ahead of his

times. Morality is an approval or adherence to principles that
govern ethical and virtuous conduct.
Fielding was accused of being immoral in his novels. Dr. Johnson
called his novels “vicious and corrupting”. Richardson echoed
the “charge of immorality” against him. Modern critics,
however, has justified Fielding and gave him a credit of “an
estimable ethical code”. Strachey declared him a “deep,
accurate, scientific moralist”. Indeed neither “Joseph
Andrews” nor “Tom Jones” strikes the modern sensibility as
‘low’ or ‘immoral’ either in purpose or in narration. Behind the
truthful portrait of life, lies his broad moral vision. His aim was to
correct mankind by pointing out their blunders.
“I have endeavored to laugh at mankind, out to their
follies and vices.”
Fielding reacted sharply against the code of ethics as incited by
Richardson in “Pamela”. He feels that Pamela’s virtue is an
affectation and a commodity, exchangeable for material benefits.
Virtue cannot and should not be to chastity alone. Mere external
respectability is not morality. For Fielding:
“Chastity without goodness of heart is without value.”
A truly virtuous man is disregardful of material benefits. He is
devoid of an affectation.
He finds:
“A delight in the happiness of mankind and a concern at
their misery, with a desire, as much as possible, to procure
the former and avert the latter …”
Fielding’s moral vision is much wider that Richardson’s. Morality is
no longer equated with chastity or outward decorum. It is broad
enough to include every aspect of human behaviour. One’s
intentions, instincts, motives are equally important in judging a
man.

In “Joseph Andrews” we are confronted with a chameleonic

society that quickly changes its appearance to gratify personal
lusts. Fielding’s aim was to show human beings camuoflaged in
various shades of vanity and hypocrisy and it is done ruthlessly
and wittily in “Joseph Andrews”.

The stage-coach scene is perhaps the best illustration of

Fielding’s concept of morality. In it we are confronted the haughty
passengers which are all models of hypocrisy. The coachman
simply bids the postillion to "Go on, Sirrah, we are
confounded late”. The lady reacts in a contemptible manner:
"O Jesus, a naked Man! Dear Coachman, drive on". The old
gentleman deems: "Let us make all the haste imaginable, or
we shall be robbed too".In addition there a lawyer who
“wished they had past by without taking any
notice", although his final advice is “to save the poor
creature's life, for their own sakes”. At last, it is the
postillion, " who hath been since transported for robbing a
hen-roost, voluntarily strips off a great coat, his only
garment" and swears that he would rather remain in a shirt than
"suffer a fellow-creature to lie in so miserable a
condition". Here Fielding shows the contrast between the
attitude of the rich passengers and that of the poor Postillion.
What sets him apart is not his class, but the fact that he alone
dismisses his own comfort and he is the only person who
considers Joseph a "fellow-creature" worthy of such rescue.
Fielding emphatically declares: "High People" are "People of
Fashion", but that they are not "higher in their Dimensions"
nor in "their Characters" The journey undertaken by Joseph
and Parson Adams reveals vanity or hypocrisy at every stage.

It is significant that Parson Adams jumps with joy at the reunion

of Fanny and Joseph. It reflects an ability to sympathize with
other’s feelings. Simple, kind, generous and courageous, Adams
is the epitome of true feeling and goodness of heart which is a
vital aspect of Fielding’s concept of morality. Adams’ impulses
always prompt him to help anyone in distress. He saves Fanny’s
virginity two times.
“He is an innocent … so completely sincere in his beliefs
and actions that he can’t imagine insincerity in other; he
takes everyone he meets at face-value”.
Kindness achieved supreme importance in Fielding’s moral code.
A good and a moral man takes joy in helping others. Fielding
says:
“I don’t know a better definition of virtue, than it is a
delight in doing good.”
Fielding is as liberal in ridiculing affectation as he is hard on the
lack of charity. Adams’ definition:
“A generously disposition to receive the poor”,
is the simple test employed to men by Fielding to check the
capability of charity. When Parson Adams asks for some shillings
to Parson Trulliber, he declares in frenzy:
“I know what charity is better than to give it to
vagabonds.”
This shows 18th century’s clergy’s degeneracy, who is reluctant
to give some shillings. The rich Parson Tulliber, Mrs. Tow-wouse,
Lady Booby and Peter Pounce lacks natural kindness whereas the
poor postilion, Betty and Pedler are true Christians, for they are
ready to help other man in distress asking nothing in return. But
Mrs. Tow-wouse scornfully declares:
“Common charity my foot.”
Fielding is against the prudish morality which considers sex as an
unhealthy and dangerous for human life. He favours a healthy
attitude towards sex. But he does not approve of Lady Booby’s
desire for Joseph nor does he favour Mr. Slipslop’s extreme
whims. But Betty’s desires spring from a natural heart and
feeling. It is worth noticing that Betty is free of hypocrisy. She
acts as ordered by her nature.
“She is good-natured generosity and composition.”
Summing up, Fielding’s concept of morality is realistic, tolerant,
broad and fairly flexible. Modern opinion has vindicated the moral
vision of Fielding as healthy, wide and practical.

Swift’s Misanthropy in Gulliver's Travels:

Swift hatred towards mankind:
swift as a misanthropist:

Gulliver's Travels is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic looking-glass, often criticized

for its apparent misanthropy. Gulliver's Travels was unique in its day; it was not written to
woo or entertain. It was an indictment, and it was most popular among those who were
indicted.
On the subject of misanthropy Swift famously said, “Principally I hate and detest that
animal called man" Swift called man not the "animal rationale" but only the "rationis capax”,
animal capable of reason.

In a letter to Alexander Pope Swift wrote:

“I have ever hated all Nations professions and Communities and all my love is
towards individuals. . .Upon this great foundation of misanthropy the whole building
of my travels is erected”

He admits that the chief end of all his labour is “to vex the world rather than divert it”.

Swift so violently ‘vexed’ the world that different critics from his own time to this day have
bitterly criticized him.

Thackeray attacked his book claiming it to be “filthy in word, filthy in thought, furious,
raging, obscene.” Walter Scott condemns Swift’s attack on mankind as “severe, unjust
and degrading.”

William Hazlitt however defends Swift against these charges:

“What a libel is this upon mankind! What a convincing proof of misanthropy! What
presumption and what malice prepense, to shew men what they are, and to teach
them what they ought to be!”

Gulliver’s Travel’s serves as a magnifying mirror to show us our faults so that we can see how
far we have strayed from reasonable behavior.

Paul Turner writes of Gulliver’s four voyages: “The four pictures form a series, in which
the view grows gradually darker; that is, they represent stages in Gulliver's
disillusionment.”

In the first part of the book, Swift takes us to the land of midgets, the “human creatures
not more than six inches high”. Lilliput is a miniature empire with a little monarch who
entitled himself as "delight and terror of the universe".
In Lilliput, which is, quite literally, a microcosm, the vices and follies not merely of England
but of all mankind are epitomized. The human race viewed in miniature, at first seems rather
charming; but the tiny creatures soon turn out to be cunning, malicious, treacherous and
revengeful. They are ready to sacrifice all humane feeling, whether towards Gulliver or the
Blefuscudians, to their own petty ambitions.

In Brobdingnag, however, it is as if we are looking at humanity through a magnifying glass.

Gulliver is often repulsed by both the size and coarseness of the physical bodies of
the Brobdingnagians. But Swift throws in a nice twist with the first two parts of Gulliver's
Travels. Though the Brobdingnagians are more repulsive physically because of their size, they
are categorized by Gulliver as "the least corrupted".

When Gulliver gives brief description of the political and legal institutions of England to
Brobdingnagian King, the King dismissively concludes "the bulk of your natives to be the
most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon
the surface of the earth."

Swift was certainly not one of the optimists typical of his century. He did not believe that the
‘Age of Science’ was a triumph. Science and reason needed limits, and they did not require
absolute devotion. In order to satirize mankind in general and science in particular, Swift
takes us to an imaginary floating island where the inhabitants were wholly engrossed in their
fruitless meditation."Their heads were all reclined either to the right, or the left; one
of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith.” The various
researches that were in progress at the Academy of Projectors in Lagado were fantastic and
preposterous. Experiments were being made “to extract sunbeams out of cucumbers, to
convert human excrement into its original food, to build houses from the roof
downwards to the foundation, to obtain silk from cobwebs”

Swift’s alleged misanthropy reaches its crescendo in the fourth voyage of Gulliver. As Gulliver
reaches the land governed by philosophical horses Houyhnhnms, he is instantly confronted
with a pack of Yahoos which give him such an obnoxious and disgusting treatment that he
develops an intense hatred for them, owing to their vile physical appearance and their filthy
and mischievous way of life. Gulliver highlights:

“Upon the whole, I never behold in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, nor
one against which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy.”
The Houyhnhnms, on the other hand, are “endued with a proportionable degree of
reason” and “orderly and rational, acute and judicious”. They know neither love nor
grief nor lust nor ambition for they face each of these phenomena with stoical calm. Their
cardinal virtues are “friendship and benevolence”. The Houyhnhnms are “the Perfection
of Nature” while “the Yahoos … were observed to be the most unteachable of all
brutes”

Gulliver’s epiphany occurs he identifies himself with the detestable Yahoos:

“My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed in this
abominable animal, a perfect human figure.”

The theme of Gulliver’s hatred of mankind is climaxed when he told he must leave
Houyhnhnmland. He exclaims “that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the
least of my evils, for…how could I think with temper of passing my days among
Yahoos”. Thus Gulliver would rather die than live among his own race of Yahoos.
Nonetheless, he must leave. But he plans not to go home, but to find some small uninhabited
island so that he can, in solitude, “reflect with delight on the virtues of those imitable
Houyhnhnms.” Yet, fate would not allow it. He is discovered by Portuguese Captain and
seamen and is forcibly rescued and given passage to Lisbon. With the short-sightedness of
the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver perceives only the Yahoo and is repelled by Captain Don Pedro de
Mendez’s clothes, food, and odour as he remarks: “I wondered to find such civilities from
a Yahoo. However, I remained silent and sullen; I was ready to faint at the very
smell of him and his men.”

Gulliver’s frenzy of his extreme misanthropy has driven him into madness as can no longer
bear his own wife and children:

“I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the farthest end of
a long table…. Yet the smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive, I always keep
my nose well stopped with rue, lavender, or tobacco leaves. “

Gulliver concludes his travels on a misanthropic note:

“When I behold a lump of deformity, and diseases both in body and mind, smitten
with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience.”

While the character of Gulliver eventually reveals himself to be a misanthrope, the author
Jonathan Swift does not. The reader must be conscientious to see that Gulliver’s idealized
glance of Houyhnhnms’ logical approach to life is not always consistent with Swift’s. A carful
denotation suggests that the author is just as satirical toward Gulliver and the Houyhnhnms
as he is toward the Yahoos. Gulliver remains true to his gullible nature as he seems unable
to discern the negative aspects of the Houyhnhnms’ rational philosophy. Swift, on other hand,
uses these quadrupeds to show how reason untouched by love, compassion, and empathy is
also inadequate to deal with the myriad aspects of the human life.

Gulliver’s Travels: A Social and Political Allegory

Allegory means a story based on two levels, “apparent level and deeper”. Swift’s polemical
tour de force ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is a multi-genre text working on many levels. It is at once a
folk-myth, a delightful children's story, a wonderful travelogue, a neurotic fantasy, and an
unequivocal moral tale. Each of the four books—recounting four voyages to fictional exotic
lands—may have a different theme but all are the attempts to deflate excessive human pride.
Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.

The form and structure of the whole work enhances Swift's purpose. By using outlandish
humans such as midgets and giants, Swift allows us to examine the fallacies of mankind
without being overly frightened. As Tuveson points out, "In Gulliver's Travels there is a
constant shuttling back and forth between real and unreal, normal and absurd.”

From the start the Lilliputians arouse our interest and win our liking. The pigmies of Lilliput
ingeniously capture the giant whom chance has cast on their shore. Gulliver becomes an
object of curiosity. He is instantly given the name “Man-Mountain”. The manner in which
several ladders are applied by the Lilliputians to feed Gulliver and the way Gulliver cripples
the fleet of Blefuscu by his hand is incredible and exciting. Similarly the customs of Lilliputians,
their dancing on the tight rope, conflict between Big Endians and Little Endians, and between
high heel and low heel are also a great source of amusement to us. Moreover, “they bury
dead with their head directly downward because they hold an opinion that in eleven
thousand moons, they are all to rise again” which catches our attention.

Next, Gulliver reaches the island of Brobdingnag whose inhabitants are giants with a
proportionately gigantic landscape. Here, Gulliver is exhibited as a curious midget, and has a
number of local dramas such as fighting giant rats. He is frightened by a puppy, rendered
ludicrous by the tricks of a mischievous monkey and embarrassed by the lascivious antics of
the Maids of Honour. Gulliver’s adventures in Brobdingnag keep the interest of a young reader
alive.

The voyage to Laputa, Lagado and other islands is also full of interesting and mysterious
incidents. In Laputa, the Flying Island, every eatable thing e.g. the mutton, the beef, or the
pudding, is given geometrical shape or the shape of musical instrument. The manner in which
flappers are employed to draw the attention of their master and the way tailor takes his
measure by employing a quadrant, rule and compasses is also very funny. The experiments
which are in progress at the academy of projector in Lagado are preposterous and fantastic.

In the fourth voyage, Gulliver’s adventure touches the apex when we see him in the land of
Houyhnhnms, the philosophical horses. The horses can talk to one another and can even
teach their language to a human being. They so skilled and ingenious that they can execute
such improbable tasks as threading needles or carrying trays, and so complacent in their
belief that they are the “Perfection of Nature”.

So on the apparent level, all the four voyages contain the situations and incidents full of
delightful adventures in a very funny and interesting manner and one can hardly reckon that
these funny episodes of adventure can bear in deep sense a very lethal and poignant satire
on the follies and absurdities of mankind.

The first voyage in particular contains Swift's the most memorable shots at the political figures
of his time. Flimnap’s dancing on the tight rope symbolizes Sir Robert Walpole’s dexterity in
parliamentary tactics and political intrigues. The phrase “one of the king’s cushions” refers to
one of king George I’s mistresses who helped to restore Walpole after his fall in 1717. High
Admiral Skyresh Bolgolam which turns out to be Gulliver’s ‘mortal enemy’ represents Earl of
Nottingham while Reldresal may stand for Lord Townshend or Lord Carteret who was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Walpole.

Gulliver’s extinguishing of the fire in the queen’s palace is an allegorical reference to Queen
Anne’s annoyance with Swift on writing “A Tale of a Tub”. The queen misinterpreted the book
and got annoyed. The conflict between the Big-Endians and the Small-Endians in which
“eleven thousand persons have, at several times, suffered death rather than submit
to break their eggs at the smaller end” is the satirical allusion to the bitter schism and
theological disputes between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Similarly Swift pokes fun at
‘Whigs’ and ‘Tories’ the two political parties in England by distinguishing from their low heels
and high heels.

In the second voyage of Gulliver, there is a general satire on humanity and human
physiognomy. Much of this voyage is made up of lampooning British political history. After
Gulliver tries to extol the virtues of his country-men, the king deduces that the history of
Gulliver’s country “was only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres,
revolutions, banishments” etc. When Gulliver tries to improve his condition by offering him
the secret of gun-powder, the king is horrified and dismissively concludes that “the bulk of
your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever
suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth”.

In the description Laputa, “Floating or Flying island”, there is satirical allusion to the English
constitution and British colonial policy. The revolt of Lindalino becomes an allegory of Irish
revolt against England and England’s violent foreign and internal politics. Swift also takes
shots on certain ‘high-minded’ intellectuals who literally have their heads in the clouds. Among
the sights Gulliver visits in his third voyage to Laputa, is the grand academy of Lagado, full
of ‘projectors’ whose job is to come up with new ideas and inventions. The scientists are here
busy trying “to extract sunbeams out of cucumbers, to convert human excrement
into its original food, to build houses from the roof downwards to the foundation, to
obtain silk from cobwebs”. This description is the firm pointer to Swift’s cynical view of
contemporary science and Royal Society of England.

In his fourth and the last voyage to the country of Houyhnhnmms, Gulliver faces yet another
inversion and there is a sharp-pointed satire on human moral shortcomings. Human beings
here are represented as Yahoos—filthy, mischievous, gluttonous, ugly monsters that covet
for some ‘shining stones’.

By contrast, the Houhnhnms are noble and benevolent animals governed by Nature and
Reason and their “grand maxim, is to cultivate reason, and to be wholly governed by
it.” . So it is a lethal attack on the human race to be represented inferior to horses mentally
and morally. Gulliver tells his master-Houyhnhnm of all the evils and vices that were prevailing
in European countries. Gulliver also tells about the numerous deadly weapons and the wars
in western countries which were fought sometimes due to the “ambitions of princes” and
sometimes due to “corruption of the ministers.”

Thus we can conclude that “Gulliver’s Travels” is a great work of allegory. The whole book is
written in a fanciful manner, but beneath the fiction and under the surface there lies a serious
purpose “to vex the world rather than divert it”.

Gulliver’s Travels as a Mock Utopia:

Posted by usman munir on 01:53

Gulliver’s Travels as a Mock Utopia:

The tendency to hanker after a utopia is a perfectly human desire. Like many narratives about
voyages to nonexistent lands, Gulliver’s Travels explores the idea of utopia—an imaginary
model of the ideal community. The idea of a utopia is an ancient one, going back at least as
far as the description in Plato’s Republic of a city-state governed by the wise and expressed
most famously in English by Thomas More’s Utopia.

The literal meaning of Utopia is no place, nowhere. Thomas More gave this term to his ideal
commonwealth. Swift incorporates the key concepts of Plato’s and More’s utopias into his
own narrative, though his attitude toward utopia is much more skeptical. One can see the
different lands of Gulliver’s travels as the parody of utopian literature. Hence Gulliver's Travels
can be regarded as a mock Utopia.

One of the main aspects about these famous historical utopias is the tendency to privilege
the collective group over the individual. The children of Plato’s Republic are raised
communally, with no knowledge of their biological parents, in the understanding that this
system enhances social fairness.

Lilliputians similarly raise their offspring collectively but its results are not exactly utopian,
since Lilliputian are torn between conspiracies, jealousies, and backstabbing. Nonetheless,
they are prone to making ‘official’ edicts concerning the lives of the citizens and have well-
established systems of granting their law-abiding citizens: “Whoever there can bring
sufficient proof that he hath strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-
three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges.”

Brogdingnag forms more practical moral utopia than Lilliput. The Bobdingnagians are the
epitome of moral giants and their size shows that their morality is also gigantic.
Brobdignagians, however, are not without their flaws. Unlike Gulliver who always considered
Lilliputians to be the miniature men, Brobdingnagians cannot consider him a miniature
Brobdingnagian. Even the Brobdingnagian king treats him like a little tiny fellow unaware of
the grandiose ideas of the diminutive creature. The maids of honour treat Gulliver as a
plaything, undress themselves in front of him, and titillate themselves with his naked body.

Swift’s clinical dissection of the utopian ideal is at best in the description of the Houyhnhnms.
Swift tells us that the Houyhnhnms use ‘nature’ and ‘reason’ as their distinctive features. It
is supported by Gulliver’s assertion that Houyhnhnm society’s “grand maxim, is to
cultivate reason, and to be wholly governed by it.” They are in stark contrast with the
loathsome Yahoos, brutes in human shape.

Indeed the Houyhnhnms possess many laudable qualities. Gulliver finds an ideal society
organized entirely along rational lines. This emphasis on rationality leads them to arrange all
aspects of social life according to logical patterns. They even brainwash Gulliver, erasing his
human nature insofar as they can and replacing it with a pure and abstract rationality like
their own. But Gulliver, owing to his ‘unteachable’ Yahooish nature, endeavours not to become
a more rational human being, but to become a Houyhnhnm itself. Thus it is clear that he has
not learned the teachings of the Houyhnhnms, for he does not behave rationally at all. “Man,
of course, can never be a Houyhnhnm, nor was meant to be, but the rational society
of Houyhnhnmland nevertheless offers a goal of moral perfection toward which he
should strive” says Beauchamp.

The utopian Houyhnhnms can be lauded as the manifestatation of ‘man’s rational nature,
untainted by man’s bestial traits’ while Yahoos represent ‘man’s apish, stupid, unredeemed
animal nature.’
Significantly, Hobbes suggested that human nature is to be warlike in our pursuit of desires,
and so life will be, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Locke would later write a counter
argument, that the nature of humankind is inclined more toward cooperation, as opposed to
Hobbes that saw humankind in a never-ending state of war.

Wedel suggests middle path, “… Swift is clearly neither Hobbes nor Locke. Gulliver is
neither Yahoo nor Houyhnhnm. He cannot attain to the rational felicity of the
Houyhnhnms. Neither has he sunk to the level of the Yahoos.”

Swift ingeniously suggests that the Houyhnhnms do not stand for perfected human nature
but they manifest pre-fallen state of innocent human nature. The Houyhnhnms cannot be
admired or emulated because they are just doing what they inherently do. The same reason
is not inherent in Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are ice-cold reason while the Yahoos are fiery
sensuality. Swift places Gulliver somewhere in between Houyhnhnm and Yahoo poles. To
Swift, human nature is both sensual and rational. If the reason is extracted man becomes a
lump of hideous instincts. Similarly if passion is extinct what remains is a tame animal.

Houyhnhnms society is entirely instrumental serving only to maintain itself without any other
consideration. Their rationality is focused on the preservation of their static ‘perfection’ and
this instinct of self-preservation overrules their every other impulse and consideration.
Houyhnhnms cannot see the world from any other perspective and all their ‘perfection’ is
directed to this end.

Also, the dichotomy of Houyhnhnms’ morality highlights the self validating nature of their
judgments. The Houyhnhnms preserve Yahoos because the benefits of exterminating them
do not clearly outweigh costs of keeping them alive. This version of reason is coldly functional,
almost Machiavellian, in the way the end is seen to justify the means. The extermination of
their yahoo foils mean undermining their self-proclaimed status as the “Perfection of
Nature.” They even expel Gulliver their sole ardent supporter from the Yahoo race. This is
the state of their utopia, into which Gulliver stumbles, an eternal, unchanging society built on
some values that are intrinsic to the nature of creatures that populate it.

Swift thus mocks the very concept of utopia and makes it clear that nowhere an ideal state
exists because evil exists in every society in one form or the other. The world of Utopia is
doomed to remain a dream in this world because, "whether man is three inches or
three miles high, he remains a man—a presumptuous zero.