Moloch desire for war is impressive. After losing to God he wants to keep going. He says let those who want to stay and accept the situation rest while the ones who want to fight, fight. I feel like Moloch is taking on the leadership qualities, Lucifer should have. Back in Book 1, Lucifer was almost regretting what he had done. While he is on a pilgrimage to earth, the devils are free to do what they like. The feeling of having nothing to lose, so why not fight. Moloch wants to finish what they started. He has nothing good to say about God. To me his language suggested that he was a manipulator. He told his followers but he wanted them to hear and exploited them. The criticism of Gods leadership is a large subject in paradise lost. It makes you think of how Milton perceived God. What I am reading in this story is that God is a liar. When we get descriptions of him, they are not very flattering. “He seemed for dignity composed and high exploit, but all was false and hollow though his tongue dropped manna and could make the worse appear the better reason to perplex and dash matures counsels.” I was taught that God is just and to always out your faith in him. I have questions for Milton. The way God is described by the fallen angles, the way he sees them? Or is he describing Him this way because they oppose one another? There is some hateful language in this poem. It also brings into question was free will only given to Adam and Eve? Moloch is war bound, he seems to live for the fight and has some heated animosity towards God. Sounds like daddy issues to me. Belial speaks with reason. He knows there is no going back. This makes me think of the Colonies revolting against the British. The fight for independence from an oppressive entity. Could their cause be justified? If God was this way, why do we see the angels that fell as the ones who did wrong? I like the line “this deep world of darkness do we dread? How oft admist thick clouds and dark doth Heav’n resembles Hell? The idea of Heaven being a hell in its own way. so does that mean, Hell, the place they are in now is their paradise? I don’t know.
Hey Kontreal!
ReplyDeleteI literally just talked about this on Brendan's post but this is a good topic, so what the hell? <-- pun intended. To me, it sounded like living in Heaven and serving under God was like living in a dictatorship. God wants all these plans carried out and wants everyone to obey him without question. Oh and if you piss him off? Well, now you have to ask for forgiveness because that's the way it is. I think in some way free will WAS only given to Adam and Eve. The way these demons talk about God, they make it seem like nothing was ever their choice. I can see why they would want to start fresh for themselves and do things on their own. But one thing I do wonder about is, how do these demons even know about choice? If you have never had free will and you live in a place that is beautiful beyond belief, what makes an individual think about options and different ways of going about things? It's hard to think of the demons cause as justified because, hello?, it's demons we are talking about here. But I think they have some very valid points and its hard to discredit them from rebelling.
Both of you bring up very good points. One thing I thought was interesting was the fact that, like you said, the demons all had differing opinions instead of all having the "all hell let loose" kind of attitude. I think these types of opinions came from the combination of fear and respect of god. Belial was the topic of my conversation on Monday and we all observed the same thing that he did not want to go on the offensive and stay calm and cool, throwing out the idea that god might lessen his punishment if they were to stay put and continue to make due with what they have. I don't know about you guys but this book made me have a totally different opinion on ALL demons, and that they are not all evil and have the same evil plans as one another. I find it interesting that some demons can be compared to humans and some cannot.
ReplyDeleteWhen we talked about God in class I remember us saying that we thought he was strict but just. This made me think of Heaven in the terms of how Utopia was described in the book Utopia. It would seem that if everyone followed the rules and didn’t do anything else, everything would be fine, but since Satan and his followers diverted from the rules they were sent to Hell. Because the devils weren’t stripped of everything, they still had their powers; I don’t see God in a negative light. I think that someone who is punishing with intent to hurt and humiliate would have done a lot worse than just send then to Hell. This also brings up the question of why didn’t God give then a worse punishment?
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