Devil, oh Devil.

What is Miltion trying to tell me?! After pondering what to write this blog post about, I’ve come the conclusion that I’m just going to attempt to answer my own questions. A few things have stood out to me. Now, I do NOT have an in depth religious background. I checked out of Sunday school around age 9.

Beezlebub questions why God banished them to hell. What was God’s plan for them? Why do they even still exist? Satan does not seem to think that this is such a bad thing. If they’re banished to hell for eternity, that must mean they don’t have to listen God anymore, right? Satan wants to think of ways to consistently anger God.

This also brought the battle of Good vs Evil to the forefront of my mind. Is the human race, in which Satan says God will create, truly be the downfall? And reign evil like, all over the world? Yes, human will sin, just as Adam and Eve did, but there are also humans so good that they’re convinced that they will be saved, despite their wrong-doings.

I also found myself rooting for Milton’s Devil. It’s like, even though he’s bound in hell, he’s still bound and determined to never bow to God’s will. That’s tenacity I have to admire.

This compilation of thoughts has led to a very random blog post.

Also, this South Park Satan is all I can picture while reading this book.

I am Lost

I am confused by Paradise Lost. When I read the epic poem, I could follow it for a while and then I would get extremely lost. Also, I would find a part where I understood again and then I would get lost again and I kept going through that vicious cycle.

I do think that I feel sorry for Satan and his followers, but I'm not entirely sure if I feel sorry for him, I'm sorry that he is in the situation. I think that sorry might be the wrong word to describe how I feel because I don’t feel any sympathy towards them or their situation; I just think that it would suck to be the king/ruler of Hell. The way that Milton described Hell, it seems miserable (kind of the point) but still. From lines 61-69 Milton describes Hell and it makes me never want to do another bad thing for fear that I might go there. Milton writes, “No light but darkness visible… And rest can never dwell, hope never comes….” There is no hope once you have entered Hell and no rest, only torture.

I think that I feel bad for Satan because he is the king of all of this darkness. Being the ruler of everything sad must be hard, especially since he has seen the wonderfulness that is Heaven, and now he is condemned to be the ruler of eternal torture.

I also don’t feel sorry for Satan because rather than accepting what he has done and hoping that one day God will forgive him and let him go back, he seeks to get revenge.  Also because he seems like he wasn’t happy in Heaven. He says “Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven,” which I took to mean that in Heaven he was in Hell, and now he’s in Hell, so he’s in the same place even though the scenery has changed a bit. Am I interpreting that right? Do you think that he is happy being in Hell?

I said all of this to say that I think that the reason that Milton told us so much about Satan before getting to Adam and Eve, was to show that everyone has a backstory and a reason for doing what they do. In Satan’s case, he is trying to get revenge on Heaven and God.

 

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven!  I don’t agree with you there, Satan.

Paradise and I are Lost

Honestly I cannot wait for our next class so we can discuss because I am quite lost. I am not one to say to myself "Religion?! I have opinions about that!!" because I am not one of a religious background and nor do I have much knowledge of religion which can also be a bummer. However, for the first time I think it is not the poetry that is throwing me off, but more so Milton's style which is also difficult for me to comment on because I do not have a firm grasp on that either. But that is the beauty of this class!!

What I did find interesting was the very beginning talking about Adam and Eve and the forbidden tree when they took the fruit and ate it even though that was the one thing that they were not supposed to do.

What I did understand here was the basic temptation of humanity and how that can bring out the worst in humans whether we like it or not, and sometimes the consequences follow us for however amount of time afterwards. Unfortunately this just happened to be "Man's first disobedience" so that's a real bummer.
The footnotes were somewhat helpful, however what was difficult was when there was something I personally needed a footnote explanation and there was none, I had to go off of context or Google!
The main theme I am gathering from Paradise Lost is that once we do lose ourselves and our good nature there is an endless misery among mankind because we tend (as imperfect humans) to give into the Serpent (Satan) and that downfall just continues to snowball and add upon itself. But we can thank Satan for that.

Hopefully in class today I can get more guidance, and maybe Paradise and I can find a way out!

Paradise Lost But My Paradise Found

I am a bit torn about how I feel about Paradise Lost so far. Along with most other people in the world, no doubt, I become very hesitant when I come face to face with a piece of poetry. Especially long poetry in the form of a book. However, it is the content itself that has me interested. I love religion. I love learning about different religions, and having debates about religion. Unlike most who squirm at the thought of talking about religion for fear of offending others and creating conflict, I actually enjoy discussing different beliefs and opinions. I think it's fascinating. So, the fact that Paradise Lost discusses Satan’s “loss of paradise” (a.k.a Heaven) after he and a large amount of his fellow Angels rebelled against God caused me to approach this reading with more of an open mind than I probably normally would have with poetry.

Paradise Lost caused me to consider things I had not thought of in a very long time. Questions continued to pop into my mind such as “Why did Satan and his followers decide to rebel against God?” and “If God is omnipotent, why did He not put an end to the rebellion or stop Eve from eating the apple before she did it?” However, Milton later reveals that God knew all along how everything was going to unfold and did not stop it because the betrayals were part of His plan creating an entire new level of fascination for me.

The title Paradise Lost also refers to Adam and Eve losing the their “paradise” on earth. In the “first act of disobedience against God”, Satan tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. His seduction led to everything bad found in the world now: death, sickness and disease, fear, and pain.

I think this is very interesting. Just the fact that an act so simple as eating an apple can cause so many problems. Just think about it, think about all the times you were tempted into doing something you knew you shouldn't have. Think about all the times you thought “It will be ok. It's nothing big. It won't matter.” That's exactly what Eve thought and look at what happened. It kind of puts things into perspective for me. It just shows that everything you do has some kind of effect on either you or those around you, even the things you think couldn't possibly make a difference in any way.

All in all, I think, just from reading the beginning of Book 1, Paradise Lost has the potential to be great and actually hold my attention. I must admit that I am excited to continue reading it.

Not Only is Paradise Lost, I'm Lost

  So, Paradise Lost is different. I'm catching some stuff about Satan and God, Heaven and Hell, all that fun stuff. I get the Adam and Eve part and then I know it goes on to describing Satan's fall into Hell, but it loses me there. He starts off by saying that it is about men's disobedience and the fruit, which brought death, and suffering into the world. Then he switches (from what I can tell) pretty quickly into discussing Satan's fall from heaven. The one description that is generally easy to understand is about the lake of fire Satan and all his followers fall into, and how it doesn't produce any light. This part also establishes that they are in a place where hope cannot exist; making it pretty clear that this is the development of hell. This is a really helpful description to develop some sort of picture of hell in my mind. The footnotes are also super helpful at some points, they help to make some sense of what I just read. Especially since there are biblical references, and references to early Christian beliefs that most Christians now wouldn't even know about. Like the note that talks about Christians believing the Greek Gods were devils in disguise, I had no idea that this was a belief ever. I wish that I could tell more what was happening because I feel like it could be really interesting. Then his sentence structure just keeps helping me not understand. I feel like I read a lot of words and they’re just words.  I know that if I really understood this I could probably spend quite a bit of time admiring his work, but right now it’s not there yet. There is very little deeper meaning when you can’t understand what is happening. It’s not a different language, but the structure and the order of words, and the general deep descriptions of things make it confusing for me. I don’t think I’ll be alone in saying that I’m confused, but I would also like to state that I do not want to go back to Middle English anytime soon.  I mean altogether I would say I'm pretty lost. 

The minute Dr. MB mentioned that it was about Satan's fall from Heaven I thought of Emperor's New Clothes and how the video fits that.

Characters In Review: Are There Any Good Ones?

I was trying to come up with an interesting blog post this week rather than just discussing our current read. Is it Measure for Measure still or are we moving on to Paradise Lost for these blog posts? Mmm... I'm not sure. So I started thinking back to all of the different characters we've read about this semester and I'm having a hard time liking any of them.

Seriously, in my opinion, there are zero good protagonists in these stories. It's kind of depressing.

We started the semester reading Beowulf. And, rightly so, we had a huge debate on whether or not he was considered heroic or if he was just an arrogant dude. The jury is still out on that one. But, as a main character, he's kind of... well, not very likable. He seems to just rush into danger like its no big thing without thinking of the consequences of his actions or how it might affect others around him.

Then we read Canterbury Tales. Oh my! This book was filled with unlikables! When we got together in class and we, as groups, had to analyze our own character, we found that most of the people we were assigned to were shady. I mean, the summoner, the pardoner, the wife of Bath, etc. etc. etc. They all didn't have any "good" qualities. Even the nun was surrounded my superiority and let's not forget Dr. MB telling us what her story was. Nuh-uh, not good at all.

There may be some debate on Dr. Faustus. But since this my blog post, I'm just going to say that I don't like him as a character either. Sure, he has his faults. Who wouldn't want knowledge of everything and incredible wealth? Sign me up! But, once you start dealing with the Devil, then you start changing from admirable to stupid. Faustus accomplished so much in his lifetime and was given so many chances to turn his predicament around but could never follow through with saving himself. Come on, dude! You're the main character and you're smart as hell! The least you could do is make some good choices nearing the end of your life instead of picking on the Pope and a bunch of peasants! SMH

Then we have Measure for Measure. I. Don't. Like. Any. Of. These. Damn. Characters! No one has a redeeming quality. No one makes me think, "I'm on your side, buddy!" Not one. Angelo is the horny hypocrite. Isabella's the self-righteous prude. Claudio's a hot mess over there in prison. The Duke is just messing up everyone's lives. And these side characters all need to work on some things.

Can someone please tell me where the "good" characters are? Are there any that we've read about thus far that has redeeming qualities that I'm not seeing? Are you with me or are you against me?