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Paradise Lost
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Othello
Though separated across centuries, all three works view women through the lens of male desire. In all three, women, though not entirely without power, exist primarily to fulfill male or patriarchal...
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Beowulf
English literature reflects the view that civilization has declined in its morality over the centuries, even as it's made progress technologically. In Beowulf (written down around 1000 CE), the...
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Beowulf
In British literature, nature was originally regarded as threatening, but before the modern era, nature came to be associated with noble simplicity and goodness. By the turn of the 20th century,...
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Paradise Lost
New Historicism, a term most associated with Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt, puts literary texts and history in dialogue with one another, both by placing literary texts into their specific...
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Beowulf
In Beowulf and Paradise Lost, women are very powerful characters. Grendel's mother in Beowulf avenges her son's death by slaying Hrothgar's most beloved friend. The she-monster's power comes not...
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Othello
Shakespeare was a master of writing marginalized characters that are incredibly human, especially given the writing done by other playwrights during his life. Examples of this are Shylock from The...
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Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is Milton's retelling of the story of Genesis. The interpretation of the Bible found in it is generally a Calvinist one. The poem is framed as an epic, beginning with a variant of the...
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Othello
In a way, the plots of each of these texts deals with how people from different cultures interact (successfully or unsuccessfully) with one another as a result of how they view each other. It could...
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Othello
In all three of these stories, love could be said to be at the heart of the tragic events of each story. More particularly, the idea of love (defined in these stories as heterosexual love...
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Othello
The plots of all three of these works depart significantly from the military action themes of most traditional epics. Unlike the Iliad or Beowulf, we do not encounter in these works a series of...
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Othello
In Oroonoko, author Aphra Behn portrays the intrigue surrounding a love affair among royalty. After Oroonoko marries Imoinda in secret, his grandfather the king decides he wants Oroonoko's bride...
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Othello
Both Beowulf and the works about Sir Gawain function as outgrowths of oral traditions that celebrate and memorialize the heroes of a specific culture and give members of those cultures models to...
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Othello
These three stories do certainly embody a shift in emphasis towards more psychological, social and spiritual concerns. Certainly it can be said that changing attitudes about human potential and an...
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Paradise Lost
Milton first offers a partial explanation, saying that hell isn't powerful enough to hold Satan: No bounds / prescribed, No bars of hell nor all the chains / Heaped on him there . . . can hold...
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Paradise Lost
First, we should distinguish between two terms, "hero" and "protagonist." A protagonist is the most important character in a story but can be admirable or despicable or sympathetic or abhorrent. A...
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Paradise Lost
This question requires you to state your personal opinion and then support it with evidence from the text. Reread Paradise Lost and pinpoint passages in which Milton describes the devil's...
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Paradise Lost
These lines describe the angels who joined Satan in his rebellion against God and were subsequently cast into Hell. Milton asserts that these same fallen angels became the false gods worshiped by...
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Paradise Lost
Beezlebub is one of angels who joins forces with Satan in his rebellion against God and is subsequently cast into Hell. When the fallen angels convene to discuss their next plan of action, some of...
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Paradise Lost
As written in the first five lines of Paradise Lost, poet John Milton's subject is the Fall of Man and then Man’s redemption through Jesus Christ. Milton immediately informs the reader that the...
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Paradise Lost
God cast Satan out of heaven because Satan, through pride, lust, and greed, wanted to usurp God’s heavenly throne. Satan wanted to be as God at the very least, and also above God. He was full of...
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Paradise Lost
Satan was a cherub, one of God's most powerful angels, who openly rebels against God. Satan is jealous of God's omniscient status and pridefully wants to be exalted above God. Satan believes that...
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Paradise Lost
John Milton opens Paradise Lost with "The Argument," a short summary of the Book; these lines describe Man's fall into sin after Eve and Adam eat from the Tree of Forbidden Fruit. Their having...
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Paradise Lost
In Paradise Lost, if Satan is the protagonist, then the antagonist in the poem is God. Why is this so? It is because God stands in the way of Satan’s devious plans. God is the righteous being who...
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Paradise Lost
It can be argued quite effectively that the law and morality are depicted as being in conflict with one another in Milton's Paradise Lost. Two examples that can be drawn out to illustrate this...
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Paradise Lost
In the opening of Paradise Lost, Satan and his horde have already been thrown out of heaven and landed in hell. They find themselves imprisoned with the Lake of Fire. When they get their wits about...
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Paradise Lost
This issue has been debated for several centuries among literary critics. In one sense, one could argue that Paradise Lost is not written in the form of either a tragedy or an heroic epic, and thus...
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Paradise Lost
The main theme of Paradise Lost by poet John Milton is the rejection of God’s Laws. This epic work deals with Satan’s rejection of God’s Law and Satan’s subsequent expulsion to earth where...
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Paradise Lost
If you notice the link I have provided below you will see one of the many references to the point made in your question. Milton, being a strict Calvinist, looked at the world in a very structured...
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Paradise Lost
In Paradise Lost, John Milton uses the cormorant as a symbol for Satan. A cormorant is a medium to large sized dark seabird. They are known for their long necks, which help them dive down into the...
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Paradise Lost
Satan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is quite full of himself. After all, anyone with an ego large enough to challenge the Supreme Creator has to have quite the nerve, right? For his part, Satan is...
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Paradise Lost
Possessing a Renaissance love for the beauty of language, the musicality of poetry, and even music itself, in Paradise Lost John Milton expresses a Puritan interest in God's dealings with man as...
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Paradise Lost
An answer as to which Book in Milton's epic poem is the most important is going to be a matter of opinion. All of them are equally important and it's hard to make a case for one being more...
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Paradise Lost
Any analysis of lines 120- 160 in Book I Paradise Lost has to center on the basic discussion between Satan and Beelzebub. I think that one of the most significant aspects of this in lines 120- 160...
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Paradise Lost
In lines 120 - 160 of the first book of Paradise Lost by John Milton, we see several themes. A major one is that of despair versus hope. (Some Christians believed that despair was an unforgivable...
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Paradise Lost
Perhaps the most powerful literary device employed by John Milton in the first book of Paradise Lost is that of symbolism. For example, the image of any being falling from the great height of...
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Paradise Lost
In broadest of senses, Milton's purpose in Paradise Lost is to “justify the ways of God to men.” He seeks to explain why Satan is seen as the cause of evil within human beings. Exploring and...
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Paradise Lost
In Paradise Lost, the epic poem doesindicate that rationality and faith do often seem to be contending with each other. Here are some examples; 1. In Book 1, Milton talks of Man’s disobedience...
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Paradise Lost
Milton's Paradise Lost certainly focuses a great deal on Satan's perspective. In so much as the text reflects Satan's perspective, we can certainly see the text portraying God the Father as the...
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Paradise Lost
The roles are not as clear cut as this. Although some scholars will disagree, Milton did draw Satan's character as something more complicated than simply a despicable villain. In fact, Satan is...
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Paradise Lost
Satan is arguably the most interesting, perhaps the most sympathetic, character in Paradise Lost (1667 in 10 books; 1674 in 12 books). Although Milton casts him as the antagonist against Adam and...
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Paradise Lost
Setting is extremely important to Paradise Lost as a whole. The poem rests on the contrasts between the great stages of Heaven and Hell with the young Earth in between. Heaven is all light, purity...
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Paradise Lost
This is Sin's address to Satan when he encounters her at the gates of Hell. Although she is monstrous, being half-woman and half scaly-animal, her diction is eloquent, as seen in this passage. She...
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Paradise Lost
This passage is from Book I of Paradise Lost which begins in media res as do the Greek classics after a brief proposal of Man's disobedience and the loss of the paradise of Eden, with the mention...
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Paradise Lost
This is a fascinating debate that has caused debate since its publication about how precisely readers are supposed to assess it and what meanings they are to take from it. On the one hand, it is...
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Paradise Lost
The snake is "the subtlest beast of all the field", or the most clever animal. As such, the devil possesses the serpent, using it as a vehicle to talk with and tempt Eve. The most commonly...
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Paradise Lost
When meaning is unclear, it is important to analyze a quotation in context with the rest of the text [I've inserted the whole contextual quote above]. You must ask questions like: Who is speaking?...
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Paradise Lost
In Book I, Hell is described as a fiery prison. Satan is thrown into Hell, in "Adamantine" (inflexible) chains and "penal" (punishing) fire, chained on a burning lake. As Satan views his...
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Essay Lab
Well, it seems like you have a bit of thinking to do, even before thinking about the research itself. Let's see if we can get you on the way to the best choice. Existing knowledge is a good basis...
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Paradise Lost
This is an interesting question and, in answering it, it must be recognized that Milton introduced some of the social biases of his period into his descriptions of Adam and Eve, their relationship...