Though I Walk Through the Valley...

Adam and Eve Driven Out of Paradise, by John Martin (1824)

In Surprised by Sin, Stanley Fish proposes that Milton's narrative within Paradise Lost centers around the movement of the reader's consciousness rather than the movement of the plot itself. The story is not so much a story of Satan or God or even of Adam and Eve; rather, it is the story of the reader. It is the story of how how we came to our fallen condition, and at each turn, it invites us to look at the Fall from a different perspective: first from Satan's perspective, then from God's, then from Adam and Eve's, and so forth through a number of iterations. Thus, it invites the reader to examine his own 'fallen condition,' to come to terms with the reality that the hero of the epic--Satan--is really just another manifestation of man, in all his frailty. In short, by walking through hell and the fall, we come to understand what it means to be fallen and what brought us to such a state. It is revealing, then to realize, that Milton's Paradise Regained tells the story of Christ's victory over temptation in the wilderness. It would seem that Milton sees the Fall of man as being founded in ambition/pride and man's redemption, in the victory of Christ, independent of anything that we might do to try to merit salvation. I'll have to look more into Milton's views on salvation, but his denunciation of Antinomians in his political tracts seems to coincide with this idea of salvation by the grace of Christ alone.

Lucifer Incarnate?

In his recent post, Greg claims that Lucifer was (consciously and/or unconsciously) writing autobiographically through the person of Lucifer in Paradise Lost. It's hard to miss the parallels between Milton's political tracts and Lucifer's speeches, so it's not surprising that Greg and others have come to this conclusion. However, I would argue - as I said in the comment section of Greg's post - that these parallels are, in the very least, Milton's attempt to explore how his generally virtuous rhetoric was turned to vicious ends during the Interregnum. Following this line of thought, I figured Cromwell to be the most likely counterpart to Paradise Lost's Lucifer. At present, I'm investigating the parallels between Cromwell and Lucifer. Evidence in favor of this view is already starting to stack up.

In upcoming posts, I expect I'll explore these topics further. For now, here are a few obvious parallels:

1. The early careers of both Lucifer and Cromwell are marked by positive notoriety.
2. Both figures proclaimed their intentions to be exclusively in the interest of liberty.
3. While Cromwell's rhetoric may have began in earnest and Lucifer most certainly did not, both persons became more despotic than the monarchs they railed against once they gained power.

I should note that I don't think Milton intends this to be a simple Cromwell = Lucifer construct, but that he pulls extensively from Cromwell's character and career in creating Lucifer. In general, I think Lucifer (in PL) represents in aggregate those who, in one way or another, perverted the virtues that Milton espoused in his political writing.

Also, I watched an interesting biographical documentary produced by the BBC (above). If you were in class on Monday, many bits of info from the documentary will be old news, but I thought it offered some interesting detail about Cromwell as Lord Protectorate. Watch the first few minutes, and then jump to 26:00 if you don't have time for the whole thing.

|t r u t h b e n t| or Satan: all in one and one in all

There is a lot to say about Milton's depiction of those darn devils. I think its interesting that Milton uses rhetoric with them, in their speeches and claims as to what should be done, but a lot of times their rhetoric and persuasions are contradictory. For instance when Moloch is speaking, he is lauding that they should rally and attempt to regain Heaven again whether they won or were completely destroyed, that Moloch "rather than be less, cared not to be at all" (l.47-48).

Moloch's POV reminds me a lot of the Lamanites in the Book of Mormon and how they twisted history to better fit and justify what they wanted to do. Look at what you did to us! This was definitely not our fault so we're going to make life as miserable as we can for your people and drag as many of you down with us as possible. Not to mention, hold a grudge for all eternity. And yet just shortly after Moloch's spiel, Belial stands up and says referring to the end of their war, "What when we fled amain...and besought the deep to shelter us?" l.165-167. So in one instance they were thrust down to Hell and another they fled headlong to its "sheltering" darkness.

Things start to get messy when it is like this - with the different representations we begin to lose sight of what is truth and lead ourselves to believe that everything is relative and subject to what we personally want or feel we deserve (as with the Lamanites, as with the devils, as with humanity a whole lot of the time.)

After noting these things and continuing to wonder, the daily inspiring quote I receive from lds.org pinged in my inbox and, honest to goodness, this is what it said. 

"We believe in absolute truth, including the existence of God and the right and wrong established by His commandments. ... We also know that evil exists and that some things are simply, seriously, and everlastingly wrong." Elder Dallin H. Oaks

If that doesn't lay out what we believe and where Satan is wrong, I don't know what does. So what is Milton's point?

Ethos in Milton's Psalm 114

So while I was rereading Milton's sonnets of the Psalms, I noticed that Milton seems to use ethos as his primary device in making his appeal for God, especially in Psalm 114. While pathos and logos are definitely also present in the text, Milton writes "Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown, / His praise and glory were in Israel shown (5-6)." In the line before the author references the "strength of the Almighty's hand (4)" as the reason for the Israelite's success, and later we find allusions to God's divine power in the earthquakes and floods referenced in the original psalm.

While these could definitely be interpreted as logos, pathos, or a combination of the three, I think these aren't used an emotional or purely logical appeal, but instead a testament from Milton's point of view of God's very real divine powers. Milton is in a sense building a bit of a resume for God, writing up the miracles of Biblical times and pointing out a very practical reason He should be revered and worshipped.

I'm interested to see if this pops up in Paradise Lost and Milton's other religious works, and I'll look forward to spotting it in the future. This is a great version of the poem, and has some pretty handy footnotes as well.

Righteous Hypocrite

It's been so interesting to see how Milton uses rhetoric implicitly as well as explicitly to get on the good side of his audience. In his first Prolusion he even goes as far as to state the rules:

It is a frequent maxim of the most eminent masters of rhetoric, as you know well, Members of the University, that in every style of oration, whether demonstrative, deliberative, or judicial, the speaker must begin by winning the good will of his audience; without it he cannot make any impression upon them, nor succeed as he would wish in his cause. If this be so (and, to tell the truth, I know that the learned are all agreed in regarding it as an established axiom), how unfortunate I am and to what a pass am I brought this day. At the very outset of my oration I fear I shall have to say something contrary to all the rules of oratory and be forced to depart from the first and chief duty of an orator. For how can I hope for your good-will, when in all this great assembly I encounter none but hostile glances, so that my task seems to be to placate the implacable?

In expressing that he is more humble than those who have the fortune to win their audience, he does not patronize his audience, therefore, ironically, winning their trust. It is Milton's use of what he outwardly condemns that I feel completely characterizes him as one of the greatest authors of all time. It is this characteristic that leads me to the question, is Milton's condemnation of what he uses hypocrisy if it is for a "righteous" cause?

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasion

Does rhetoric have to be words? After reading Dr. Burton's paper and exploring a bit this was the thought that occurred to me. We don't just persuade people with our words, right? My moment of "oh, I landed on something good!" shriveled up when I realized that the etymology of the word rhetoric is literally "art of an orator." So much for that idea.

As I was moving on to find another interesting bit to post about, my mind flickered back, "well, then, what is it? Where does the visual fit in?" As we delve further and further into our digital/visual age, the argument appears - do images, visual presentation, and object placement have a place within the hallowed halls of Rhetoric? 

That could be a whole essay in and of itself, but I want to discuss more of the practical effects of such a notion. 

We are up to our eyebrows in the Digital Age. We've been discussing the ramifications of a changing society in my class on mass communications and media literacy - a society more familiar and satisfied with the 140 characters of a Twitter alert, than with reading an entire news article. We are having to say the amount we've always been saying and (oftentimes more with the rate of innovation nowadays) with less. Attention has to be grabbed within the first three words or so else no one will read it. And they do say, a picture is worth a thousand words...

Milton's use of Rhetoric

So I wanted to use what I learned about rhetoric to take a look at Milton’s Prolusions 1 in a new light. I decided to find instances when Milton demonstrates the persuasive appeals, Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. While I know that in rhetoric, these appeals are used a lot and often combine together, I’ll just show a few examples when he does demonstrate these appeals.

Milton displays logos when he is arguing why Night rejected Phanes’ proposal of marriage in the legend of day and night. He looks at the reasoning, and logically discerns why Night rejected Phanes and why she preferred the security of Erebus. He shows the logic by showing Night’s nature and concerns, which then leads to her course of action.

Milton displays ethos when he talks about how we shouldn’t place our entire confidence on the poets that described Greek mythology. He then goes into the history of how such ideas have become changed and twisted. Here, Milton demonstrates a character of learning and shows that he understands the extensive history of this subject, thus assuring the reader that he knows his subject well.

Milton displays pathos when he is describing how desirable the day is to all living things. He goes into beautiful details of how the birds sing joyously of the day and he talks of all different animals that greet the day and sunshine with delight and joys. The description appeals to us in that we can understand that wondrous beauty and delight of having the sun on our faces.

Milton's prolusions show his growing strength in rhetoric and persuasive writings. These examples are just a few among the many appeals he makes in his writing. It does show to be a precursor to Paradise Lost, in which Milton has mastered the art of persuasive writing. I'm excited to see more of this persuasive writing. 

The Rhetoric of Peace, Prosperity, and War

[Copyright Duncan Hull]

Recently, some of my classmates have been posting responses to our studies of rhetoric, and I wanted to take the chance to explore the topic from a socio-historical point of view. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of human interaction, rhetoric is simply the techné of influencing other people. Thus, as Aristotle suggests, it represents neither a positive nor a negative force and can be wielded by good and evil men alike. In Gideon Burton's article, "What is Rhetoric?" the author suggests that language and, by extension, rhetoric, have served as primary facilitators in the growth of nations and the development of human civilization as a whole:

Because there has been implanted in us the power to persuade each other and to make clear to each other whatever we desire, not only have we escaped the life of wild beasts, but we have come together and founded cities and made laws and invented arts. (2)

[Copyright Traci Gardner]

This post is about rhetoric

          Nice paper, Teach!

          Disclaimer: the following blog post is not about Milton because there wasn't really a prompt...it's more about rhetoric than it is about Milton. Please enjoy anyway. 

          Style is a crucial aspect of rhetoric, but getting "the right style" in your writing doesn't always mean it's your personal style. If I had it my way, I would write in weird disconnected poetry and add dialogue/interactions that didn't actually happen, but that doesn't translate to every reader. "The right style" means a style that matches the audience you're speaking to.

          Style is totally contagious, too. With the section of this essay on analysis and genesis, I mused over the fact that when I finish a book, I almost always find that I write like the author, even if I'm not intending to. I love Palahniuk and Fight Club is my favorite book. One of my favorite "literary devices" he uses is something that, for all intents and purposes, we'll call "the callback." 

On Milton, Rhetoric, and Education