Lecture 11 - The Miltonic Simile << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

Milton's characteristic use of simile is explored in Books One and Two of Paradise Lost. Particular attention is paid to how Milton's similes work to support, undermine, and complicate both the depiction of Satan and the broader thematic concerns of the poem, such as the ideas of free will and divine providence. The critical perspectives of Geoffrey Hartman and Stanley Fish are incorporated into an analysis of Satan's shield and spear and the simile of the leaves.

Reading assignment:

John Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. (Hughes):
Re-read Paradise Lost, Books I and II, focusing on the similes

Additional reading:
Hartman, Geoffrey. "Milton's Counterplot." Reprinted in Milton: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Louis L. Martz, 100-108. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1966. (On the similes)
Fish, Stanley. "Not So Much a Teaching as an Intangling." In Surprised by Sin, 22-37. Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1967. (On the similes)

For Section Discussion:
John Milton. Complete Poems and Major Prose. (Hughes):
Paradise Lost, Books I and II
Andrew Marvell's "On Paradise Lost," pp. 209-10

Class lecture:

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Resources:

Handout: The Miltonic Simile [PDF]

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