Satiation in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World
Hell is huge but it isn’t big enough. Within the text of Paradise Lost by John Milton, it is, A universe of death, which God by curse Created evil, for evil only good,Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,Abominable, inutterable, and worse… (II.622-6)There is no satiety in Hell. Eden, by comparison, is a relatively small place in Milton’s epic poem, but it seems to be an environment replete with satisfaction. Or is it? We students of experiential literature owe Milton a debt of gratitude for helping us to experience our forebears’, that is Adam and Eve’s, lack of satiation within a paradisiacal environment. This paper will explore the topic of satiety within that environment; and, along the way, discuss the concept of singularity found in Cavendish’s Blazing World for comment upon that satiation.
Milton begins at the middle of his epic with an appeal to music, a universal and fulfilling language, “Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing Heavenly Muse” (I.5-6).He immediately places us after the fall and takes us beyond sentience with an invocation to a muse, only this muse is beyond all muses and this epic is above all epics:
I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (I.12-16)
Milton establishes himself as the legitimate teller of the tale – and this tale will take us beyond the mythology of the Greeks’Aonian Mount and inoculate us against Hell’s prodigiousness. He is taking us beyond mythological or explanatory pictures of ourselves, to an area where we may bask in a greater comfort:
Taught by the Heav’nly Muse to venture down The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe,And feel thy sovran vital lamp… (III.19-22)
In her note to the reader in The Description of A New World, Called The Blazing World, it is evident that Margaret Cavendish seeks to take us beyond mere studious thoughts, to a place sated with fancy:
And this is the reason, why I added this piece of fancy to my philosophical observations, and joined them as two worlds at the ends of their poles;
both for my own sake, to divert my studious thoughts, which I employed in the contemplation thereof, and to delight the reader with variety, which is always pleasing.
During the era of 1789-1850, the South was an agricultural society. This is where tobacco, rice, sugar, cotton, and wheat were grown for economic resources. Because of labor shortage and the upkeeps of the farm to maintain the sale of merchandise property-owners purchased black people as slaves to work their agricultural estate, also low- key sharecroppers often used slave work as their resources as well. As the South developed, profits and businesses grew too, especially those expected to build up the local crops or remove natural resources. Conversely, these trades regularly hire non-landowning whites as well as slaves either claimed or chartered. With that being said, the African culture played a significant role as slaves in the south
During American colonization, the economy of the south became predominantly dependent on the tobacco plant. As the south continued to develop, they shifted their focus to cotton. Indentured servants as well as African slaves were used for these labor-intensive crops because their labor was decent and cheap (Shi and Tindall 39). Young British men were promised a life of freedom in America if they agreed to an exchange between a free voyage and labor for a fixed number of years. Many willing, able-bodied, and young men signed up with the hopes of establishing a bright future for themselves in America. Unbeknownst to them, indentured servitude was not as easy as it was made out to be. Many servants endured far worse experiences than they had ever imagined. The physical and emotional conditions they faced were horrible, their masters overworked them, and many had to do unprofessional work instead of work that enabled them to use their own personal skills. Young British men felt that because they faced such horrible circumstances, the exchange between a free voyage to America in exchange for servitude was not a proper trade.
Everybody has something they feel that makes their lives easier, something a person becomes so accustomed to they could not live without it. This is what African slaves were to the Southern colonists. Slavery was a huge factor in the Southerner’s lives. Originally the colonists used indentured servants to work in their homes and on their plantations. This situation was not ideal because the Southern farmers wanted more control over their workers (orange). Virginian farmers heard about the success of slavery in the Caribbean and thought it would be a good solution to their problems (blue). The southern colonists had a very different way of earning a living than in the north. They needed people to work through “the harsh realities of a land-rich, but labor-scarce economy…” (Purple). The plantation owners had all the land and resources, but no one to work on their grounds long term. Throughout the years 1607-1775, slavery rose as an important contributor to the South’s economy due to social, geographic and economic aspects.
Cultivating tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies required more labor and many plantation owners looked to the farmers in England desperate for employment. These
Plantation owners in the New World needed slaves for agricultural labor of their plantations. The slaves became disciplined and were forced to work in bad conditions for long hours at young ages in harsh temperatures.
The wretched living conditions were not acceptable. The plantation workers had to live in very small houses with many people. Often two families had to share a ten square foot houses. These plantation workers had to pay these small houses. They had to keep the house clean at all times even though they were barely in the room or the other family made the mess. Lastly if the plantation workers got
This epic simile portrays shockingly disgusting imagery of war and death, which are both consequences of eating the fruit of knowledge. Sin and Death, Satan’s daughter and son (who is also his Grandson) take full advantage of the Fall of Man and construct a bridge between Hell and Earth through Chaos, constructed of anything ‘Solid or slimy’. This allowed death, sin and disease to enter the world, similar to the great Greek Myth of Pandora’s box, where a woman named Pandora unleashed all the negative emotions from their captivity inside a box. Thus, showing both Milton’s classical influences and education at Christs College, Cambridge and how attitudes to women have remained constant through many centuries, from the period of the Ancient Greeks to the 1600s. Man’s disobedience would be the sole point of blame for all the wrongs in the world to Milton’s audience, not only was this a story but the events transpired. This was an easy way for the Church to explain the mass destruction caused by the Great Plague from 1665
Demand for Panera franchising opportunities was very high, which allowed Panera to be picky about where and with whom they would do business. Panera determined where bakery-café locations could be. The franchisees bore the cost of opening new locations, and were required to obtain their ingredients from the home company. Expansion using the franchise model provided many upside benefits for Panera, while limiting the downside r...
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
The epic genre has existed for centuries and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, as culture and values change so does the epic tradition. Milton played a large role in introducing the Christian worldview to the epic tradition through the epic poem Paradise Lost. Instead of continuing the tradition through humanistic values, Milton applies his faith to the epic genre and allows Christian values and truths to permeate through the text of Paradise Lost.
...lects a political standpoint, a hierarchy of social status, and the issue of authority and free will. By subtly voicing his political opinion within the characters and situations he develops a modern day understanding of government throughout the epic. In addition he portrays the importance of social status that is still influential in today’s society as well as at that time. The use of God and His role presents a scope of free will and authoritative actions that are consistent in the structure of society as well. Although Milton introduces in an obvious biblical sense at first, he provides indirect representations of social order that can still prove relevant today. Breaking down these interpretations, Milton satisfies a substantial modern idea other than religion. Paradise Lost repeatedly directs us back to the importance and influence of structure in our society.
...hen you reach the end the boy has taken a turn and instantly matures in the last sentence. Something like that doesn’t just happen in a matter of seconds. Therefore the readers gets the sense that the narrator is the boy all grown up. He is recollecting his epiphany within the story allowing the readers to realize themselves that the aspiration to live and dream continues throughout the rest of ones life. The narrator remembers this story as a transformation from innocence to knowledge. Imagination and reality clearly become two different things to the narrator; an awareness that everyone goes though at some point in their life. It may not be as dramatic as this story but it gradually happens and the innocence is no longer present.
The Panera Bread Company began in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Founded by Ron Shaich and Louis Kane, the company thrived along the east coast of the United States and internationally throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s and became the dominant operator within the bakery-café category. In the early 1990’s, Saint Louis Bread company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes were acquired by the Au Bon Pain Co. Following this purchase, the company redesigned the newly acquired company and increased unit volumes by 75%. This new concept was named Panera Bread. Top management chose to sell their previous bakery-café known as Au Bon Pain Co. due to the financial and managerial needs of Panera. In order for Panera to become the success top management visualized all resources needed to become available for Panera. Panera Bread is now the most successful bakery-café in the category in which there are currently 1,777 bakery-cafes in 45 states and in Ontario Canada (Panera Bread).
In the sources that I found about text message and teen literacy, it showed and also informed me on how teens take the next talk to the classrooms in schools and how it creates bad grammar among themselves. During my research I found out that many kids and kids use shorthanded text and it affects their literacy in so many ways. We as teens don’t think that our findings will benefit anyone unless they want to have a short knowledge in grammar. As teens we don’t really see how doing something wrong can harm us. Such as texting shorthanded, and with silly faces. It affects our literacy by not knowing how to correctly punctuate their words, grammar and speaking. In the research that I looked up, that teens send about one thousand eight hundred
With Milton’s timeframe and era for writing Paradise Lost in mind, we can justify his choice to incorporate an allegory into his epic. Allegories present meanings on two levels, one literal and the other hidden, which often expresses a moral or idea produced by the author. With this in mind, the allegory is key to understanding many parts of Paradise lots since Milton addresses so many issues in this one scene. Within the allegory alone, we discover extensive symbolism and wonder if there are more details to be uncovered each time we study the epic. Milton effectively elicits his readers’ attention by raising such controversy and holds our fascination with his intriguing hidden ideas, meanings, and symbolic relationships.