Name: FERNANDA TEIXEIRA BRAGANÇA
Publication date: 05/06/2023
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ELAINE CRISTINE SARTORELLI | Examinador Externo |
| LAVINIA SILVARES | Examinador Externo |
| LENI RIBEIRO LEITE | Presidente |
Summary: Paradise Lost (1667) is a biblical epic written by the English poet and political figure John
Milton. It provides a wide arena to question and discuss theological, philosophical and political
issues present in literary works of the 17th century Early Modern period. We analyse Satan’s
heroism and question certain attributes commonly associated with the representation of virtue
and vice. We take into account which aspects traditionally employed in the formation of
classical heroism, as given by Nagy (2017), Curtius (1979) and Toohey (2004), are used in the
construction of Satan’s character. We examine how an idea of heroism is undermined in face
of the theme of the poem and the qualities of a Christian hero, as they are described by Lewalski
(1966). We focus on books I and II, which are paramount in first establishing the dynamics
between Satan and the narrator with regards to the formation of Satan’s character. Stanzas that
indicate the kind of narrative and interpretation of Satan’s character that the narrator promotes
are pointed out, as well as speeches 1.84-124 & 2.430-466 as examples of the kind of éthos that
Satan promotes. We argue that Satan’s character is built via a complex combination of
mechanisms seen in forming a specific kind of éthos through speech, but also through
interventions from the narrator that destabilise the impression of heroism and leadership upheld
by Satan. In this dynamic, both Satan and the narrator have uneven access to certain stages of
discourse organisation: Satan tends more towards mechanisms found in inventio, dispositio and
elocutio, whereas the narrator dominates actio. The rhetorical devices that pertain to each of
those stages are described in epideictic manuals such as Menander’s Peri epideiktikon,
Hermogenes’ Peri ideon, and Fraunce’s The Arcadian Rhetorike, which accounts for the proper
use of voice and action in speech. At last, we support the idea that the presence of heroic
qualities in the formation of Satan’s character allows for the reader to question certain attributes
which are generally seen as virtuous; it also enables different types of approach to the Miltonian
poem and to Satan’s role therein, both of which enrich the general reading experience of the
poem.
Satan. John Milton. Paradise Lost. Éthos. Epideictic rhetoric.
