English Literature 12

Notes: February 20, 2006
review of last class:
 -epic/extended simile- ‘big and long’ comparison, Greek stuff, etc.
 -Satan and Beelzebub went on a tour around hell
 -’mission statement’: take everything, even good, and turn it in to evil
 -Beelzebub- “What’s the good if God is going to win anyway?”
 -if Beelzebub was in charge, would things not be as bad?
 -Milton’s purpose- ‘to justify the ways of God to man…”
the actual story is about 10 books long- we’re just reading an excerpt
ln. 220 on….
 - Satan gets up….ln. 230 another epic simile describing how broad and mighty in stature he is…he flies
 - he takes the tour, gets to where he wants to be, and says (ln. 245), ‘is this what we get in exchange for what we used to have?’… ‘Farthest from him (being God) is best’
 - ln. 254: in his mind he can make this seem better than heaven or vice versa
 - it doesn’t matter where we are, so long as I am who I am (ln. 256)
 - it’s better to be in hell, because here we are free from God (ln. 258)
 - ^ the whole reason why he rebelled
 - ln 263: it’s better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven
 - the end of what we have to read for the exam:
 - ‘rallied arms’: all the people of hell
 - going to try to take over heaven again, and if he loses, nothing is really lost, because hell isn’t that great anyway

Rest of the story:
 - they build a city… it’s called Pandemonium (utter chaos… capital of hell)
 - do some more scheming
 - Satan decides to go up to the Earth
 - gets in and sees Adam and Eve (two naked people)
 - he gets jealous because they’re really happy
 - goes back down to hell and tells his friends
 - puts on a disguise as a snake… and you can find the rest in Genesis