Life of John Milton Essay Example for Free

Life of John Milton Essay Milton continued to write poetry during this period of study: his Arcades and Comus were both commissioned for masques composed for noble patrons, connections of the Egerton family, and performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively. Comus argues for the virtuousness of temperance and chastity. He contributed his pastoral elegy Lycidas to a memorial collection for one of his Cambridge classmates. Drafts of these poems are preserved in Milton’s poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript because it is now kept at Trinity College, Cambridge. Family Milton and his first wife, Mary Powell (1625–1652) had four children: * Anne (born 7 July 1646) * Mary (born 25 October 1648) * John (16 March 1651 – June 1652) * Deborah (2 May 1652 – ?) Mary Powell died on 5 May 1652 from complications following Deborahs birth. Miltons daughters survived to adulthood, but he had always a strained relationship with them. On 12 November 1656, Milton was married again, to Katherine Woodcock. She died on 3 February 1658, less than four months after giving birth to a daughter, Katherine, who also died. Milton married for a third time on 24 February 1662, to Elizabeth Mynshull (1638–1728), the niece of Thomas Mynshull, a wealthy apothecary and philanthropist in Manchester. Despite a 31-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according to John Aubrey, and was to last more than 11 years until Miltons death. (A plaque on the wall of Mynshulls House in Manchester describes Elizabeth as Miltons 3rd and Best wife.) Two nephews, John Phillips and Edward Phillips, were well known as writers. They were sons of Miltons sister Anne. John acted as a secretary, and Edward was Miltons first biographer. Blindness But in the course of his work for the government, his eyesight had begun to fail, and by 1651 (43) he was completely blind. Death He ended his days in a small house near Bunhill Fields, alone with his wife and a maid. He died in ++1674 (66) without pain or emotion, according to testimony at the time no one in the room noticing his passing. - Published poetry Milton is the author of dramas such as Samson Agonistes (1671) as well as lyrical sonnets, of which the finest were in fact inspired the the death of his second wife. Altogether John Milton would write twenty- three sonnets. In a very real sense therefore these can be considered as exceptions. He uses such moments to express his thoughts and feelings on specific events, historical or personal. In his lifetime, moreover, he was mainly known for his political pamphlets. As a poet during the age of Shakespeare, he was born less than a decade after the death of this one. Milton might have been less appealing than such a master of the English language but he was nonetheless destined to become one of the best writers England would ever know. Having sided with the parliamentarians against the monarchists, Milton would begin a political career with responsibilities comparable to that today of an undersecretary of state for foreign affairs. However the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 will mean that he is both fined and imprisoned in the famous still standing today Tower of London. Eventually pardoned, Milton would from then on lead a rather retired life devoted entirely to writing until his death in 1674. Miltons poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was On Shakespear (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of Shakespeare. In the midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government, Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise the 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print, until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667. Paradise Lost Main article: Paradise Lost Milton’s magnum opus, the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost, was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition) with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution, yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the Good Old Cause.[31] Milton followed up Paradise Lost with its sequel, Paradise Regained, published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes, in 1671. Both these works also resonate with Milton’s post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition of Paradise Lost, accompanied by an explanation of why the poem rhymes not and prefatory verses by Marvell. Milton republished his 1645 Poems in 1673, as well a collection of his letters and the Latin pr olusions from his Cambridge days. A 1668 edition of Paradise Lost, reported to have been Miltons personal copy, is now housed in the archives of theUniversity of Western Ontario. Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, changed into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgils Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification.[1] The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eveby the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Miltons purpose, stated in Book I, is to justify the ways of God to men.[2] Paradise Lost is widely considered one of the greatest literary works in the English language.[3] The poem begins strong as follows: Of Mans first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe (with loss of Eden, till one greater Man restore us, and regain the blissful seat) Some of the famous verses from Paradise Lost include: The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n. The context of this passage is that of Satan not yet really considering revenge. At that point he is instead deciding to make the most of the situation. This is confirmed only a few lines later when he makes the very famous utterance: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav’n. The following quote is from a point in the work when God is talking with his son and angels about the fact that since angels and man were given free will, it would have been meant changing their nature to have intervened and prevented their sin: The first sort by their own suggestions fell, Self-tempted, self-depraved: man falls deceived By the other first: man therefore shall find grace, The other none Finally, let us consider the following quote where Milton tells us about Eve having been deceived: Greedily she engorged without restraint, And knew not eating death; It interesting to note that even though Paradise Lost was to become considered as a major influential work, it did not meet immediate success when it was first published in 1667. It was not until 1688, a little over ten years after Milton’s death that the poem would start to be widely recognized. Perhaps such late recognition has partly to do with the fact that by the time of his death Milton was not only broke, but he had been alienated out of intellectual life in his own country. In 1670 he would publish his controversial The History of Britain, and in 1671 Paradise Regained, dealing with the temptation of Christ. Milton would die in London on November 8 1674. The same year would appear the second edition of Paradise Lost. - Characters Satan Satan is the first major character introduced in the poem. Formerly the most beautiful of all angels in Heaven, hes a tragic figure who describes himself with the now-famous quote Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven. He is introduced to Hell after he leads a failed rebellion to wrestle control of Heaven from God. Satans desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be subjugated by God and his Son, claiming that angels are self-begot, self-raised,[4] thereby denying Gods authority over them as their creator. Adam Adam is the first human created by God. Though initially alone, Adam demands a mate from God. Considered Gods prized creation, Adam, along with his wife, rules over all the creatures of the world and reside in the Garden of Eden. He is more intelligent and curious about external ideas than Eve. He is completely infatuated with Eve, which while pure in and of itself, eventually contributes to his reasons for joining Eve in disobedience to God. Eve Eve is the second human created by God, taken from one of Adams ribs and shaped into a female form of Adam. In her innocence, she is the model of a good wife, graceful and submissive to Adam. Though happy, she longs for knowledge and, more specifically, self-knowledge. Her first act in existence is to turn away from Adam and look at and ponder her own reflection. Eve is extremely beautiful and thoroughly in love with Adam, though may feel suffocated by his constant presence. One day, she convinces Adam that it would be good for them to split up and work different parts of the Garden. In her solitude, she is tempted by Satan to sin against God. Adam shortly follows along with her. The Son of God The Son of God is the spirit that will become Jesus Christ, though he is never named explicitly, since he has not yet entered human form. The Son of God shares total union with God, and indeed is understood to be a person of the Godhead, along with the Father and the Spirit. He is the ultimate hero of the epic and infinitely powerful, singlehandedly defeating Satan and his followers when they violently rebel against God and driving them into Hell. The Son of God tells Adam and Eve about Gods judgment after their sin. However, he sacrificially volunteers to eventually journey to the World, become a man himself, and redeem the Fall of Man through his own death and resurrection. In the final scene, a vision of Salvation through the Son of God is revealed to Adam by Michael. Still, the name, Jesus of Nazareth, and the details of Jesus story are not depicted in the poem.[7] God the Father God the Father is the creator of Heaven, Hell, the World, and of everyone and everything there is. He desires glory and praise from all his creations. He is an all-powerful, all-knowing, infinitely good being who cannot be overthrown by even the great army of angels Satan incites against him. The poem begins with the purpose of justifying the ways of God to men, so God often converses with the Son of God concerning his plans and reveals his motives regarding his actions. The poem portrays God’s process of creation in the way that Milton believed it was done, that God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of Himself, not out of nothing.[8] Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God derives from his being the author of creation. Satan tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-creation, but he admits to himself this is not the case, and that God deserved no such return/ Fr om me, whom He created what I was.[9][10] Raphael Raphael is an angel who is sent by God to warn Adam about Satans infiltration of Eden and to warn him that Satan is going to try to curse Adam and Eve. He also has a lengthy discussion with the curious Adam regarding creation and events which transpired in Heaven. Michael Michael is a mighty archangel who fought for God in the Angelic War. In the first battle, he wounds Satan terribly with a powerful sword that God designed to even cut through the substance of angels. After Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, God sends the angel Michael to visit Adam and Eve. His duty is to escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise. But before this happens, Michael shows Adam visions of the future which cover an outline of the Bible, from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, up through the story of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Interpretation and criticism The Creation of Man, engraving from the 1688 edition, by John Baptist Medina The writer and critic Samuel Johnson wrote that Paradise Lost shows off [Miltons] peculiar power to astonish and that [Milton] seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that Nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others: the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful.

free speech -- essays research papers

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION--SPEECH AND PRESS Adoption and the Common Law Background Madison's version of the speech and press clauses, introduced in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789, provided: ''The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.''1 The special committee rewrote the language to some extent, adding other provisions from Madison's draft, to make it read: ''The freedom of speech and of the press, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and consult for their common good, and to apply to the Government for redress of grievances, shall not be infringed.''2 In this form it went to the Senate, which rewrote it to read: ''That Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and consult for their common good, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.''3 Subsequently, the religion clauses and th ese clauses were combined by the Senate.4 The final language was agreed upon in conference. Debate in the House is unenlightening with regard to the meaning the Members ascribed to the speech and press clause and there is no record of debate in the Senate.5 In the course of debate, Madison warned against the dangers which would arise ''from discussing and proposing abstract propositions, of which the judgment may not be convinced. I venture to say, that if we confine ourselves to an enumeration of simple, acknowledged principles, the ratification will meet with but little difficulty.''6 That the ''simple, acknowledged principles'' embodied in the First Amendment have occasioned controversy without end both in the courts and out should alert one to the difficulties latent in such spare language. Insofar as there is likely to have been a consensus, it was no doubt the common law view as expressed by Blackstone. ''The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is im... ... of the First Amendment preclude the notion that its purpose was to give unqualified immunity to every expression that touched on matters within the range of political interest. . . . 'The law is perfectly well settled,' this Court said over fifty years ago, 'that the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, were not intended to lay down any novel principles of government, but simply to embody certain guaranties and immunities which we had inherited from our English ancestors, and which had from time immemorial been subject to certain well-recognized exceptions arising from the necessities of the case. In incorporating these principles into the fundamental law there was no intention of disregarding the exceptions, which continued to be recognized as if they had been formally expressed.' That this represents the authentic view of the Bill of Rights and the spirit in which it must be construed has been recognized again and again in cases that have come here within the last fifty years.'' Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 521-522, 524 (1951) (concurring opinion). The internal quotation is from Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U.S. 275, 281 (1897).

The Scarlet Letter Creative Assignment Paper

Various Hester Prynne Diary Entries June 14th, 1641 This morning I awake in the prison, waiting for guards to take me to the market place. Pearl and my fate will be decided very soon and I am shaking with anxiety. What will become of us? Will it be that the people see the need of the death punishment? Perhaps they will take dear Pearl away from me! Oh I am trembling with fear. Pearl is sleeping in the corner and she is the most beautiful sight I've seen. Here comes the guards†¦ I pray to the father that Pearl and I can live through tonight. Hester PrynneJune 16th, 1641 I have been sentenced to 3 hours on the scaffold while the whole town gawked and spoke gossip about me. I also must wear the mark of the Scarlet Letter upon my breast for the rest of my life. The day of the sentence, I saw Roger in the crowd†¦ Oh the poor man, what have I done! He visited me yesterday in the prison as well. I was wary that he was going to hurt Pearl or myself. He sure is itching for some reve nge from the father. I didn't disclose who it was but he seemed pretty intent on finding out himself. Oh I pray he never finds out.In the meanwhile, I will be living on the edge of the forest doing various needlework jobs for people in order to keep my head above water. Hester Prynne August 3rd, 1641 Pearl becomes more brilliant each day. Often times I think about her name and how much it means to me. â€Å"Pearl†, as in bought with a great price – my only treasure. With such a sin that I committed, I was given such a lovely child whom I adore with every ounce of my heart. I make sure that I dress Pearl in majestic and ornamented clothing. She radiates love and beauty wherever she is. Once of the first things Pearl really noticed in this world, was the dreaded letter.Why must she be so intrigued by this symbol of pain that I must bear? Hester Prynne March 25th, 1642 Today Pearl and I took a trip to the Governor's Hall. The mansion was furnished so fancy and ornately. C olorful tapestries hung on the walls as well as portraits and armor and mirrors. The governor questioned whether I was capable of raising a child with all that I have done. I told him I would teach Pearl everything I have learned by wearing the Scarlet Letter and that it would be sufficient. When Pearl told them that I plucked her off of a rose-bush, it did not help their consciousness.I pleaded my case over and over and finally Mr. Dimmesdale came to my rescue. I knew he would stick up for me considering the circumstances†¦ All that matters is I'm back home tonight with Pearl. Hester Prynne June 7th, 1648 I cannot bear to stand what Roger is doing to Dimmesdale. He is mentally and emotionally destroying the man. Oh the guilt, and sorrow that must plague him. I have escaped this easily. I have been forward about the sin on my part. Whereas he must pretend nothing has ever happened and let it eat away at his consciousness. Oh the poor man. I wish I could do something to help! He ster PrynneJuly 18th, 1648 Dimmesdale is looking worse and worse. I ran into him in the woods today by the brook. We've concluded that we should run away. We could start a new life back in London and wash away all remnants of this life. We could change our names, and I could dispose of this letter. I will start to make plans. I really hope Pearl warms up to him. The girl knows nothing but her mother and the letter. She was mighty apprehensive when I took the letter off today. It's such a shame she finds comfort in that, for it felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulder. She will warm up to him and me, I know it. Hester Prynne

Marriage Essay - 492 Words

Marriage Marriage is a complicated institution. It is a contract for a relationship, which in the past has often been ending up in a divorce. This is different from other decades. In the United States between forty and fifty percent of Americans will end up divorcing (Crawford Unger, 2000). Now, the question is - what is going on with married couples, and with marriage in general? There is no simple answer for that, but all the changes in the world in the past years could be part of the answer. Society has changed its mentality in a lot of ways, and one of them is the acceptance of divorce as a normal way to end an unhappy relationship. People marry each other for love most of the time; they want to share a life†¦show more content†¦Sometimes they choose to go on alone, though men are more likely to have a more difficult adjustment to divorce than do women (Crawford Unger, 2000). People believe that a marriage becomes happier when children come, but a lot of the conflicts that lea d to the failure of the contract happen after the honeymoon period, which usually ends right after the first childs birth. The marriage usually demands more work, more responsibilities, and requires more emotional assets. The reasons for the disagreements are different for every couple, but most of them occur because women end up having to perform more roles than men, and end up sometimes having no time to talk to their husbands, or are only more stressed. Marriage usually gets better after the kids grow up and are more self sufficient, giving the parents more time to enjoy each other in a more relaxed way (Carlson Buskist, 1997). Even though most couples will not wait until the good old days to come back, I see marriage as more positive today than in the past. People are getting married later, because they are in love, and know that they can always end the relationship if they are not satisfied. Before, couples went through hell together but would not, or could not get divorced. People also remarrying more than they used to, searching for another partner to share their lives, and in some times finding happiness with the second or third partner, which is very positive ifShow MoreRelatedMarriage Between Marriage And Marriage1441 Words   |  6 PagesMarriage is universal, in the sense that no matter where you go in the world there is marriage. The meaning of marriage might be different but it still exists everywhere. Marriage would be so much healthier and happier with a marriage contract signed and agreed between both parties. Many people commonly have a misconception of what a marriage contract really is. 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