Seductive Evil in Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
Some have criticized Paradise Lost for its sympathetic portrayal of Satan as a heroic and appealing character. At times, Satan’s actions seem somewhat justified: he considers himself to be an innocent victim, suffering alienation once exiled from Heaven. This begs the question: why is Milton’s Satan not more obviously "evil"? Why has the stereotypical, red, horned "Devil" been replaced by a somewhat sympathetic, fallen angel? Does this imply that Paradise Lost failed at its task of moral education, or that perhaps Milton’s own understanding of evil was ambiguous, unclear or incomplete?
Milton’s just, merciful and redemptive God
William Empson’s book Milton’s God is an account of Paradise Lost that associates God with a Stalinist tyrant (146). The primary association for this understanding is located in Empson’s critique of Milton’s God as a "neurotic parent" (116) who exposes his children to certain temptation, and ultimately orchestrates their Fall. For this author, it appears that in releasing Satan (Empson 112), God assures the Fall of humankind in order to "save" it, and in this way is a harsh tyrant who enslaves His human creations to serve His own narcissism. (Empson 39)
Aristotelian contributions to New Criticism
New Criticism is primarily focused on the dialogue between the author, the work itself and the reader. It centers, however, upon the notion of a work as a separate entity for critical consideration, unlike the traditional Romantic approach in which the poet was the emphasis, and unlike the Empirical tradition in which the emphasis was placed on the reader and his interpretation of a work. Yet can New Criticism’s critical method, a preoccupation with isolated textual (as opposed to historical, psychological, biographical or contextual) analysis, be attributed to a Platonic or an Aristotelian history?
From Amazons to Wives: The gendered difficulties of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and its Classical foundations
Though many have historically criticized Shakespeare’s early play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as shoddily written, re-examination of the text over the last several decades has leant new prestige to this entertaining ‘classic’. Most scholars agree that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a light and frivolous accompaniment to the celebration of a wedding; and while the historical identity of the couple for whom it was written has escaped the knowledge of his students, there is ample textual evidence to support this claim. The main plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream involves the complex machinations of two couples (Helena and Demetrius and Hermia and Lysander) whose romantic cross purposes are further complicated by their flight into the woods and into the realm of the faerie King and Queen (Oberon and Titania) who themselves are engaged in domestic battle. The play contains some of the usual ‘lighter’ themes common to Shakespearean literature such as love, dreams and the creative imagination. It is love however, that causes the most difficulties for Shakespeare’s hapless characters. This sentiment leads to confusion, escape, intrigue and a great many laughs for the audience. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the quintessential comedy using misunderstanding and circumstance to create a scene that becomes incrementally absurd as to produce nothing but laughter.
Marked by a Kiss: Sexual Perversions and the real identify of the Spider Woman
Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spider Woman consists almost entirely of extended dialogue shared between the two main characters of the novel, Molina and Valentin, who are two prisoners in a seedy Argentinean prison in the late sixties. Molina is a middle aged man who was incarcerated for his corruption of the youth, clever language to explain that he had been arrested for being homosexual, who passes his time recounting and modifying his favourite films as stories for his fellow prisoners. Valentin is a young, middle-class, and involved in the heated political struggle for the Argentina of the period. Both men develop a strange and close bond under the oppressive forces of incarceration that eventually lead each to their own demise. Manuel Puig’s novel, however, is so much more than a pithy love story.