bellringer

Mini-Lesson: Paradise Lost

NAR 4.D – EXPLAIN HOW A NARRATOR’S RELIABILITY AFFECTS A NARRATIVE.

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2020

Chapters 7-10

▪ Complete the reading and annotation of Book IV from Paradise Lost. Use the text to answer the questions beneath the excerpt.

▪ John Milton's Paradise Lost was a popular work among Romantic authors, so allusions to his famous epic would not be uncommon. Poets like Lord Byron, William Blake, and Percy Bysshe Shelley included references to Paradise Lost in their own works. Most Romantic poets found a hero in Milton's Satan, praising his defiance against God as a rebellion against a political tyrant. Mary Shelley, however, uses Paradise Lost as a more complex allusion.

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost Notes

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2020

Directions: Read and annotate the excerpt from Paradise Lost included below, which describes Satan's feelings at seeing Adam and Eve created and enjoying their life in Eden. We will return to this text as we continue our study of Frankenstein. Answer the question below and on the following slide.

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost Activity

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2019

“Paradise Lost, Book IV” by John Milton

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2020

More woe, the more your taste is now of joy; Happy, but for so happy ill secured Long to continue, and this high seat your Heaven Ill fenced for Heaven to keep out such a foe As now is entered; yet no purposed foe To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn, Though I unpitied: League with you I seek, And mutual amity, so strait, so close, That I with you must dwell, or you with me Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not please, Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet such Accept your Maker's work; he gave it me, Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold, To entertain you two, her widest gates, And send forth all her kings; there will be room, Not like these narrow limits, to receive Your numerous offspring; if no better place, Thank him who puts me loth to this revenge On you who wrong me not for him who wronged.

So passed they naked on, nor shunned the sight Of God or Angel; for they thought no ill: So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest pair, That ever since in love's embraces met; Adam the goodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve... ...When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood, Scarce thus at length failed speech recovered sad. O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold! Into our room of bliss thus high advanced Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps, Not Spirits, yet to heavenly Spirits bright Little inferiour; whom my thoughts pursue With wonder, and could love, so lively shines In them divine resemblance, and such grace The hand that formed them on their shape hath poured. Ah! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh Your change approaches, when all these delights Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe;

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost Activity

2. What exactly is making Satan so upset? Is it the beauty of Adam and Eve? Their carefree attitude? Their freedom in Eden? A personal jealousy? Explain with textual support.

3. Analyze the role of the narrator. Do you find him reliable? What does he do that affects his credibility?

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2020

1. What words does Milton use to describe Satan's feelings in seeing Adam and Eve? How does it effectively humanize him?