Genesis and Paradise Lost Essay -- Religion, God, Satan, Milton

The words God speaks at the Creation are the ultimate and original speech act as narrated in Genesis and Paradise Lost, God only has to speak and the words come into effectAnd God said, Let there be light and there was light... (Genesis, 13)Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure Sprung from the deep...(VII.243)Milton inverts the arrangement of the identification of the phonate and the spoken words themselves, thus absorbing Gods voice entirely into the poetic lines.sSatan is an inveterate liar who abuses language for his own evil purposes. Satans language is Ambiguous and with double sense deluding (Paradise Regained, I.435), whereas the Sons language (and by extension Gods) enforces a kind of linguistic harmony where Thy actions to thy words accord (Paradise Regained, III.9). In Paradise Lost, Satans ambiguous words (V.703, VI.568) act as persuasive traps, replete with guile (IX.737, 733). He utters high words, that bore Sem blance of worth not substance (I.528), and it is worth boot this in mind should you be tempted to succumb to his enticing rhetoric, as Eve or, more recently the poets Shelley and Blake have been known to do Gods words are unavoidably congruent with their meaning (God is unable to lie). But while Satan lacks the power of speech acts, he has the sophistical ability to dissemble.In the beginning of Book I of Paradise Lost, true to epic convention, John Milton invokes the muse, but his muse is no less than the Holy SpiritAnd chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer sooner both Temples th upright heart and pure,Instruct me, for Thou knowst Thou from the firstWast present, and with mighty wings outspreadDove-l... ...a child whose only response from parental authority was an unsatisfying Because I said so But then such children grow up and search for their own answers.Blakes blot begins to make sense if Paradise Lost is evaluated on its poetic success and its theological failure. Milt on was a true Poet, and of the Devils party without knowing it in that his poetry unwittingly brought Satan to life while trying to destroy him. Satan, warts and all, is probably the most memorable presence in the poem and likely all readers retain of it. Similarly Miltons theology is so weak and flawed that it opens the door to a devastating philosophical counterattack. In trying to justify God, Milton actually accomplishes the opposite as demonstrated by the failure of Book III. For Blake, Milton the Epic Poet ultimately trumps Milton the Christian Apologist who surely desired otherwise.