Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1977. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Illinois. / Vita. Includes bibliography.

Proefschrift Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen.

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Kentucky University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-86).

Concerning literary theory, this thesis promotes the view that Milton acceeded to the idea that in literature there exists a hierarchy of forms (ranging in order of value from the epic to the tragedy, from the tragedy to the comedy, and from the comedy to the lyric). The principal consideration throughout the work is whether the epic or the tragedy is the highest of all literary forms. Milton's debt to Plato and Aristotle is discussed, and his disagreement or agreement with Aristotle's evaluation of tragedy as superior to the epic is debated. This argument gives rise to an even wider problem, that of the relative merits and influences of Platonism and Aristotelianism and how those two forces, sometimes complementary, sometimes opposed, influenced Milton and the sixteenth-century Italian critics whom Milton acknowledges as worthy critics for a poet to follow, A further chapter is devoted to a fundamental point in literary theory which arises out of the previous considerations the proper place of the concepts of the general and the particular in poetry and in art generally. Milton's own attitude to particularization and generalization is, of course, the object of the speculation. The argument of the thesis, following upon this lead, devotes itself for a chapter to the manner and result of Milton's attitude, as it is shown by the construction of Paradise host. The consideration of his construction thence leads to what is probably the key to the understanding of the epic as a wholes the unequalled accomplishment of the most complete time-scheme found anywhere in poetry. The core of the thesis is presented in the consideration of Book IX of Paradise Lost, which is recognized as the tragedy within the whole epic, self-contained, and offering therefore itself as the answer to those (like Aristotle) who object to the lack of concentration and the overly diffuse nature of epics in general, The final chapter of the thesis points in a new direction. This question is asked: What is the value of Paradise Lost? And several of the emotional tests of value are considered, because of its integration with the thesis as a whole, there has been added a consideration of Samson Agonistes, with special reference to Aristotle, in the form of an Appendix. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

That no serious student of Milton considers Satan the hero of Paradise Lost is no longer a debatable proposition. Milton's concept of heroic man, however, remains the subject of much critical discussion. The poet's iterated vaunts, he will sing of "deeds above heroic”, has earned him the displeasure of a host of commentators, none of whom are at all certain of Milton's final attitude concerning what is is that makes men heroes. This thesis, by focusing on Milton's Christianity, sets out to show that Milton's religious belief provided him with new and enlarged scope for the delineation of heroic virtue, to show that the new dispensation heralded by Christ made it possible, theoretically, for all men to heroes, and for men to be superior to, or better heroes than any of the worthies whose careers antedated Paradise Lost. Accepting magnanimity as the single virtue that most closely corresponds to heroic virtue, I have attempted to demonstrate that magnanimity, what I have called perfect heroism, was not fully possible for man until Christ's advent. Milton, I have contended, deliberately sets out to show the inferior condition in which men lived before the Son manifested himself. Basing my discussion on Milton's three major poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, I have tried to show how Milton reveals the inferior condition in which men lived before, the new dispensation. I have tried to show that perfect heroism is a manifest impossibility while man is innocent, while he obeys God's sole commandment. I have tried to show that man's lot after the fall and before Christ's coming similarly precludes perfect heroism, to show that man's imperfect comprehension of faith rendered him incapable of realizing his highest human potentialities. Perfect heroism, magnanimity, is revealed in only one of Milton's three great poems: Paradise Regained. Milton’s perfect hero, his exemplary model of what man can aspire to do and to be, is Christ himself. Innocent Adam's career is circumscribed. Fallen man's capacity for heroism is limited by his ignorance of God's grand design. Milton makes it very clear that the only bona fide hero is Christ, the protagonist of Milton's brief epic, a distinctively Christian hero. Milton's Christian faith permitted no real or viable alternative. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to prove that Milton was keenly interested in the process of time and made use of historical materials to demonstrate in his poetry and prose his belief that God's omnipotent will controlled human destiny. While Milton's formalized attempts at history-portrayal were confined to his Brief History of Moscovia and History of Britain, his fascination for history was also expressed in his political and social treatises as well as in the great epic poems that he wrote during the final period of his life. Milton's view of human destiny closely resembled the traditional Christian concept of history as formulated by St. Augustine in The City of God. The providential, universalistic epochal and teleological aspects of the Christian view of history were all present in Milton's concept of the destiny of man. Milton, however, did not merely reproduce these traditional ideas; he transformed them to fit his conception of God's will dynamically operating in the affairs of man. This thesis attempts to show that Milton did not reproduce historical material for its own sake. His prime concern was "to instruct and benefit" the reader. The theme which Milton wished to convey was two-fold. Firstly, he demonstrated that God's will was sovereign; nothing transpired in history apart from the controlling will of God. Secondly, Milton stressed the idea that, while God's will was an indisputable absolute, the free will of man was operative in history. There was, therefore, a direct connection between the process of history and human moral behavior. Man's chief responsibility on earth was to conform voluntarily to God's revealed will. Milton thus profusely illustrated from biblical and secular history that individuals and nations who disobeyed the will of God lapsed inevitably into political, domestic, and spiritual bondage. As far as Milton was concerned, there was no liberty apart from submission to the will of God. In this thesis an attempt has been made to apply the term "Baroque" to Milton's portrayal of human destiny. In spite of his antipathy towards Roman Catholic institutions and practices, Milton demonstrated in his poetry the sense of certainty and affirmation which characterized the Baroque painting and architecture of Italy after the Counter-Reformation. By means of panorama, spectacle, and dynamism—techniques which have been considered by many critics as particularly apparent in Baroque art— Milton portrayed his concept of the dominating, unifying, and benevolent will of God dynamically controlling and directing human destiny. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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