My thesis is a study of the poetic origin of Milton's Satan and his significance apart from his dramatic function in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. I have tried to establish Satan's poetic origin by investigating the studies of a number of prominent critics, Milton's own prose works, such as the Eikonoklastes and his Second Defence, and also the correspondences between Satan's speeches and the words of King Charles I in his Eikon Bazilike. From these studies I have drawn the conclusion that Milton used King Charles I as he appears in the Eikon Bazilike as his model for Satan. Since Milton hated the King for his tyranny, Milton's emotional involvement and the human model resulted in the portrayal of a Satan, whose vividness and realism make him one of the most towering Satans in world literature. Satan's true significance lies in his revelation of Milton's personality. He reflects Milton's thoughts, his political and religious philosophy, his attitudes towards contemporary events, and his personality traits. Milton's development of Satan's personality reveals his unsurpassed craftsmanship as a poetic artist. As we follow Satan's career we discover a new Milton, differing enormously from the generally accepted conception of a stern Puritan. The Milton revealed in Satan's action has a keen appreciate of all that is beautiful in the universe, besides moral values. He has a sense of humour and a capacity for friendship, hitherto found incompatible with Milton's retiring character. Paradise Lost also shows us Milton's hope for the future. In man's regeneration he looks forward to an England liberated from the tyranny of kings, while his spiritual vision embraces the realization of God's initial purpose when he created man; namely, that "Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth." / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This paper explores the distinctions in interpretation of surah al-Rahman of the Holy Qur’an based on the exegeses of al-Tabari, al-Huwwari, al-Qushayri, al-Qurtubi, al-Jalalayn, and al-Maraghi. These commentaries range in time period from the late ninth century to the late twentieth century and are also representative of different modes of thought, such as mainstream, Sufi, and modernist frameworks. Interpretations also reflect emphasis upon grammatical explanations or legal issues in some cases. The study first discusses a context for the time and location of each commentator, whereupon the paper moves into an analysis of the components and depictions of the surah, or chapter. The final section of the paper illustrates the timelessness of this surah and its significance to Muslims everywhere. / B.A. Honors Thesis in the Department of Religious Studies, 2011 / Dr. David B. Cook - Rice University Religious Studies

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

In any exchange of letters one sister's words must be presented last and the last word is, as you know, most sacred.

Renaissance England was a period of tremendous flux; ideas about science, gender and knowledge or how we come to knowledge come under examination. These areas of flux intersect with the text examined here in their relationship to the key concept of nature. In John Milton’s, Paradise Lost, nature appears in various forms over sixty times. By first examining the word nature in relation to the ideas in flux during the period and next examining Milton’s use of the word in the epic, an overlooked yet significant aspect of his epic emerges. Milton uses the mutability of nature to further “justify the ways of God to man.” How his use of nature develops an association between nature and Eve is of even greater significance. In a carnivalesque inversion of the convention of the period, Milton’s development of nature in the poem and his development of the association of Eve with nature reveal an association of Eve with human nature.

In this half thesis the use of the garden as a metaphor for paradise has been explored. The English word “ paradise“ was derived from the Greek word “ paradeisos” which in turn was derived from the Old Avestana “ pairi-daeza,” meaning an enclosure. In Ancient Persia the concept applied to an enclosed garden in the modern sense of the word. For this reason the thesis begins with an examination of the development of the garden in this desert region. A more-or-less continuous chain of development in both the physical and allegorical nature of the garden is traced through history from these Ancient Persian beginnings to the height of Mughal architecture (epitomised by the Taj Mahal), by way of the Muslim expansion through Central Asia and Europe. While the core elements of garden design were set in Ancient Persian times, and recur throughout the period studied, the impact of Islam on the local Persian culture brought about a new development of allegorical meaning associated with the garden. This allegorical development reached its apex, too, in the Taj Mahal in which, it is argued, the metaphorical representation of paradise in the garden tomb was made astonishingly explicit. The research for this mini thesis was gathered from secondary sources, including many published books and academic papers, photographic and diagrammatic evidence of extant ancient gardens, and reproductions of carpet designs.

The object of this study will be to call attention to the gradually developing interest in the poem and the varying interpretations of it.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Papua and New Guinea. / Bibliography: leaves 227-233.

In this essay, I argue that the angel Raphael introduces a poetic sensibility into Paradise in order to provide Adam and Eve with “equipment for living” after the Fall. Unlike other critics who have interpreted Raphael as a poet, I focus on the implications of Raphael’s poetic teaching for postlapsarian life. I also call attention to the dangerous effects of Raphael’s “song,” which awakens Adam’s insatiable curiosity about forbidden subjects even as Raphael cautions him to practice temperance and “be lowly wise.” Raphael aims to both “delight and instruct” his audience through poetic discourse, but Milton shows him struggling as Adam’s delight interferes with the angel’s efforts to instruct him. I discuss Raphael’s attempts to mitigate Adam’s enthrallment at his words through disclaimers that remind him to remain temperate in his pursuit of knowledge and to resist subjection to beauty and pleasure—including the charm of “song.” Through Raphael’s meditations on the challenges of poetic representation, Milton reflects on the double-sided nature of his own craft. My essay seeks to reconcile the beneficial purpose of Raphael’s visit with its troubling effects. By reading Raphael’s careful efforts to temper and reorient Adam’s curiosity alongside Milton’s statements on the value of literature in Areopagitica, I explore Milton’s sense of how pleasure, doubt, and even temptation—if rightly tempered—can aid fallen humans in the cultivation of faithful obedience. / text