To give you some direction in writing the criticism review due Wednesday, 13 November, I include here both my notes and the essay I wrote using those notes. (You do not have to hand in your notes.) Look at which passages I included, which I didn't, and how I incorporated the quotations into my own paragraphs. Note ways in which I explained quotations or responded to them. In the second half of the essay, I also begin to offer my own ideas about where the critic's arguments are leading my own thinking.
Bear in mind that while my example covers only one critic, you must write on two; and while my essay is single-spaced, you must double space your paper and otherwise follow the format guidelines posted to my website.
Your final essay must include a bibliography, but for the criticism review you need only give me page numbers, as in the example.
__________________________
Mary Ann Radzinowicz, "'Man as a Probationer of Immortality': Paradise Lost XI-XII," in Approaches to Paradise Lost, The York Tercentenary Lectures: U Toronto Press, 1968: 31-51
readers traditionally have seen the last two books of Paradise Lost as dull, pessimistic, irrelevant, or symptomatic of a falling away of inspiration. MAR disagrees
the last two books of Paradise Lost are "man's education in liberty … instructed to show that although the world into which Adam descends is all before him, the paradise he attains is all within." (31)
"Adam is taught what has happened and what will happen … so that action will be clearer to him as an essential condition for peace." (32)
Adam is, in Coleridge's term, a "probationer," not just a penitent or a prisoner of time. He needs to earn his future redemption through active, ethical behavior.
time in Eden is joyous and circular, not static. By acts of voluntary obedience Adam and Eve would perfect themselves. They would gradually ascend the scale of heavenly love. Raphael speculates that we may "turn all to Spirit / Improved by tract of time" (5.497-8)
After the fall, improvement no longer possible; it must be replaced by amendment. (36)
notably, in Milton's poem Adam goes into the world a Christian
The first two episodes in books 11-12 illustrate death and how it should be taken
second two: actions of unrighteousness in peace and war
third pair, how righteous men may alter history
"the epitome of Milton's political doctrine [is] embedded in the Nimrod episode" (45). Nimrod is a type of the antichrist
"Michael's lesson is that the lawgiver's role in history is negative—…Mosaic law was given so that sins might be defined and men know that they could not justify themselves by legal righteousness…the only security lies in the dictates of reason, the conscience placed in each man which can only act in Christian liberty." (46-47)
"dramatic urgency throughout Books 11-12 comes with Adam's interjection of a spontaneous and emotional response which is not perfectly correct. " (48)
"Michael's great discourse of reintegration after the Fall puts forward the paradox of increased liberty and the idea of the paradise of the peaceful conscience." (51)
Review
of Mary Ann Radzinowicz,
Readers generally find the last two books of Paradise Lost boring, according to Mary Ann Radzinowicz; they're a let-down after the excitement of Books 9 and 10 and don't seem unified with the rest of the epic. Some critics even suggest that Milton's inspiration at the poem's conclusion was flagging and that his own weariness made these books dull and pessimistic. Radzinowicz refutes these objections. She argues that Books 11-12 are crucial to Milton's project and an important guide to Adam's post-lapsarian duties. The central theme of these books is Adam's education, specifically, "man's education in liberty." Adam, and the reader of Paradise Lost, learns that "although the world into which Adam descends is all before him, the paradise he attains is all within" (31). In order to regain Paradise, we must look to the continuing guidance of our "Umpire Conscience" (PL 3:195).
Radzinowicz develops her ideas in this essay from Coleridge's description of "'Man as a Probationer of Immortality." She points out that our time on earth is spent neither as penitents, perpetually lamenting and repenting our parents' crime, nor as prisoners, passively serving a sentence that will end with the second coming. Instead, as "probationers" we are trying to improve ourselves; we are being tested to see if we can meet God's standards. After the fall, she explains, improvement no longer possible; instead, the best we can hope for is amendment, or self-correction. (36) (By contrast, she explains, in Eden there was a chance of perpetual improvement. By acts of voluntary obedience Adam and Eve could perfect themselves and gradually ascend the scale of heavenly love. In fact, Raphael speculates before the fall that human beings may "turn all to Spirit / Improved by tract of time" [PL 5.497-8]. This option is not available after we eat the fruit.)
In his series of scenes from the Old Testament, Michael shows Adam how human beings will continue to sin and also how righteous men can alter history for the better. At the same time, Michael's Old Testament lessons give way to New Testament revelation. "Michael's lesson is that the lawgiver's role in history is negative," Radzinowicz writes. She adds, "Mosaic law was given so that sins might be defined and men know that they could not justify themselves by legal righteousness…the only security lies in the dictates of reason, the conscience placed in each man which can only act in Christian liberty." (46-47) Interestingly, as Radzinowicz observes, Michael's lesson ensures that Adam leaves Eden a Christian. Does this mean that Milton didn't believe that Adam would spend time in Limbo with the virtuous pagans and those who otherwise hadn't heard the word of Christ (as Dante, for example, suggests)? Perhaps this idea can shed some light on Milton's depiction of the Limbo of Vanity in Book 3 and his association of the Paradise of Fools with Catholic heresy.
Another intriguing issue raised by Radzinowicz's analysis is the difference in the respective indoctrinations of Adam and Eve. Eve spends most of Books 11 and 12 dreaming of the fact that "By [her] the Promis'd Seed shall all restore" (12.623). Her report on this second dream is much briefer than the narrative and slideshow that Michael gives Adam, yet the result is the same; it also is the final speech in the poem. Does Milton give her the last word so that we leave the poem with her experience as a model, rather than Adam's? The lesson that Michael teaches Adam suggests that he should study history and seek answers, models and warnings in his Bible. Eve's briefer, but no less valid, experience of God's word, on the other hand, implies that revelation is all that matters. Does Milton want us to see these two models of religious experience as complementary? Gendered? What should we make of the fact that we share Adam's experience rather than Eve's?