Virginia Woolf: “Women and Fiction” and “Professions for Women”

Virginia Woolf’s essay “Women and Fiction” discuss how fiction written by women is influenced by their circumstances in life. This text helps to understand better how the structure of society and the position held by women in it has a large influence in the literature written by them.

The ideas discussed by Woolf bring to mind the few women writers that we know about that were writing before the 18^th century. Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, for example, were only allowed to write because they were involved with the church and writing religious texts. The position of women in the society of the fourteenth century did not give them access to education through any other means but the church. This has limited the possibilities of women’s writings and their themes.

The essay points out how the limitations imposed to women of the eighteenth century narrowed their breadth of subjects and the form of their writing that was restricted to novels (Woolf 46-47). The novels written by women then show how little of the world they were able to see and it reflected directly in their writing. Woolf argues that the changes that have occurred into women’s writing were a result of a change of their attitude (48). From what we know from history and from our experience in today’s society it is possible to relate this alteration of attitude to the transformation of the world and the way it is organized.

“Women and Fiction” is, in my impression, an essay that points plainly to how women’s writings were shaped by the society of the times in which each woman lived and how the past still influences women’s writing even though they are changing their attitudes and starting to overcome the limits imposed to them throughout the years.

CQ - Paradise Lost Book 9

Degradation in Paradise Lost – Book 9

One of the points that calls attention in Books 1 and 2 of Paradise Lost is the fact that Satan is represented like a hero, so much so that it is difficult for the reader not to sympathize with him and feel the injustices he has been victim of. In Book 9 this image of Satan as a hero is deconstructed.

In Book 9 of Paradise Lost Satan “involved in rising mist” (75) infiltrates in Paradise one more. He observes God’s newest creations and realizes that he could have been happy if he could have walked around and enjoyed “hill and valley, rivers, woods and plains” (116) and he suffers from this realization and turns all this good into poison. Here Satan is no longer represented as the strong character that we sympathized with previously. He is set on seeking his revenge, but his arguments are not organized, he is confusing and seems to be deceiving himself with lies, contrary to what happens in the begging of the Paradise Lost, when he uses his cunning to deceive his fellow Fallen Angels.

This contrast between the first impression that the reader gets of Satan as a heroic figure and the degraded single-minded bitter being that he turns into in Book 9, seems to emphasize Milton’s ideas that sin is destructive and nothing good can come from disobeying God and distancing yourself from Him. Satan is lost in his own lies and desire of revenge, he cannot think properly anymore and this is a direct result of his fall.

Similarly, Adam and Eve show their different behavior from when they are yet innocent and pure in the beginning of Book 9 and when they have eaten from the Tree of Knowledge. Their first discussion about whether or not to work separately is more sensible, their discussion after disobeying God is bitter and irrational. Their change in behavior is also clear in the different from the pure lovemaking of before to the lust they surrender to after eating from the Tree of Knowledge.

The falls of Satan and Adam and Eve are similar in the sense that their behaviors are changed the moment they disregard God to follow their own ideas, passions and desires. All of them suffer changes that cannot be undone as a direct consequence of the sin they committed.

  

Milton, John. The Annotated Milton. Ed. Burton Raffel. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008. E-book.

CQ - Paradise Lost Book 3

Free will  in Paradise Lost – Book 3

In Paradise Lost – Book 3, one of the central ideas that Milton presents is that of Man’s free will and the consequences of his choices, an idea that can be found in the New Testament: “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” (1 Corinthians 6.12)

In the third book of Paradise Lost there is a shift from Hell and the Fallen Angels to Heaven and God, The Son and the Faithful Angels. Here God watches the events in Hell, see Satan flying to Earth to approach Man and try to corrupt them as his revenge on God. The Father sees what is happening and foresees what will yet happen. The Father explains to His Son that Man will bend to temptation and be responsible for their fall. God’s discourse in Book 3 and his arguments are essential for Milton’s goal of justifying God and his actions towards mankind.

Knowing that Man will fall, the Father says that they have to be punished or they can be redeemed if someone would die in their place. The Son offers himself to die for mankind. This sacrifice is the opposite of the one undertaken by Satan. When in Hell, Satan offers to sacrifice himself to look for God’s new creation, Man, and corrupt them, causing their fall. The Son offers himself to die in order to restore Man to their original place.

As the message in Corinthians 6.12 points out, God argues that he has given Man free will, but when Man chooses badly they shall face the consequences. Therefore God defends Himself and for He cannot be blamed by Man’s decision based on the free will that was granted them.

This idea defended by Milton goes against what was believed by the Calvinists during his time, that every man’s fate was decided before his birth and he could do nothing to alter this. The God believed in by the Calvinists would be, according to the ideas expressed by Milton in Paradise Lost – Book 3, extremely difficult to defend and justify, therefore the need of the extended argument given by God in defense of himself and in negation of a predestination in the fall of Man.

  

Milton, John. The Annotated Milton. Ed. Burton Raffel. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008. E-book.

CQ - Paradise Lost Book 2

Corrupted nature of the Fallen Angels in Paradise Lost – Book 2

The second book of John Milton’s Paradise Lost presents us with the consultation of the Fallen Angels regarding what would be the best thing for them to do now that they are stranded in Hell. Satan requests that those who have any ideas speak up and Moloch, Belial, Mammon and Beelzebub present what they think to be the best alternative.

Satan invokes the congregation of Fallen Angels saying that they are still the “Powers and Dominions, deities of Heaven” because they are immortal and even a place like Hell would not be enough to weaken them and that he has not given up on Heaven. He asks that those who have ideas on how better to regain their place in Heaven speak to them. The debate that thus ensues is reminiscent of political debates and could be a parody of these events which Milton used to take part in.

Moloch is the first to speak and he suggests open war. In truth, he knows that they cannot hope to win and his suggestion is only an attempt to end things, for he has difficult accepting defeat and suffering. Moloch would rather die, if they can be killed at all. Belial is the next one to speak and he suggests that they accept defeat and remain calm. He is soft-spoken but his words actually reveal his character as a lazy being. What he tries to induce his companions to is a total lack of action; he argues that it is better for them to do nothing than to risk more punishment.

Mammon has a different suggestion, and probably the one that would have been better for the Fallen Angels. He proposes that they transform Hell in their own kingdom, mimicking Heaven. His idea is well received by his companions, but Beelzebub noticing this interferes. The idea presented by Beelzebub is that they seek their revenge on God by corrupting his beloved new creation: men. This plan is actually what Satan has wanted from the beginning and is present by Beelzebub eloquently and, once the others accept that this is the better course of action, Satan can offer himself as their hero who will face the perils of leaving Hell to seek this new world where men will live.

The corrupted nature of the Fallen Angels is very clear in their speeches, in how they try to deceive the others to accept their ideas. Worst of all is Satan who, not only claimed for himself the command of Hell, but also manipulated the others into following his idea of revenge while passing by the hero who will sacrifice himself for the benefit of them all. So far in the poem, Satan is very clearly a political figure and his speeches are sophisticated, which works well to his purposes but exposes his true deceptive nature.

Milton, John. The Annotated Milton. Ed. Burton Raffel. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008. E-book.

CQ - Paradise Lost Book 1

Paradise Lost as a combination of the classical and the Christian traditions

The Book 1 of John Milton’s Paradise Lost establishes the subject matter of the epic poem which is the first disobedience of man and its consequences. The beginning of the poem is an invocation of the Muses and a declaration of the poet’s belief in the superiority of his work.

In the first two sentences of the poem, Milton explains that he will talk of the loss of Paradise when man first disobeyed God by eating a fruit from the forbidden tree and of its restoration to man by Christ. The poet then invokes a “Heav’nly Muse” to inspire him in his work. It is interesting to notice that Milton Christianizes a figure of the classical world by saying that the muse he is invoking is heavenly and that she inspired Moses to write the Ten Commandments and teach it to the Jews, as we can read on lines 6-8.

Milton declares his intention of writing an epic poem that will be above those of the classical authors that inspired him, Homer and Virgil. He wants to try in his poem “Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.” (16) The fact that he invokes a Christianized Muse to help him achieve this seems to indicated that Milton believe his work to be more important than those who came before, because his inspiration comes from the true God, even if the figure represented is a classical one.

Milton draws together two traditions, the classical and the Christian, to compose his epic poem. He expects to explain the disobedience of man, not only Adam, but all mankind, and “justify the ways of God to men” (26). The juxtaposition of the two traditions shows that Milton acknowledges the greatness of the classical epic poems and is paying attention to the lessons learned with them by writing in the appropriate format, including by evoking the muses in the begining. But he also believes his poem to have a more important subject because he is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it will make Paradise Lost the greatest epic poem written so far.

Milton, John. The Annotated Milton. Ed. Burton Raffel. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008. E-book.

Death in John Milton’s poem “Lycidas”

John Milton’s poem “Lycidas” is a pastoral elegy that not only laments the death of a dear friend drowned in the sea, but also discusses death and the promise of eternal life after the material existence on earth.

            The lyrical voice begins the poem by mentioning many plants that are each sacred to a different god and he says “I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude / And with forced fingers rude” (122), which sets out the tone of his lamentation throughout the poem. Like the berries that he is plucking before their time he thinks that his friend is “dead ere his prime” (123). The lyrical voice also seems to be worried about his own death in the face of his friend’s early demise, this can be seen when he invokes the Muses and say “So may some gentle muse / With lucky words favor my destined urn” (123).

The poem follows to tell us how the lyrical voice and Lycidas were friends and happy shepherds and that now all of nature is morning the young man’s death as much as his friend: “Whom universal nature did lament”. (125) The lyrical voice questions where the muses where when his friend died, but reckons that they would not have been able to do anything.

The lyrical voice then expound how unfair he thinks it is that his friends that had lived laborious days and was a pure spirit was taken from life before he could receive his reward for leading such a life, before his fame. The god Phoebus interrupts the poet to correct him saying that fame is not for the mortal life and that Lycidas may expect his reward in Heaven. It is interesting that we have a Greek god, Phoebus Apollus, promising the existence of a Heaven that is clearly Christian: “And perfect witness of all-judging Jove, / As he pronounces lastly on each deed. / Of so much fame in Heav’n expected thy meed”. (126)

“Lycidas” is a poem that discusses death and the possible existence of a Heaven and a Hell. The lyrical voice questions the unfairness of death at a young age, before you had the chance to live your life to its fullest, but the interference of a god correcting him and reminding him of the fair judgment of Jove and a Haven for eternal life, seems to express the poet’s belief in this eternal existence in bliss after the fleeting period of life on earth.

Milton, John. “Lycidas” The Annotated Milton. Ed. Burton Raffel. New York: Bantam Dell, 2008. 122-132. E-book.

CQ - As You Like It (Acts IV and V)

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

In William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It various themes can be noticed as the play is developed, one of these is the opposition of life among nature and life in the court.

In the beginning of the second act, Duke Senior asks his fellow exiles if it isn’t true that “Hath not old custom made this life more sweet than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods more free from peril than the envious court?” (II. i. 1-4). In his speech it is clear that he now prefers his new life in the Forest of Arden than the life he had in the court from which he was exiled by his brother. Duke Senior points out that life in the court offers more dangers than life in a forest because envy moves the human beings in there and the results are such as the betrayal he himself was victim in the hands of his brother.

Throughout the play the characters leave the court and go to the Forest of Arden as Duke Senior and the other exiles did. We can notice that these characters usually have some sort of transformation when they get there, be it physical or psychological. Rosalind and Celia go to the forest and continue with their disguises as Ganymede and Aliena. Oliver arrives in the Forest with the intention of killing his brother Orlando, but ends up promising to give him their father’s fortune and title in order to stay in the forest as a shepherd married to Aliena. Duke Frederick, who had usurped his brother’s dukedom, goes to the forest to end the congregation of great men in the place. But as he get there he talks to an old man and is also transformed, regretting his errors and restoring his brother to his rightful place. Not only these characters are transformed, but they find happiness in the forest, as the many weddings that occurred there show.

All these examples indicate that the Forest of Arden, the representation of nature in the play, seem a place of transformation and healing. The character abandon the life at court, which is dangerous and full of envy and disputes that disrupt even the family peace, to go to the forest where they find a better version of themselves and make better choices than previously. If it was Shakespeare intention to propose that nature has a powerful effect in the transformation and healing of human beings we cannot be sure, but the elements in the play indicated to this idea.

Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Ed. Michael Hattaway. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 2000.