DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF GHANA LEGON THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF JOHN MILTON’S PARADISE LOST By JULIUS CAESAR FOSU (10506655) THIS THESIS/DISSERTATION IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MPHIL ENGLISH DEGREE. JANUARY, 2018 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is the product of my original research, and it has not been published or presented, in whole or part, for the award of a degree anywhere in the world, and that all references to other works have been duly acknowledged. ............................................................. Date..................................... Fosu Julius Caesar .......................................... Date.................................. Prof. Albert A. Sackey (Principal Supervisor) .......................................... Date.................................. Dr. S. Sackey (Supervisor) ii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my three gods: (1) The bones of Prof. JEA Mills (2) Prof. A. A. Sackey, who is “the onlie begetter” of this prose (3) Dr. M. Adjei. iii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ACKNOWLEDGMENT The mind of A A Sackey, to you I owe my thoughts and being. iv University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENT PAGE TITLE PAGE................................................................................................................................. i DECLARATION.......................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................................... v-vii INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background of Study............................................................................................................ 2-5 1.1 Literature Review................................................................................................................ 5-29 1.2 Theoretical Framework...................................................................................................... 29 37 1.3 Objectives of Study................................................................................................................ 37 1.4 Limitation of Study................................................................................................................ 38 1.5 Significance of Study......................................................................................................... 38-39 1.6 Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 39 1.7 Research Question............................................................................................................ 39-40 v University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1.8 Organisation of the Thesis............................................................................................... 40-41 CHAPTER ONE: THE LINEAR TIME ORDER 2.0 Summary of the Linear Narrative Level............................................................................ 42-43 2.1 Summary of the Anachrony............................................................................................... 43-44 2.2 The Genettean Time Oder………………………………………………………………. 44-45 2.3 Story Time………………………………………………………………………………..45-46 2.4 Narrative Time…………………………………………………………………………... 46-47 2.5 Summary in Duration………………………………………..………………………….. 47-50 2.6 Scene in Duration………………………………………………………………………. 50-55 2.7 Ellipsis in Duration…………………….……………………………………………….. 55-56 2.8 Slow-Down-Scene in Duration………………………………………………………….. 56-58 2.9 Pause in Duration………………………………………………………………………... 58-61 3.0 Frequency in Duration………………………………………………………………….. 61-62 CHAPTER TWO: THE ANACHRONOUS TIME ORDER 3.1 Scene in Duration……………………………………………………………………. 63-68 3.2 Summary in Duration……………………………………………………………………. 68 vi University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 3.3 The Epic Plot……………………………………………………………………..…… 69-71 CHAPTER THREE: MOOD & VOICE 3.4 Mood Perspective……………………………………………..……………………… 72-73 3.5 Non-Focalization & Narration of Events …………………………………………….. 73-74 3.6 Narration of Speech…………………………………………………………………… 75-76 CHAPTER FOUR: SURFACE STRUCTURES AND DEEP STRUCTURES IN PARADISE LOST 3.7 The Surface Structure……………………………………………………..……………. 77-79 3.8 Paradise Lost and its Palimpsests……………………………………………………… 79-80 3.9 Intertextuality of Paradise Lost……………………………………………………….... 80-81 4.0 Paratextuality of Paradise Lost…………………………………………………………. 81-82 4.1 Metatextuality of Paradise Lost…………………..………………………………………… 82 4.2 Hypertextuality of Paradise Lost…………………………………………………………… 83 4.3 Architextuality of Paradise Lost………………………………………………………... 83-84 4.4 CONCLUSION……..………………………………………………………………… 85-86 vii University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1 ABSTRACT Paradise Lost was written sometime in the 17th Century by John Milton as a Christian epic with a Christian redefined meaning of heroism. Using the epic structure, Milton successfully outlines the genealogy of man, even the state of the world before man was brought into it by God. Milton does this by tracing the linear stories of man from Genesis, through the Messianic and redemption stories, and the introduction of the eschaton by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In Paradise Lost, Milton talks about three objectives. They are: the fall of man, an epic aiming to surpass all other epics, and justifying God’s ways to men. My thesis is a structural discussion of the three objectives by way of narratology. In order to prove Milton’s three objectives, my research discusses the structure of the narrative using Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980). At the second level, my research focuses on the “Intertextual” elements of Paradise Lost using Gerard Genette’s Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982). At the end of my discussion, it is obvious Milton’s epic is not a Miltonic Version Bible, but a work of art, borrowing its topic from the Bible and the epic form from icons Homer and Virgil. Indeed Milton has outgrown his occasion and withstood the test of time since Paradise Lost encapsulates the genealogy of man. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2 INTRODUCTION 1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Preliminary Remarks John Milton’s Paradise Lost in sibylline words professes about man’s rebellion in Eden that degenerates into “sin” and “death,” till the “Son” restores man. In “theoditic poetry” (Hillier 2011), Paradise Lost manifests as a “hypertext” (Genette 1982) of the Christian Bible and the ancient Homer, Virgil, etc as its “hypotext” (Genette 1982). This implies that, the epic of John Milton, called Paradise Lost, whose title is a replica of the story of the lost Christian Paradise as we know it since antiquity, is as a whole written to the likeness of the Christian Bible (by topic and subject matter), but in an art form, following the epic forms and traditions of the ancients. Paradise Lost was read sometimes in the churches in Milton’s contemporary as a replica of the Christian Bible until later its study was limited to the classroom. Using Genettean three category models especially Time and its various subcategories, John Milton in Paradise Lost foregrounds the essential events and professes to his readers why man falls and why there is the need to justify the fall. For instance, the “War in Heaven,” which consequentially sends Satan and his “apostates” to suffer in Hell-fire, is told in “Analepsis” (flashback/retrospect), that is supposed to have happened outside the “Linear Time Order” of Paradise Lost. In Paradise Lost, we encounter a three-tier Satan: Satan in Heaven as Seraphim (Bk. V, VI), Satan in Hell as a fallen angel (Bk. I, II), and a victorious/antagonist Satan in Eden who causes the fall of man but later transformed into a snake walking on his belly (Bk. IX, X). He persuasively tells us why he is rebelling against God, thereby throwing more light on the past events and the reason why we need to sympathise with him in his fallen state. In Genesis 3:6, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, she took of the fruit thereof, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 3 of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (King James Version). But in Paradise Lost, Eve tastes the “Forbidden Fruit” without the immediate knowledge of Adam until later after a sustained dialogue the latter also tastes the fruit in solidarity with the former. In the exordium of Book IX, Milton claims that every night, Urania, the “Celestial Patroness,” the Muse of Christian inspiration comes to dictate the Biblical story of the tragic fall of Man to him in his sleep: If answerable style I can obtain Of my Celestial Patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor’d, And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated Verse. (IX.20-24). By all standards, Milton in these lines is comparing himself to the Biblical “Exodutic Moses,” the first “Hebraic Messiah” (Hillier 2011), who was inspired and given the Ten Commandments by God on Mount Sinai or “Oreb.” Like Moses, “prophet” Milton wants to write Urania’s own words, because his project, as he claims, is unattainable unless inspired. Therefore to remain steadfast and by his topic, Milton invokes Urania to direct his course in the telling, so that he will not derail into upholding pagan culture with its overemphasis on bellicose heroism. The question then is: is Milton merely filling the gaps in the Bible? Is Paradise Lost a Miltonic Version Bible? The answer to these questions is No. Milton in his “distinctive theology” (Hillier “2011) may have a Christian mandate as part of his grand agenda but the resultant product called Paradise Lost transcends its Christian Midrashim. It is a work of art in dualistic “great argument,” whose artistry aims to surpass any other literary enterprise before or after. This is evident in its tripartite objectives (the topic of the fall of Man, whose University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4 artistic projection aims to surpass its pace-setters, in a way of justifying God’s grace and providence to man), discussed in “poetic theodicy” (Hillier 2011). Milton’s Purpose Milton has structured his purpose into three objectives. My thesis is based on structural discussion of the three objectives by way of narratology, using structuralist narratologist, Gerard Genette’s narrative categories: time, mood and voice, articulated in his structuralist text, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980) and Gerard Genette’s “Palimpsest,” that is, the concept of a text within texts, or a text evoking other texts before it, articulated in his Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982). The tripartite objectives of Paradise Lost as proposed in the proem of Book I are: (i) Man’s first sin of disobedience which results in the loss of Eden till Man’s restoration by “one greater Man;” this is a moral/ethical and thematic objective (I.4); (ii) a grand epic aiming to surpass any other literary enterprise (I.12-16); this is a literary and artistic objective; and (iii) asserting everlasting love of God and His providence thereby justifying God’s ways to Men; this is a theological and religious objective (I.26). Of the tripartite objectives, the first objective is a trajectory: transgression → consequences → restoration, which is thematic, because it is the main thrust of Milton’s epic. The second objective is a proposition aiming at surpassing any other literary enterprise, hence an aesthetic objective, because it backgrounds the poem’s “theology” and foregrounds its artistry and literary merit. The third objective is the dualist “great argument” of (a) asserting Eternal love of Providence thereby (b) justifying God’s ways to men; this third objective is theological in conception (religious/Christian), because it aims at explicating the scriptural message of God’s supremacy. I will therefore examine the first and third objectives in the University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5 context of thematic signals emanating from the surface structure, while I discuss the second objective in terms of the artistic signals gleaned from the same macrotext. In his Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982), Genette developed the idea of interrelationships in texts and argue that a text cannot exist without the influence of texts before it. In Genettean palimpsest, a text that borrows from earlier texts is referred to as a “hypertext” and the original text on the other hand is the “hypotext.” Genettean palimpsest argues that no text can exist without the influence of other texts. Genette’s concept of Transtextuality will be one of my focuses in the last chapter as I anatomise the palimpsestual elements of John Milton’s Paradise Lost to see how far the narrative is influenced by texts before it. 1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW Two categories of literature are envisaged here: Literature Review on Paradise Lost, and Literature Review on narratology, my major critical approach. Literature Review on Paradise Lost Paradise Lost explores the question of why evil is in the world; it is a poetic philosophy into the evolution of all the things we consider in Christian sense as evil, including aging, ailment, etc, and finally death. It is also about Love. It offers love to us in diverse ways (agape, storge, philia and erotic loves). It is a massive poem which runs into thousands of lines of verse in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is a piece of literature very much obsessed with “linear time order” (Genette 1982), closely related to the structure of the Holy Bible or the “History of Christians” (Hillier 2011). Hillier (2011) proposes that the proem of Book I of Paradise Lost “projects” God’s providential love to man: University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6 Of Man’s First disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat (I.1-5). Let me state concisely here that Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic in all respect, and it follows closely Virgil in his style of long sentences before a break. Hillier (2011) states that all epic proem functions on a “taxonomic” tripartite structure. It begins with “the declaration of subject,” followed by an invocation to a “Muse,” and finally a discussion of the “subject.” Hence the proem of the Iliad identifies “Achilles’ anger;” the Odyssey’s Odysseus’ adventures; and the Aeneid, Aeneas’ Odyssey. To Hillier (2011), Milton’s Paradise Lost does a lot more. That is, “the single heroic action” of Adam is “divided into two” heroic parts: “the catastrophic fall and compensatory rise” of Adam and the Son respectively. The former initiates the “fall” and the latter “accomplishes its restoration” (38). It also includes the Son’s restoration of the lost Eden, “His redeeming work on the cross,” and finally, His resurrection and regaining the Heavenly throne, and sits at the right-hand of God. Hillier (2011) further argues that Milton brings on board “oxymora” to explain the complexity of the “theanthropic” nature of the Son, who is “Son both God and Man” III.316; He is “human face divine” III.44, to champion his “Christology.” Hillier (2011) adds that Milton’s “Cosmos” functions by an “oxymoronic” axiom in many ways. In Book I, Hell is described as: “black fire” II.6, “darkness visible” I.64, “fiery Deluge” I.68, “wide womb of uncreated night” II.150, “darkness light” II.220; Eternal anarchy is described as: “hot,” “cold,” “moist,” “dry” chaotically; the stars are like “living sapphire” II.1050. In Eden the fruits are like “vegetable Gold” (IV.220) etc. To Hillier (2011), these oxymora cause Milton’s readers to accept the “Incarnation mystery” in place of “reasoning.” University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 7 Paradise Lost, like all other epics is, as the poet himself indicates, a “heroic song,” sung by its host to glorify its hero. Critic Andrew Snider, in an essay “Milton and the Muse: Was Paradise Lost Lovingly Ripped Off?” (2014), asserts that, “music” and “images” play essential role in Paradise Lost. That is, in the proem of Book I, the host, invokes the Holy Ghost to aide him to “sing” his subject; in the Heavenly Council of Book III, God the Father declares that Man shall fall but gracefully rise after “divine justice,” and the Angels sing “loud Hosannas filled/ Th’eternal Regions” III.348-349. In Book V, Raphael relates to Adam the appointment of the Son by the Father as Heir to Heaven, and the Heavenly Angels celebrate and sing songs of joy. Also, in Book VII, Raphael relates the creation of the World to Adam and, and how the Angels sing Hymns and glorify God and His creation. To Snider, With visions of muses, angels singing of Christ’s being born and cherubs playing golden harps while lifting their voices into song, ...it is evident Milton is trying to bring his worlds together to show that music, literature and religion can go hand in hand (“Milton and the Muse: Was Paradise Lost Lovingly Ripped Off” 2013 pp. 2). Snider further argues that, music “furthers” and “imagineers” Paradise Lost. That is, in Hell where Satan and his fallen Angels dwell, in Heaven where God and the Heavenly Angels dwell, in God’s creation, or the solitude of Eden, the dwelling place of Man, and finally the contrast of “light” and “darkness” are all used to dichotomise the struggle between God who represents Good, and Satan who represents Evil. To Snider, these literary elements transform Milton’s epic into a “masterpiece.” Paradise Lost is a poem that is also very much obsessed with time. That is, from Satan’s destined journey from Hell to Eden in Books I and II (the “prelapsarian”/pre-fallen state of Adam and Eve in their state of innocence), through Adam and Eve’s transgression and subsequent fall in Books IX and X (the lapsarian/fallen state), to Michael’s revelations in Books XI and XII (the “postlapsarian”/post-fallen state of Adam and Eve after their expulsion University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 8 from Eden/their progeny), all these Books manifest the passage of time like an arrow moving on a straight line. It stretches from Genesis to Revelation, where the interval between man’s creation, man’s fall and man’s restoration, till the “Second Coming,” or the passage “from the beginning, to come Lord Jesus” (John Lightfoot, Erubhin 1629 pp. 115), or from “the first Adam's Fall to the second Adam's (Jesus’) redemption, that is, His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, and, implicitly, His glorified session, interceding for humanity until the eschaton” (Hillier 2011 pp. 38), man’s fate is filled up with suffering, loss and death. To clarify Milton’s notion of time in Paradise Lost further, I refer to the writings of both Christian Philosopher Saint Augustine of Hippo and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne. Saint Augustine in his Confessions (AD 397) argues that, even though man does not know what is ahead of him, there is no doubt the passage of time in man’s life is filled up with aging and death: Who can deny that things to come are not yet Yet already there is in mind an expectation of things to come (Confessions: Book XI). Also, Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici (The Religion of a Doctor (1642) on the discussion of the nature of time in man’s life argues complexly and he concludes that, time is linear and finite, metaphorically echoing the life stages of humanity (childhood → maturity → decay → death): “Before Abraham was, I am” is the saying of Christ, yet is it true in some sense if I say it of myself; for I was not only before myself but Adam, that is, in the idea of God, and the decree of that Synod from all eternity. And in this sense, I say, the world was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a beginning. And thus was I dead before I was alive; though my grave be England, my dying place was Paradise; and Eve miscarried of me, before she conceived of Cain (84). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 9 This inevitability of time as an arrow travelling on a straight line is well entrenched in Milton’s Paradise Lost. They are (1) the creation of the world including man (first told by Satan in the debate in Pandemonium in Book II): There is a place (If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav’n Err not) another World, the happy seat Of some new Race call’d Man, about this time To be created like to us (II.345-349). This is the first life stage of Adam and Eve. (2) Gaining consciousness (told by Eve and Adam in Books IV and VIII respectively). Eve’s speech is presented first: That day I oft remember, when from sleep I first awak’t and found myself repos’d Under a shade on flow’rs, much wod’ring where And what I was, whence thither brought, and how. ... ... ‘What thou seest, What there thou seest fair Creature is thyself, With thee it came and goes (IV.449-469). Adam’s speech: For Man to tell how human Life began Is hard; for who himself beginning knew? Desire with thee still longer to converse Induc’d me. As new wak’t from soundest sleep Soft on the flow’ry herb I found me laid (VIII.250-254). This is the maturity stage of Adam and Eve. (3) The main action of the temptation and subsequent fall of man (dramatised in Book IX): Satan’s speech to Eve: these, these and many more Causes import your need of this fair Fruit. Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste (IX.730-732) The omniscient narrator’s telling on the fall: University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 10 He ended, and his words replete with guile Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixt on the Fruit she gaz’d, which to behold (IX.733-735) her rash hand in evil hour Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck’d, she ate: Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe, That all was lost (IX.780-784). This is the beginning stage of decay. The sin of man is the beginning of man’s deterioration. (4) The last and final stage of man is death. This is alluded to by the omniscient narrator in Book XII where Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden after their first disobedience of tasting the forbidden fruit: The World was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way (XII.646-649). Here, it should be observed that, man’s Adam and Eve’s life have travelled its journey to the end, because sin has caused their deterioration and death in the future. Hence the narrative unfolds on the finiteness of time, invoking a sense of an ending. Milton’s distinctive artistry is found in his theoditic topic, which begins from man’s rebellion in Eden to the Son’s saving grace on Earth. That is, its idiosyncratic nature of critiquing the ancients after identifying itself in their canon. This is immediately realised by John Dennis in his book The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry (1704), where he argues that, in order to outgrow its occasion, Milton’s Paradise Lost needed to isolate itself from the ancient thematic preoccupation, which it rightly does: That great Man had a desire to give the World something like an Epick Poem; but he resolv’d at the same time to break thro’ the Rules of Aristotle... he had discernment enough to see, that if he wrote a Poem which was within the compass of them, he should be subjected to the same Fate which has attended all who have wrote Epick Poems ever since the time of Homer; and that is to be a Copyist instead of an Original... Milton was the first who in the space of almost 4000 Years, resolved, for his Country’s Honour and his own, to present the World with an Original University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 11 Poem; that is to say, a Poem that should have his own Thoughts, his own Images, and his own Spirit (274). Milton’s epic does not glorify war like the ancients, rather it condemns it, establishing a new identification by glorifying the Son whose act of saving mankind (after the linear story ends), in Milton’s terms, is more heroic than the brute force of Achilles or Odysseus or Aeneas. Milton in Book IX explains his concept of heroism: Not sedulous by Nature to indite Wars, hitherto the only Argument Heroic deem’d, chief mast’ry to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabl’d knights In Battles feign’d; ... or to describe Races and Games, Or tilting Furniture, emblazon’d Shields, Impresses quaint, Caparisons and Steeds; Bases and tinsel Trappings, gorgeous knights At Joust and Tournament; then marshall’d Feast Serv’d up in Hall with Sewers, and Seneschals (IX.27-31, 33-38). Milton’s rejection of a martial theme in place of forbearance, patience, inaction, etc, is because of his theodictic Christian topic which to him is nobler and a “higher argument” in comparison with the pagan “Valour.../ To overcome in Battle, and subdue/ Nations, and bring home spoils” (XI.690-692). Let me proceed to explain Milton’s concept of heroism in the Son and how it differs from the pagan form of heroism. There are three distinct characteristics to be discussed. They include leadership skills, wisdom and strength. In the aspect of strength, the Son Jesus as hero is different from the pagan hero with his vaunts. The Son does not have any reason for boasting as Satan does, because He is totally dependent on His Father for His ability and grace to do all things as hero. Hence with His Father all things are possible, and without Him He could not have risen to the ability of saving man since those who depend on their own ability like University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 12 Satan, in the end, fail. Brute force alone then, would not be enough or even important for the Son in His saving mission. Rather, another aspect of strength is emphasised by Milton which is found in the Son. That is, the Son’s strength of being passively patient in time of suffering or temptation. In the proem of Book IX of the lapsarian/fallen state of Paradise Lost, Milton refers to this attribute of the Son as more heroic long “Unsung” (IX.33). This idea of strength while in weakness is evident in the Son’s saving mission Earth. This heroic attribute of the Son is echoed by the Apostle Paul when he said in his speech that “When I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor. 12:10). Hence, there are two types of strength described here: physical strength brought about through brute force like that found in the ancient heroes in their military campaigns, and then there is another form of strength; that is, strength in weakness in the Son when He patiently faced suffering and death, even though He could have avoided it (since he is God and He can do everything), yet He goes ahead and willingly accepts death and wins Paradise for the greater glory of man. In the aspect of wisdom, the pagan hero is a man of calculations, wildness and brutalities. Satan in Paradise Lost is calculative, always scheming a way to cause the fall of others. In Book I when he rises from the lake of fire in Hell, the first thing he begins thinking about is perversion: Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable Doing or Suffering: but of this be sure, To do aught good never will be our task, But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to his high will Whom we resist. If then his Providence Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end, And out of good still to find means of evil; Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destin’d aim (I.157-168). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 13 There is no doubt Satan keeps deteriorating from speech to speech till he finally changes into a snake before the story ends. On the contrary, the Son as hero of Paradise Lost exemplifies spiritual wisdom. That is to say, in the utterances of the Son, we can clearly deduce right reason which is under the control of passions at all times, and as a result of this, we see clearly divine revelation in establishing truth, humility and the vast differences between the creature and the creator. In Book III, we see clearly exemplary wisdom in the speech of the Son when He says He shall become man and die and restore Paradise when it is lost: I offer, on mee let thine anger fall; Account mee man; I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die Well pleas’d, on me let Death wreak all his rage; Under his gloomy power I shall not long Lie vanquisht; thou hast giv’n me to possess Life in myself forever, by thee I live (III.237-244). Therefore the truly smart hero is the one who realises his reason is under the control of a greater power, trusting in God even if he does not understand His ways, rather than displaying malicious opposition. Lastly, leadership aspect of heroism as conceived in Paradise Lost is in conformance with the pagan heroes: heroes must be unique, outstanding, etc. However, the Son’s heroic endeavour goes beyond this. In accepting His outstanding characteristics, the Son in the back of his mind is also aware His uniqueness is the making of His Father, not His own. Therefore instead of exhibiting sheer pride, the Son on the contrary is obedient to His Father, which is why He accepts humiliation, suffering and death nailed to the cross, thereby redeeming man from his fallen state. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 14 Primarily, it can be observed that Milton’s conception of heroism is emphasised by patience, which is steadfast loyalty to God the Father, exhibited in times of temptation, trial, suffering and even death. Hence patience is deemed the highest form of obedience to God and it is proven in times of trials. Patience, then, is the motivation of the Son, and resistance to it is the underlying mode of heroic action. This is a paradox, because, it demands inaction, abstention, etc, from evil deeds meted out to Him. Hence, the soul plays a key role in the heroic action of the Son, because to get victory means that His soul must be pure. As a man on Earth, Jesus Christ has to struggle throughout life and be prepared to accept any fate that befalls Him in conformance with the will of His Father and the greater glory of redemption. Heroism to Milton is an essential characteristic in his Paradise Lost, which is why he begins clearly defining his conception of it just from the beginning lines of his epic in Book I. And in doing this, the obvious thing is to condemn the pagan conception of it and replacing it with the Christian hero. Something continuously sustained throughout his epic, especially in Books I to III where he emphasises these two contrasting heroes. In the invocation in Book I, Milton describes to us the essence of villainy in Satan and the basis of heroism in Christ. He begins with the negative first: Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav’nly Muse (I.1-6). The salient need for the words “Disobedience” and “Forbidden” are significantly emphasised here. That is to say, evil, emanating from disobedience, is the refusal to obey the laws of a society one belongs to, and in this case, man’s transgression of the authority of God. And the University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 15 end result is “Mortalilty,” “Death,” “”Woe,” and “Loss.” This suggests the results of such heinous acts. Heroism is then concisely and categorically expressed, that, we have lost Paradise till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat (I.4-5). In these lines “Restore” and “regain” are emphasised here: they are the words which sum up the basic and essential act of heroism, that is, the restoration of man to the lost paradise, demonstrated in Christ. The result of Christ’s heroic redemptive act is bliss. The contrasting characters of Satan and Christ are used over and again to delineate heroism in Books I to III by Milton. Milton travels expertly from the opening invocation to the main body of Paradise Lost by a bridge in the form of a direct question which needs our attention since it concerns “our Grand Parents:” Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State, Favour’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his Will For one restraint, Lords of the World besides? (I.34-44) It should be observed that, in just 11 lines of narration, Milton is able to recount to readers a concise description and the attributes of Satan in the serpent form, they are: guile (34), envy (35), deceit (35), pride (36), rebelliousness (37-41), ambition (41), and impiety (43). Not only is he the root of man’s misery, Satan also trampled on the fundamental rights of his peers then in Heaven, and Even Hell, for he tried “To set himself in Glory above his peers” (I.39). The blatant act of injustice by Satan is here equalled and even surpassed in the following lines: University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 16 He trusted to have equall’d the most High If he oppos’d; and with ambitious aim Against the Throne and Monarchy of God Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battle proud With vain attempt (I.40-44). Inferior Satan who attempts to equal “the most High” God (I.40) who created him, is as morally unjust just as it is logically the most absurdist attempt and physically impossible in human society. In order to ensure Satan is made a villain and a no Christian hero, Milton destroys all evidences of a repentant Satan, lest we may feel we are dealing with a prodigal son who is hopefully returning back home. Milton does this by calling the attention of readers to the characteristics of Satan in the serpent form: round he throws his baleful eyes That witness’d huge affliction and dismay Mixt with obdurate pride and steadfast hate (I.56-58). The hanging tough and adamant nature of Satan’s villainy, which is made evident by his eyes (“witness’d”), rules out the possibility of his repentant intention. It can be observed in these lines that Satan merits no other place than the adamantine “Prison” (I.71) to which, for his heinous “crime” (I.79), he has been sentenced by “Eternal Justice” (I.70). It can also be observed that, only at the end of this enormous portrait of the evil nature of Satan does Milton reveal his name. Even before he even does that, he adds one more epithet: “th’Arch-Enemy” (I.81). By not stating whose arch-enemy Satan is, Milton has given the epithet a universal application. The serpent, or Satan, whom we are now at last informed is “in Heav’n” (I.81), is not the enemy of God and of those loyal to Him only, he is an enemy of man, he is an enemy even of his own compeers. In short he is everyone’s enemy University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 17 as well; hence everyone should beware of his intrigues, his deception, his evil nature because he is on a quest to ruin the world. It should again be observed that, Milton without necessarily depending on the value judgment the name “Satan” evokes in Christians, he has emphatically and coherently and obviously built up the case against Satan. So we will ask: why will Milton try to jog our memory in a kind of logical examination? Why not simply tell us we are here dealing with Satan, the enemy of God and man, so that our previous knowledge of him in the Bible will guide us? The answer to these questions is that, Milton is attempting something “unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme” (I.16), as a way of justifying “the ways of God to men” (I.26), with the story of “Man’s First disobedience” (I.1). This Milton does by clothing the classical hero and Christian villain of his epic in the garb traditionally worn by the Achilleses, the Odysseuses, and the Aeneases of the ancient epics. This is clearly emphasised by Davis Harding in his The Club of Hercules: Studies in the Classical Background of Paradise Lost (1962). According to Harding (1962): For criticizing the brand of heroism which the life and death of Christ had relegated to a position of the second order, what more telling device was available to Milton than to embody the old heroism in Satan and then to discredit it by exposing its deficiencies and inadequacies? (50). Finally, it can be observed that, Satan’s portrait in Paradise Lost constantly shifts from appearance to reality and as it does so, it reveals over and again Satan’s characteristics, which are: hypocrisy, lies, deception, pride, villainy, disobedience, etc. On the other hand, the Son who is Jesus Christ, is the antithesis of the attributes of Satan mentioned above. Hence while Satan displayed pride towards God by rebelling, the Son was obedient by coiling Satan’s rebellion in Heaven; while Satan deceives the mother of mankind and causes her and Adam to also rebel against their “Maker,” the Son on the contrary becomes man’s “intercessor” and University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 18 “mediator” and “restorer.” In short, man’s restoration to the lost Eden after it is lost is made possible by the “better fortitude/ Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom” (IX.31-32) of all time, Christ. A critic of Milton’s God, William Empson, in his Milton’s God (1961), argues that, Milton’s God is a “bad God” because “He rules Heaven badly.” He creates a Heaven in which a quarter of the heavenly angels become defiant and rebels against His authority. He creates a Heaven in which Satan and other angels ignobly kowtow to His orders, yet they succeed in planning a rebellion to get Him overthrown. He fails in His attempt to win-over Satan’s obedience. Instead, He allows Satan to rebel against Him even though He foreknows of the rebellion. The end result of Satan’s rebellion is a chain of events leading to man’s fall in Paradise. Empson (1961) argues also that, God the Father deliberately allows Satan to break lose in Hell and journeys to Paradise and causes man to also rebel against his Father, and he falls from his Father’s grace. Empson (1961) continues that God puts offspring of Satan, Sin and Death in control of the gates of Hell and they allow their sire easy exit and he flies to the Earth. God the Father willingly lets Satan travel across Chaos to Paradise without letting a whiff of His divine breathe blow him back to Hell where he belong. That when Satan gets prospect of Paradise the first time, he is discovered by Gabriel and his subordinates, but God obsequiously creates an exit route and asks Gabriel to let Satan escape. God foreknowingly loosens the ability of Adam and Eve’s guards (the angels) and He makes them stooges to His whimper, and the consequences is the fall of man, which is God’s own calculated plan to execute. Hence a parent who plants a fatal tree in the midst of His loving children, foreknows the extent of damage that tree could cause to His children, yet looks on inactively when His children embark on the fatal action of tasting that fruit, is completely out of His senses, and that parent is Milton’s God. Empson (1961) continues that, God asks Raphael to expose Adam and Eve to the nature of the forbidden fruit as an obscured way of letting Satan exploit University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 19 them to successfully cause their fall. Empson (1961) goes further and says that, a God who punishes His first time offenders with everlasting suffering, woe, death, etc, is wickeder than any known society. Another critic of Milton’s God, Thomas Altizer, in his The Contemporary Jesus (1997) takes a contemporary revolutionary stand against God. Altizer (1997) calls Milton’s God an absolutist Father who permits a non-divine Son (the Son) to suffer the pain of death nailed to the cross in human form, not His divinity. However, Altizer (1997) emphasises the artistry of Paradise Lost which he says lies in man’s necessary fall, through which man gets redemption by the Son’s saving act, which has become a revolutionary epic discussion since then. To Altizer (1997): Even if Christ's nature is both divine and human, Christ totally died upon the cross, and not only both his soul and body died, but his divine nature succumbed to death as well as his human nature. At no point was Milton more revolutionary theologically, a theological revolution inseparable from the epic revolution of Paradise Lost, as for the first time in both theological thinking and poetic language itself death is known not only as an ultimate but as a divine event, and an event that is the sole source of redemption (118). Again, another Miltonist, Michael Bryson, in his book, The Tyranny of Heaven: Milton's Rejection of God as King (2004) argues that, Milton’s “Incarnate” Son in Paradise Lost is not a saviour as an exemplar whose life is a pacesetter for mankind. That is, the Son’s way of life on earth is a prototype example of how all Christians should live. To Bryson (2004), the Son is the Father’s “first born,” therefore He is “subordinate” to His Father. Further again, another Miltonist, Gregory Chaplin, in his book, Beyond Sacrifice: Milton and the Atonement (2010) also argues that, Milton’s De Doctrina Christiana reveals hidden secrets of “Arianism” in Milton’s portrayal of the Son of God in Paradise Lost and other works of art. According to Chaplin (2010) “The Son of God is a finite being, generated in time, whose exalted status depends on the will of the Father” (354). “Arianism,” is a heterodox heresy – as University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 20 we know it, – it is a Christology that does not believe in the Trinity (The three-person-one- God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) as the Bible teaches. Rather, Arians believe the Son is a create thing by the Father; therefore the He has a beginning and He is subordinate to His Father. However, Russell Hillier in his book, Milton’s Messiah: The Son of God in the Works of John Milton (2011), in converse exposition, professes that Milton textually believes in Orthodoxy, and his Son in Paradise Lost is homo-ousios (Father and Son are the same). To Hillier (2011), the Son does not only show the way: He is a “pre-existent” (He existed before nature); He is “hypostatic” (He is distinct from His Father God and all the Christian angelology); He is “theanthropic” (He is God and human both at the same time, because He was born by a woman, grew, crucified, died, resurrected and ascended back to Heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father); He is “passible” (He is susceptible to sensation, emotion and nervous shock like all humans); He is “preincarnate” (He existed before incarnation); and He is “incarnate” (He is a God in human form) Son of God who provides “soteriological” (salvation) needs for man in “prefallen” and fallen state. To Hillier 2011, “human restoration is predicated upon divine grace” and the “king-becoming graces” is evident in the Son’s “salvific role” (as discussed in the Heavenly Council in Book III and anatomised in Summary and Scene in Duration in the Linear Time Order in Chapter One below) in the Father and Son’s pre-fallen scene, and manifested in the Son’s role in the post- fallen discussion in the Heavenly Council in Book XI. These scenes therefore suggest man already found “grace” even before his fall. In Book III, the Father confesses to His Son that man shall fall due to Satan’s lies: Man falls, deceived By the other first; Man, therefore, shall find grace; The other none. In mercy and justice both, Through Heaven and Earth, so shall my glory excel; University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 21 But mercy, first and last, shall brightest shine’ (III.130-134). But man’s redemption has to be through someone who would have to die and redeem him. To do that the only begotten Son takes it upon Himself to die and restore man. Milton in an aftermath commentary (anatomised in Scene in Duration in the Linear Time Order in Chapter One below) on the Father and Son’s discussion in the Heavenly Council in Book III exclaims the Son’s redemptive love as “unexampl'd love/ Love nowhere to be found less than Divine” (III.410–11). Again, Milton in his theopathy confesses that “without redemption all mankind/ Must have been lost” (III.222–223). In Book XI, man sends his repentant prayer to the Father up. The Mediatory Son receives and presents it to His Father for consideration. The Father out of “grace” for man accepts it, but on condition that man is banished from Eden till his death and rebirth, which will be made possible by the Son’s death and resurrection. Back in Eden, in the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s intercessory prayer, Eve in her post-fallen emotional outburst confesses God’s divine grace to Adam: ‘infinite in pardon was my Judge’ (XI.167). Hillier (2011) therefore assert that: An exemplarist soteriology is insufficient to explain the exclusiveness of the Son's saving work for Milton's theology – (11). To Hillier 2011, “Mercy” is a very important attribute of God, and the only channel to God’s mercy is by the Son, who is, as it is, the “avatar and agent” who is working to bring redemption and total overhauling of humanity even before man’s fall, in man’s fallen state and after man’ fall, till in the Second Coming, when Jesus’ battle with Sin and Death would be won, uniting both Heaven and Earth in everlasting bliss. In simple terms, man in the fallen state is saved by grace and strengthened against Sin by Him who made him pure through the only begotten Son who doubles as both “Mediator” and “Intercessor” on behalf of fallen man, University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 22 lost Eden is restored to man. Hillier (2011) goes further in its defence of the Satan’s oneness with His Father and His saving grace: In Paradise Lost the Son exercises his privileges of primogeniture on behalf of a fallen world and ventures his worthiness as an atoning sacrifice for ‘Man / Thy creature late so lov'd, thy youngest Son’ – pg 16 (III.150–51). Therefore “the Son's intimacy and oneness with his Father secures human salvation and forms the basis for reconciliation between God and humanity” (16). According to Hillier (2011), man’s rebellion in Paradise is seen as a form of depravity that causes degeneration into sin, and then weaknesses, resulting in decay and death, before man is restored: In Milton's works sin is represented as enervating and pestilential. In Areopagitica sin is endemic, ungovernable, and ineradicable by human effort alone (17). In his Theological Milton: Deity, Discourse and Heresy in the Miltonic Canon (2006), Michael Lieb, another Miltonist, dedicates his thesis as a systematic investigation into especially Milton’s De Doctrina Christiana and Paradise Lost and concludes with a finding that, Milton is a heterodox, is extra-textual. To Lieb, Milton is an Orthodox, and evidence of Socinianism or Arianism in his texts, as argued by other Miltonists, are marginally insufficient. Lieb (2006) argues therefore that, Milton’s God is ontological; He “is beyond our knowing in any form, discursive or otherwise” (114), a dues absconditus (“hidden”) unknowable to human reason and His Son is “the embodiment of the passible in its sublimest form” (p. 31). William Poole in his Milton and the Idea of the Fall (2005) argues-out Milton’s own mind on the idea of the fall in Paradise Lost by locating “the dynamic, potentially dangerous Milton...against a contemporary background of countless other dynamic, potentially University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 23 dangerous projects.” Miltonists like Stanley Fish have argued about the story of man’s fall in Genesis 2 and 3, as retold in Milton’s grand style in Paradise Lost. Poole argues that Milton’s God uses a “certain circularity of phrasing when He comes to discuss the origins of disobedience” and that: Milton’s Arminian insistence on free will is balanced against his rather guarded estimation of man’s ability, even unfallen man’s ability, to use this freedom wisely (159). Desmond Hamlet in his “Recalcitrance, Damnation, and the Justice of God in Paradise Lost” (1976) argues that: One fundamental reason for our failure to appreciate Milton's fusion of dogma and drama in Paradise Lost and for our insistence on the “inexplicability of God's justice” in the poem is the evidently desperately felt need to fit God's ways into our own concepts of justice (271). In any case, why is here a need to justify God’s ways when He is, – Milton refers to Him as, – the author of all things? The answer is obvious. God’s ways need to be justified in order to better understand Him, so that, as God Himself says, His “Mercy first and last shall brightest shine” (III.134). God creates man and gives him free will as evidence of His infinite power and wisdom, not a contradiction of His own self. In creating man He knows he will fall, yet in his fallen state and the introduction of evil into the world, man’s transgression is turned into a greater good, made possible by the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection and the promise of the Second Coming when man is promised a seal to his woes, with everlasting bliss. Scholars on the issue of heroism have taken predominantly two entrenched positions, each arguing their case as who is the hero of Milton’s Paradise Lost (Satan or the Son). Those who argue on behalf of Satan are the Satanists and those who argue against Satan (for the Son) are University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 24 the Anti-Satanists. Satanists believe that, by all standards, Satan is the hero of the epic because, he rebels against God by defying His dictatorial style of ruling. One such Satanist is Raphael Jehuda Zwi Werblowsky who in his Lucifer and Prometheus: A Study of Milton’s Satan (1952) argues that Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost because he rebels against “the tyranny of Heav’n” (3). Werblowsky (1952) continues that, Satan, who he refers to as the “Great Enemy,” has nobler qualities, his loyalty to leadership, fortitude in adversity, unflinching courage and splendid recklessness usually comprehended by the adjective Promethean (3). To Werblowsky, these attributes of Satan is in conformity with Aristotle, hence they qualify him to be the hero of Paradise Lost. On the other hand, the Anti-Satanists believe Satan is no other person than a fool to be classified as hero. One such arguer is John Carey who in his “Milton’s Satan” (1989) argues that, Satan’s “hostility to Almighty powers” (135) is too frivolous and highly unnecessary, because God is omnipotent and omnipresent and He knows all things. Another Anti-Satanist, C. W. Lewis in his “Satan” (1965) argues that to “admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking” (203). Katharine Fletcher, a blogger on the blog titled “The Son:” The Characters of Paradise Lost (2008), argues that the Son is the hero of Paradise Lost, since He accepts to suffer the pain of death nailed to the cross and atone and redeem man and restore the fallen Paradise: Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life I offer, on mee let thine anger fall; Account me man (III.236-238). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 25 Fletcher states that the Son’s heroism in Paradise Lost is a “quiet one,” because it happens (in the prelapsarian/prefallen state) when man is still in his state of innocence. That is to say, the Son’s heroism is foretold by word of mouth; it does not form part of the major and minor actions in the linear story, hence not a “dramatic act.” It will be left to the Son to accomplish the saving act of heroism in human form “death for death” (III.212) on Earth (in the postlapsarian/postfallen state) after man is fallen and expelled from Paradise. To crown it all, R. H. McCallum in his “‘Most Perfect Hero:’ The Role of the Son in Milton’s Theodicy” (1969) argues that, by all standards, the Son most fits Milton’s conception of heroism. This is so because, unlike the Son, Satan has many flaws which make him more of a villain than a hero. Satan’s speeches throughout the poem are full of incoherencies and vaunts. He is deceitful, lies, ever ready to subdue, pervert, defy God’s authority, which he does. He took up arms and battled his creator (God the Father), which is a kind of insubordination unacceptable even in any human society till today. Hence, he best fits the pagan conception of heroism found in Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, etc. On the other hand, the “the better fortitude/ Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom” (IX.31-32) – who is the Son - He is obedient, nobler, patient, redeems and intercedes on behalf of fallen man, etc; hence He is fit to be called hero, much more, a Christian hero. Literature Review on Narratology There are two types of narratological discourse, a study of: story structure and narrative structure. The key essays to be discussed on the structure of the story are Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale (1928) and Tzevan Todorov’s Grammar of the Decameron (1969). For literature review on the structure of the narrative, we zero in on Roland Barthes’ S/Z (1970), Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980) and Gerard Genette’s Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (1982). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 26 Vladimir Propp, a Russian folklorist, in his Morphology of the Folktale (1928), analyses the basic plot components of many Russian folklores and fairy tales and groups them into 31 morphemic narrative functions called naratemes. He suggests that all the stories have these structural components, though not almost always, yet sequential. First, an initial situation is depicted and then the tale is categorised in the following sequence: 1. Absentation, (2) Interdiction, (3) Violation of Interdiction, (4) Reconnaissance, (5) Delivery, (6) Trickery, (7) Complicity, (8) Villainy or Lacking, (9) Mediation, (10) Beginning counteraction, (11) Departure, (12) First function of the donor), (13) Hero’s reaction, (14) Receipt of a magical agent, (15) Guidance, (16) Struggle, (17) Branding, (18) Victory, (19) Liquidation, (20) Return, (21) Pursuit, (22) Rescue, (23) Unrecognised arrival, (24) Unfounded claims, (25) Difficult task, (26) Solution, (27) Recognition, (28) Exposure, (29) Transfiguration, (30) Punishment, (31) Wedding. According to Propp (1928), some of these functions can be inverted. With this structure, Propp was able to place Russian folklore and fairytales into “syntagmatic” and “paradigmatic” axes. In the syntagmatic, the linear structure of the folklore is chronological (diachronic), while in the paradigmatic, the folklore is a-chronological, that is, binary opposites (synchronic). It can be observed that Propp’s structure is of the story of the tale. Moreover, it concerns itself with what Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov and Gerard Genette refer to as the what of the story (what the story is about), not the how of the narrative (how the story is narrated). Tzvetan Todorov, in his Grammar of the Decameron (1969), proposes a “narrative grammar” broken into “units of syntax” with which Boccaccio’s 100 short stories in The Decameron (1886) can be read. Todorov proposes that all the tales in Boccacio’s novella and other such tales can be grouped into propositional sequences, though not all the components are present University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 27 in all the stories, yet they appear sequentially. According to Todorov, there are three aspects of the narrative: semantic, syntactic and verbal, but he is much interested in syntax. Todorov in the tales observed that, there is a proposition and sequences in sentences and paragraphs evolving round characters, in terms of characters as nouns, their attributes as adjectives, and their actions as verbs. Todorov’s work is an exploration into the general grammatical structure of all narratives. In conclusion, Todorov asserts that, since there is a recurrence of certain grammatical plot structure, which is “a shift from one equilibrium to another” (75) in all the 100 tales in Boccacio’s novella, all narratives bear these attributes in terms of their grammar. In The Grammar of the Decameron (1969), Todorov states that three types of Attributes (states/situation, internal properties/character, and external conditions/external forces) and three Actions are evident in The Decameron. Todorov identifies three basic actions in The Decameron which a character may undertake: he may either modify a situation or transgress it or suffer in a form of punishment. Todorov’s propositions like Propp’s also concerns the structure of the story (the what), not the structure of the narrative (the how). Roland Barthes in his essay S/Z (1970) provides us with five codes of reading a text: “proaieretic code,” “hermeneutic code,” “semic code,” “referential code,” and “symbolic code.” The proairetic code is the code of action and it is made up of the plot and the events of the text. That is, everything pertaining to the function of the message of the text. The hermeneutic code is about the meaning behind the action. That is the theme of the text. The semic code is about semes of a character or the voice that creates a character in the text. The referential code refers us to life, or it is an exploration into science. That is, an explanation of real life matters of geography, culture, etc, in a chronological order. And finally, the symbolic code seems to present language and events in the text symbolically. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 28 Barthes also compares the “traditional text” to the “modernist text.” The former he calls the “lisible,” and the latter he calls the “scriptible.” The lisible is the “readerly text” with fixed meaning. The scriptable is the “writerly text” which includes the reader in creating meaning. A modernist text is an example of a writerly text while a traditional text is a readerly text. To Barthes, the reader has a role to play in creating meaning for the text. Unlike Propp’s and Todorov’s, Barthes’ narrative structure concerns itself with the how of the narrative. However, for my present purpose, Barthe’s codes are too linguistically centred (microtextual) to be useful in my study of the narrative structure of Paradise Lost. For such macrotextual study of the organisation of the story, we must turn to Gerard Genette in his study of the major categories of narrative discourse. In Gerard Genette’s structural text, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (1980), he divides a narrative structure into three categories: “Time,” “Mood,” and “Voice” and argues that all narratives have these macrotextual elements. In an expansion of his macrotextual system, Genette in Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982), compiles a list of recurring elements that can be found in almost always all texts and he proposes that a text cannot exist on its own without the influence of texts before it. This he calls “Transtextuality.” Roland Barthes in his essay ‘The Death of the Author’ (1967) puts it this way: A text is...a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations... The writer can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original. His only power is to mix writings, to counter the ones with the others, in such a way as never to rest on any one of them (223). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 29 Genette’s Transtextuality is categorised into five elements: “Intertextuality,” “Paratextuality,” “Metatextuality,” “Hypertextuality,” “Architextuality,” all also divided into various sub- categories. Genette’s structural elements would be somewhat useful in my study, especially since I intend to find out how far “th’Aonian Mount” represents the palimpsest of Paradise Lost. In other words, in Milton’s second objective (“to soar above th’Aonian Mount” I.14- 15), he intends to outdo all the ancient epics, and one of my intentions in this project is to find out how far is his epic not only influenced by Homer and Virgil the arch-type models of the epic genre, but to what extent he achieves his objective of “soar(ing) above” them. Of the five narratological essays discussed above, Propp’s and Todorov’s anatomised the structure of story, that is, the what of the narrative. On the other hand, Barthes’ and Genette’s Narrative Discourse dissect the structure of the narrative, that is, the how, whilst Genette’s Palimpsest is a combination of the what and the how. My main theoretical approach is a focus on the how of Milton’s narrative, and my main framework will be Genette’s Narrative Discourse especially the exposition on “Narrative Time” and its various categories and sub-categories. In my discussion of Milton’s second objective (the literary agenda), I will employ both Genette’s Narrative Discourse and Palimpsest as I place the various hypotexts side by side and juxtapose them all with Milton’s hypertext to determine whether he does “soar above th’Aonian Mount” or he takes a “middle flight” on his long epic journey. 1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This thesis uses Gerard Genette’s narrative categories: Time, Mood and Voice as a preferred system of inquiry into the three objectives of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Secondly, the last chapter will use Genette’s Palimpsest to discuss the deep and surface structures of Paradise Lost. My justification for using Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 30 (1980) and Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982) is based on the content of my topic. I intend to discuss the three objectives (1) man, (2) art, (3) God of Paradise Lost with emphasis on Time and how time is organised in the narrative. This is because Paradise Lost is very much obsessed with the linear History of Christians (the Holy Bible), from Genesis to Revelation. However, Milton mixes the sequence of events in a synchronic present, past, future. Hence the obvious theoretical framework which explains how time is concisely organised in a narrative is undoubtedly Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse (1980). At the second level in intend to look at Paradise Lost as a “palimpsestual” Christian epic, different from the iconic epics of Homer and Virgil whom it borrowed from. That is, while the iconic epics the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid, glorified men, Milton on the other hand glorified God. My thesis therefore also explores the intertextual elements of Paradise Lost and how Milton was successful in converting the pagan form into a Christian form. In that respect, the obvious theoretical framework will undoubtedly be Gerard Genette’s Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982). TIME The first narrative category in Genette’s macrotext is Time. Under Time, Genette sketches how time is organised in various ways in the narrative. He divides time into three parts: Order, Duration and Frequency. Order “Time Order” is described as the ordering or arrangement of time in the narrative (“recit” or “signifier”) as against the way the story actually occurred (“histoire” or “signified”). Under normal circumstances every story has a beginning, middle and an end, following a chronological order of occurrence. However, when the same story is narrated by a narrator, its chronology as a matter of necessity is likely to be broken (the end coming in middle way University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 31 through, the beginning coming in the end, etc), as a way of foregrounding the essential episodes of the story. For example the war in Heaven happens before Satan’s punishment, but in Paradise Lost (in terms of Narrative Time), it is recounted by Angel Raphael in Books V and VI in flashback (analepsis), after Satan’s fall has been narrated. This means in Narrative Time the war in Heaven is recounted after Satan leaves Hell for Eden, but in Story Time, the war in Heaven precedes Satan’s fall and his journey to Eden. This break in narrative chronology is what Genette calls “anachrony.” He defines anachrony as the “discordance” in the two temporal orders of “Story Time” and “Narrative Time.” Genette says there are many conditions for anachrony to occur in a narrative. The two main forms he refers to as “analepsis” (flashback, retrospection) and ‘prolepsis’ (flash-forward, anticipation). Analepsis is taking the story back in time (narrative time), to recount an incident which precedes the current, and prolepsis is a flash-forward, telling part of the story in time (ahead of those preceding it), just to break the chronology. The analepsis and prolepsis can be “Exterior” or “Interior” or “Mixed;” “Repetitive” or “Completive;” “partial” or “Complete.” “Exterior analepsis” is a flashback of an incidence outside the main narrative level; “interior analepsis” is a flash-back of an incident which was elided but retold; “mixed analepsis” is a flashback of an earlier event joining it to another told in the present. The same applies to prolepsis which advances an event later to occur in chronology as happens in Story Time but is told earlier in Narrative Time. Both analepsis and prolepsis as described above can be repetitive (be repeated several times) completive (the whole events told once), partial (telling bits of the events), complete (the whole events can be told). Other subcategories under Time Order are: “Homodiegetic” and “Heterodiegetic.” The former, Genette defines as any analeptic information on a character by the character himself; the latter he refers to as any analeptic information of a character narrated by an omniscient narrator who is not part of the story. In Paradise Lost for example, the omniscient narrator University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 32 introduces the characters to us and the characters speak and tell their own stories to a narratee. DURATION The second subcategory of Time is “Duration,” described as the narrative pace or speed by which the story moves. Genette divides Duration into five sub-categories: “Pause,” “Slow- down Scene,” “Scene,” “Summary,” “Ellipsis.” At Pause the narrator pauses to describe something that is not actually related to the narrative, thereby putting a stop to the Story Time in order to make way for the thing to be described. Slow-down-scene like a Pause is an authorial intrusion. But unlike Pause, Slow-Down-Scene is a pause which is not descriptive. Scene is an episode dedicated for dialogue. In Paradise Lost, the entire narrative is mainly segmented in scene and summary. Summary is a summation in few words of an episode. Ellipsis is said to occur when a large portion of the Narrative is elided, not talked about at length, or is alluded to. There are many types: Definite Ellipsis is when the ellipsis is indicated. Indefinite Ellipsis is when the ellipsis is not indicated. Explicit Ellipsis is when the ellipsis is unequivocal. Characterising Ellipsis is when the ellipsis is characterised or described. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 33 Implicit Ellipsis is when the ellipsis is not declared in the text and the reader has to infer from the gaps in chronology himself. FREQUENCY The last subcategory of Time is what Genette calls “Frequency.” Genette describes Frequency as the number of telling of an incident. There are three types: “Singulative frequency,” “Repetitive Frequency,” and “Iterative Frequency.” Singulative Frequency is subcategories into two: type 1 and type two. Type one is described as telling once what happens once; and type two is described as telling in times what happens in times. Repetitive Frequency is described as telling in many times what happened just once. Iterative Frequency is described as telling once what happened several times. MOOD The second category under Genettean Narrative Discourse is “Mood.” A narrative uses the indicative mood, because its function is basically to tell a story. Mood is therefore described as the name given to the different forms of the verb that are used to affirm more or less the thing in question, and to express the different points of view from which the action is viewed. Mood is subcategorised into “Distance” and “Perspective.” PERSPECTIVE Under Mood Perspective there are three things to bear in mind: “Point of View,” “Narrator” and “Character.” University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 34 Mood as Point of View has three subcategories in terms of Narrator and character: “Non- Focalization,” “Internal Focalization” and “External Focalization.” Focalisation simply means to bring to focus or view, hence Mood in terms of seeing, which is, the point of view. The three classifications of Focalization are the points of view from which the narration can be presented. “Non-Focalization/Focalization Zero” is where the focalizer (normally an omniscient narrator) narrates a story without restriction. Like in Paradise Lost, where the narrator is all- knowing therefore intrudes at every point in time to comment and continue the telling. Internal Focalisation either “fixed” or “variable” occurs where the narrator (sometimes a character in the story) tells as much as he/she knows. The character cannot tell what he/she has no idea about. External Focalisation occurs where the point of view is from outside, hence the narrator knows less than the character. DISTANCE Distance is referred to as how much or how little is told directly or indirectly. It is the distance between the Narrator and the Information. Under Distance we can talk of Mimesis and Diegesis. Whilst the former means what is shown, the latter means what is told. Diegesis is in drama where characters are imitated; hence they speak their own words and act their own actions. But a narrative can only tell from a point of view, (diegesis), even though some narratives tries to “show” the story by using the “Free Indirect Discourse,” and “Reported Discourse,” to achieve realism. Two things are narrated in a narrative: Events and Speech. In order words, in narrative, there are “Narration of Events” and “Narration of Speech.” University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 35 Genette refers to “Narration of Events” the conversion of the “non-verbal into the verbal.” Narration of Speech is an imitation of speech. Genette identifies three main types of indirect speech in relation to Narration of Speech: “Narrativized Discourse,” “Transposed Discourse,” “Free Indirect Discourse,” and “Reported Discourse.” Narratized or Narrativized Discourse is described as the most distant and reduced, because of the presence of the narrator; Transposed Discourse is also indirect discourse but here the speech is altered but at the same time keeping the essential features (Indirect Transposed Discourse); Free Indirect Discourse or FID is where the character’s words or action is reported by the narrator without using the subordinate conjunction. “Direct Discourse” or “Reported Discourse” or “Immediate Discourse.” Here the narrator gives the floor to the character; and his/her words are cited verbatim. VOICE Voice is the voice of the narrator, not that of the author. Genette subcategorises Voice into three: “Time of Narration,” “Narrative Levels,” and “Person,” all operating at the same time in a narrative. TIME OF NARRATION Since a story cannot be told without stating when it took place, Time is therefore an essential element in a narrative, because the tenses of the verb have to be used. Genette distinguishes four types of Narrative Time: “Ulterior Time of Narration,” “Anterior Time of Narration,” “Simultaneous Time of Narration,” and “Interwoven Time of Narration.” Under Ulterior Time of Narration, the narration is in the past tense. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 36 Under Anterior Time of Narration, the narration is in the present tense throughout, like in football commentary. Interwoven Time of Narration depends on the infinite forms, example: infinitive, participles, etc in the telling. NARRATIVE LEVELS Narrative Levels describes the various levels of narration and how the various characters in the narrative relate to these levels. Some characters may be described as being inside the story, while others are outside. There are three Narrative Levels: ‘Extradiegetic,’ ‘Intradiegetic,’ and ‘Metadiegetic.’ Extradiegetic Level of Narration is when the level and characters are outside the story, like the preamble to a story. Intradiegetic Level of Narration is the level of events as they unfold in the story. Metadiegetic Level of Narration is the level of story within story. For example, in Paradise Lost Eve tells her own story of how she came to being. According to Genette, “Metalepsis” occurs when all three or one of them is not used in the normal way. PERSON “Person” under Voice is the voice of the speaker (Narrator), not the author. Person is divided into two: “Heterodiegetic,” and “Homodiegetic.” Heterodiegetic is an omniscient narrator (narrator outside the story), telling the stories of the characters. Homodiegetic is a narrator in the story telling his own story or that of others. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 37 The Palimpsest of Genette is made up of five elements he calls “Transtextuality,” all elements of texts in a text. They are: “Intertextuality,” “Paratextuality,” “Metatextuality,” “Architextuality” and “Hypertextuality.” Intertextuality is the presence of one text in an earlier text in the form of quotation, plagiarism and allusion. Paratextuality is in the form of textual transmission. They include titles, subtitles, prefaces, forewords, etc. Metatextuality embodies commentaries and other such things which are critical elements of the text. Architextuality is “the entire set of general or transcendent categories – types of discourse, modes of enunciation, literary genres” (pg. 10). Hypertextuality which is the main subject of Genette’s Palimpsest, is referred to as Any relationship uniting a text B (which I shall call the hypertext) to an earlier text A (I shall, of course, call it the hypotext), upon which it is grafted in a manner that is not that of commentary (10). Hence hypertext “evokes” or is derived from hypotext in a form of “transformation” without necessarily citing it. 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY Although the complex clauses of the Invocation in Book I begin with “Man” first (I.1-2), art second (I.12-16), and God last (I.26), it certainly does not follow that this represents Milton’s scale of priority. My thesis therefore intends to find out which of the purposes is primary. Therefore, under the ethical objective, I intend to show the ethical basis of man’s fall (who is the cause, man or Satan?); under the literary agenda, I intend to show how far Milton’s epic “soar(s) above th’Aonian Mount” as I compare it to the ancients; and under the theological issue, I shall find out how far Paradise Lost is doctrinaire in its theology, hence worthy to be considered a Christian text. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 38 1.4 LIMITATION OF STUDY A project of this nature, which discusses the macrotextual recit, in the context of a tripartite objective, cannot examine in in-depth all 12 Books of Paradise Lost since that will lead to tedious duplication and replication. Therefore there will be judicious and relevant selection and suppression of Books in order to treat in detail those Books whose relevance is evident in discussing the three objectives of the poem. Besides, the Books that help in discussing the objectives cannot be dealt with at the same depth. Six of the twelve Books therefore (Books I & II of the prelapsarian/prefallen state, Books IX & X of the lapsarian/fallen state, and Books XI & XII of the postlapsarian /post-fallen state) which I consider as being the most germane in Milton’s three objectives, will be used as focal centre of my discussion. Finally, Milton is writing an epic in the tradition of Homer and Virgil; therefore the structure of his poem is influenced by the epic structure as stipulated by Aristotle and practised by the two ancient poets, Homer and Virgil. However, this thesis concentrates on the general narrative structure of Milton’s epic which focuses on the discussion of the narrative discourse. By this method, it is hoped that the epic structure may be more profoundly discerned as the texture of the whole epic body is anatomised and revealed narratologically. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY Milton’s purpose of writing Paradise Lost is to justify God’s ways to mankind. Three objectives are his path to achieve this purpose: thematic (man’s ethical status), aesthetic (Milton’s artistic status), and religious (God’s theological status). Of these three, Milton’s invocation places man’s status first, Milton’s own status second, and God’s status last not deliberately in order of relevance but as situated within his grammatical taxonomy. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 39 My narratological study will ultimately arrange the objectives in an order which will best appear to reflect Milton’s own determinism. And that will be one of the findings of this project. The significance of the study then will reflect the place of Milton’s work in the area of ethics, literary excellence and Christian religion. 1.6 METHODOLOGY In order to achieve the set objectives, my research follows these two procedures. (1) A textual analysis of the three objectives of the epic Paradise Lost in the light of Genettean “Time,” “Mood” and “Voice,” with emphasis on Time since time is a crucial element in the entire narrative, using Gerard Genette’s Narrative Discourse an Essay in Method (1980), in order to find out which of the three objectives “man,” “art,” “God” Milton places premium on. (2) It is also an intertextual discussion of Paradise Lost in the light of its hypotexts basically the King James Bible, and the iconic epics of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid. By so doing, I used Gerard Genette’s Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree (1982) to find out how far Milton borrows from the iconic epics and the Bible and how far he differs in his ambitious epic journey. Other primary sources that will be of importance will be consulted. Secondary sources that are relevant to my topic will also be consulted. They include critical works, scholarly articles, journals, essays, interviews, papers, discussions, etc, with emphasis on the structure and how time is of the essence in the poem. 1.7 RESEARCH QUESTION Milton outlines three objectives in Paradise Lost: (1) he intends to explain the reason why man fell from God’s grace until his restoration (I.1-5), (2) he intends to write an epic that according to him will “Soar above th’Aonian Mount” (14-15), and finally, he intends to use the story of the fall of man to “justify the ways of God to men.” (26). My research questions University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 40 then are: Is Milton writing another version of the Bible such as a Miltonic Bible? Which of the three objectives comes out most strongly in his epic (man, art, or God)? Finally is Milton successful in justifying God’s ways to men? 1.8 ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS The thesis has been organised and presented in Four Chapters. Preceding the chapters is the Introduction, and following the fourth chapter is the Conclusion. The Introduction explores Background of Study. That is, Preliminary Remarks and Milton’s Purpose in writing Paradise Lost. It also includes Literature Review on Paradise Lost and Narratology. Literature Review on Paradise Lost focuses on critics and scholars who have examined various aspects of Paradise Lost, especially as relates to its structure and epic theme. Literature Review on Narratology encapsulates some selected narratological and structural works of some writers most especially Genette. The Introduction also includes Theoretical Framework, Objectives of Study, Limitation of Study, Significance of Study, Research Methodology and Research Question. Chapter One discusses the Linear Narrative Level, the Anachrony and the Linear Time Order; Chapter Two discusses the Anachronous Time Order and the Epic Plot in Paradise Lost. Chapter Three discusses Mood & Voice (Narration of Events/Narration of Speech), contrasting the presence of Narrator/Character, and also emphasising Mimesis/Diegesis duality. And Chapter Four discusses Surface Structures and Deep Structures in Paradise Lost; that is, the epic architecture of the entire narrative edifice in the light of the three objectives and the palimpsestual influence on the work. The thesis ends with the Conclusion of the study. It offers the researcher’s concluding remarks on the structure of the narrative, with the findings that Paradise Lost is not a University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 41 Miltonic Version Bible (first and third objectives), but a work of art borrowing from the King James Version of the Bible with a foundation firmly rooted in the best tradition of the classical epic, hence upholding the vision of Milton’s second objective (“to soar/ Above th’Aonian Mount”). I conclude that Paradise Lost above all things is a great work of art, a masterpiece by all standards and stands supreme as one of the greatest works of art ever written anywhere and at any time, and this puts Milton among the greatest poets ever. Conclusion will try to reiterate the reasons for these findings and suggest recommendations and the way forward. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 42 CHAPTER ONE THE LINEAR TIME ORDER Summary of the Linear Narrative Level The linear narrative level (story time) begins with Satan’s rise from the burning lake of Hell sometime after his expulsion from Heaven, followed immediately by the building of Pandemonium and the debate in Hell where the demons plan against man (Bks. I & II). The linear narrative continues in Books III and IV with Satan’s journey out of Hell into Paradise. The level continues in Bk. IX where man falls into temptation, disobeys God and falls from Paradise losing grace as a consequence (Bks. IX & X). The Fall results in Expulsion (Bk. XI) and Book XII ends the story with prediction of the future and future redemption by Christ. Hence six books constitute the linear story: Books I, II, III, IV, IX and X; that is, half the twelve books. The other six books are anachronous in the form of Analepses (V, VI, VII and VIII) and Prolepses (Books XI and XII). We may however observe that Book IV is not all linear, only half the book fall within the scope of story time. The first major analysis begins in line 561 of Book V through to the end (line 907) and continues in Book VI through to Book VIII. Story time may be summarised as follows: Satan and his legions, now fallen, assemble to a council in Hell (Book I). In the “Council of Pandemonium” in Book II, they settle on the fall of man. As the session ends, Satan flies to the gates of Hell to negotiate passage to the “new world.” In Book III, Satan arrives in the new world, and his presence is not unnoticed in Heaven. In the Heavenly Council, the Father tells His Son that Satan shall “pervert” man, because man will listen to his “glozing lies” (III.93). The Father adds that, after man’s fall, man shall be restored by “grace” in Him if someone intercedes on man’s behalf. The Son agrees to be man’s intercessor and mediator. Meanwhile on Earth, Satan transforms himself University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 43 into a “stripling Cherub” and implores Uriel’s assistance and she directs him to Paradise. In Book IV Satan arrives in Paradise and finds Adam and Eve. He envies them and wishes they were fallen. Adam and Eve come under the “Tree of Knowledge” and they begin to converse. Meanwhile, Satan hidden on that same tree eavesdrops in their conversation and learns they are forbidden to taste of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Later, Adam and Eve go to sleep and Satan whispers in Eve’s ear. A while later, Satan who is spotted by Eve is driven out of the Garden. In part of Book V (line-560), Adam and Eve wake up. The latter tells the former of a bad dream she had in the night and the former soothes her. After their daily devotion, they go out together to work. Back in the Heavenly Council, the Almighty Father instructs Raphael to go to Eden and warn Adam and Eve to beware of Satan who intends to deceive them and cause their fall. In Book IX, Satan now emboldened in guile steals himself into Paradise again and transforms himself into a “Serpent.” On the eighth morning, Eve requests they go to work in their separate ways. Satan finds her alone and he deceives her to taste the “Forbidden Fruit.” She takes the same fruit to Adam who out of solidarity for his partner also tastes it. Their appetite for sex becomes sharpened and they have a sexual encounter. In Book X, Adam and Eve’s disobedience is immediately known in Heaven and the Son is dispatched to Eden to pronounce judgment on the fallen pair and Satan. This ends the linear time order. Summary of the Anachrony The narrative structure of Paradise Lost is such that, outside the two major anachronies of analepsis and prolepsis, there are several minor anachronies in analepsis and prolepsis scattered all over the narrative. But the major analepsis (Book V-VIII) and prolepsis (Book XI and XII) are the dominant features of the anachrony. ANALEPSIS University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 44 In the middle of Book V, the major Analepsis begins. Raphael recounts the enthronement of the “only Son” as the “Messiah anointed,” heir to Heaven. In Book VI, he recounts the rebellion in Heaven between the “Militants of Heaven” versus Satan’s “Legions.” Satan lost the struggle and he and his rebels were “hurled headlong” down to “bottomless perdition,” in “ever-burning sulphur.” In Book VII, Raphael recounts the story of the creation of the World by the “Messiah anointed king” in six days; created on the instruction of the “Eternal Father,” In Book VIII, Adam tells his original story. PROLEPSIS In Books XI and XII, Michael reveals the outcome of man’s disobedience to Adam, till the Son’s restoration mission on Earth is accomplished, and His promise of the Eschaton. The Genettean Time Oder Genettean Time Order is the order in which time is ordered in the narrative. That is, “Narrative Time” as against “Story Time,” since an event occurs at a particular time and narrated at a different time. Genettean Time Order includes “Linear Time Order” and “Anachronous Time Order.” In the epic tradition, narration is done through a mixture of linear and anachronous order because of the unity of action. The epic being a grand project contains several actions, and unity of action is designed to separate the main (central) action from the many other actions. Hence the story starts in “the middle of things” so as to isolate the main action as the starting point of the story, then through flashbacks the story is thrown back to earlier times and actions so as to explain how we get to where the story starts. Through this synchronic time order the reader or audience never loses sight of the central action and is able to focus on it throughout the narrative despite the up and down movements of time and action. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 45 This synchronic time order is evident in Paradise Lost, in its manipulation of time to ultimately achieve a synchronisation of time to give an illusion of simultaneity in which new events are constantly being explained by old events with the main action always on the mind of the reader due to propinquity. Because of this crucial place of time in the overall thematic preoccupation of the epic, my analysis of the narrative structure of Paradise Lost will focus on Time, starting with the Linear Time Order, which is the direct story, and then the Anachronous Time Order, being the indirect story. Story Time In a preface to his Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis (1970), literary critic and numerologist Alastair Fowler places numerology in metrical patterns and structure and proposes that “most good literary works...were organised at this stratum from antiquity until the eighteenth century.” On page thirty-two of his book, Fowler (1970) argues that the Story Time of Paradise Lost is thirty-three days and “is an allusion to the years of Christ’s life.” Fowler’s argument is emphasised by Sherry Lutz Zivley in her essay “The Thirty-Three Days of Paradise Lost” (2000) in which Zivley clarifies Fowler’s findings by stating in sequential order the everyday incidents as they unfold in the story. Out of the thirty-three days and nights of Story Time, Gabor Ittzes in an essay “Satan’s Journey through Darkness: Paradise Lost 9.53-86” (2007) argues that, “Satan travels at least three and as much as ten full days and have located him on the surface of the earth as well as on the celestial poles” (12). That is to say, Satan’s ups and downs journey from Hell to Eden takes ten days before he finally gets prospect of Eden in his second attempt and causes man’s fall. Direct references to Satan’s ten days journey to Eden as part of Story Time in Paradise Lost are as follows: in Book III, Satan who earlier breaks jail in Hell arrives in the ‘oppacous University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 46 Globe’ at night (III.418-441). On that same night, Satan keeps traversing the ‘Globe’ until ‘dawning light’ appears (III.500). On that day, after Uriel warns Gabriel of Satan’s jailbreak, evening falls (IV.598). In the night, Satan who is spotted in Eden is driven out of the Garden, and together with “the shades of night,” he “fled” (IV.1013-1015). When day breaks in the following morning Adam wakes up (V.1-3). In Book IX, following his first attempt on Eve, Satan’s movement in Eden is described by Milton as follows: The space of seven continu’d Nights he rode With darkness, thrice the Equinoctial Line He circl’d, four times cross’d the Car of Night From Pole to Pole, traversing each Colure; On the eighth return’d, and on the coast averse From entrance or cherubic watch, by stealth From unsuspected way (IX.63-69). Finally, on the following day, Satan deceives Eve and she tastes the “Forbidden Fruit” at “Noon” (IX.739). Narrative Time A poem in Latinate style, made of ten thousand lines and allusions, with movements from Heaven to Hell to Eden, and shifts from present to past again and again, Paradise Lost is an extremely difficult poem because of its language. Therefore it will take a careful reader to follow Milton’s elaborate sentence structure. ‘Narrative Time’ therefore is determined by the pace of the individual reader. The Linear Time Order starts from Satan’s rise from Hell in the prelapsarian/prefallen state (Books I, II, III and IV), which is “in the middle of things” and continues in the lapsarian/fallen state (Books IX and X) where Satan gets prospect of Eden and causes the main action of ‘man’s disobedience.’ University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 47 In my discussion of Time Order, Linear and Anachronous, I will explore the two other subcategories of Genettean Time – Duration and Frequency, to examine Milton’s thematic purpose. I shall first observe Milton’s application of Time Duration. In the linear time order the dominant use of Duration is Scene and Summary followed by Ellipsis, Slow-Down-Scene and Pause. SUMMARY IN DURATION The author’s use of summary in the prelapsarian and lapsarian stages of the linear time order is EXTENSIVE, especially in the narrators’ (omniscient and internal) use of various flashbacks on Satan’s rebellion in Heaven and the prolepses that foreshadows man’s rebellion in Eden which is the main action of the poem. However, the profound summaries are manifested in the prelapsarian Book One lines 128-132, Book Two lines 689-695 and Book Three lines 80-95. In the prelapsarian Book I Satan speaking to Beelzebub says: O Prince, O Chief of many Throned Powers That led th’imbattled Seraphim to war Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds Fearless, endager’d Heav’n’s perpetual King; And put to proof his high Supremacy, ... (I.128-132). The characters Satan and Beelzebub rise up from the burning lake of Hell fire and they begin to lament about their fallen state. Satan tells Beelzebub that his fallen state has not changed him in any way. Beelzebub through analeptic summary responds that, Satan rallied the Angels together for the war in Heaven which they lost to the tyrant God. In his summary, Beelzebub accords Satan the epithet “Prince,” “Chief,” under whose command the rebellion was staged against “Heav’n’s perpetual King” (I.128-132). In the prelapsarian Book II Satan’s offspring, Death, says: University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 48 Art thou that Traitor Angel, art thou hee, Who first broke peace in Heav’n and Faith, till then Unbrok’n, and in proud rebellious Arms Drew after him the third part of Heav’n’s Sons Conjur’d against the highest, for which both Thou And they outcast from God, are here condemn’d To waste Eternal days in woe and pain? (II.689-695). In this conversation, Satan flies to the Gates of Hell to find a way to the earth. He meets Sin and Death and they converse. Satan speaks first. In his speech, Satan disguises himself as “Spirit of Heav’n” II.687 who wants an exit. However, Death exposes his deception. Death through summary goes back in time to recall the story of Satan rallying a quarter of the angels to a rebellion in Heaven. By so doing, Death refers to Satan as a “Traitor Angel.../ Who first broke peace in Heav’n and Faith” (II.689-695). In Book III God the Father speaks for the first time to His Son: Only-begotten Son, seest thou what rage Transports our adversary, whom no bounds Prescrib’d, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains Heapt on him there, nor yet the main Abyss Wide interrupt can hold; so bent he seems On desperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head. And now Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way Nor far off Heav’n, in the Precincts of light, Direct towards the new created World, And Man there plac’t, with purpose to assay If him by force he can destroy, or worse, By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert; For man will heark’n to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole Command, Sole pledge of his obedience... (III.80-95) In the Heavenly Council summary in Book III, God goes forward in time to tell of Satan’s success in perverting man. In His flashforward summary, God indicates in His “foreknowledge” that, man’s rebellion will be staged due to Satan’s “lies,” and He God Himself allows the fall. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 49 The summaries in the prelapsarian form a paradigmatic axis: the first two (Books I and II) focus on Satan’s past action (Satan’s rebellion in Heaven) and the third (Book III) focuses on Satan’s role in causing the main action (man’s rebellion in Eden). In the first two summaries, we build a clear understanding of what Satan has been through (rebelled and consequentially fell), and why he is on a quest to cause man to also rebel against his maker. Since Satan’s search for revenge against man sometime when he has been expelled from Heaven, begins the linear time, the theme of Book I is the fall of Satan and the beginning of rebellion. The summary in Book II gives us additional information about Satan’s ambition (“Drew after him the third part of Heav’n’s Son”) II.692 in his military campaign, which though failed, yet upholds him as God’s antagonist at the highest level. In Book II, Satan’s mission to cause a rebellion has already begun and his flight to the gates of Hell where a flashback summary on his past rebellion is told by Death, informs us about his intention against man. In view of this, the theme for Book II is Satan’s journey to Eden. In Book III, the Summary of the Heavenly Council foretells the future incident (the fall of man), which is the main action of the story. Book III summary continues to build the character of Satan as a hero whose ambition transcends any depiction of heroism by all ancient standards. Hence the subject for Book III is Satan’s success foretold. It can be observed therefore that, these thematic summaries are manifested in scenes, all narrated by characters other than those in discussion, and all are in the prelapsarian. And since this is a linear time order, the summaries of the first Two Books go to a time outside the story (exterior), to fill in the elided story (Satan’s rebellious action), which is the precursor to the main action (man’s rebellious action); and Book Three summary goes to a time internal to the story (interior) foreshadowing the main action. The first two Books have undetermined “reach” (we do not know when Satan staged the rebellion) and an “extent” of a few lines of narration (it took seconds to read); and Book Three has a reach of eleven days (from the day University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 50 the first Heavenly Council is held to the day the main action is done) and an extent of a few lines of narration (it took seconds to read). The shortness of the extent of the first two books indicates the author does not place premium on the past rebellion, because that is not his main action, rather premium is placed on the shortness of the future action (Book III summary) which is the main action and eleven days reach. Books I and II introduce the character of Satan as a fallen but vengeful pagan hero bent on destroying man; they are Books of summaries foreshadowing the cause of the main action (Satan), since all the summaries are a discussion of Satan who will influence the fall by deceit. Book III summary is a flashforward of Satan’s accomplished mission of influencing the main action which is the tasting of the forbidden fruit. In these summaries, the characters within the story especially God g