毎日英語学習

こんにちは

毎日英語の文章に触れています

ここでは触れた文章のアウトプットを行なっています

テキスト代わりに読んでもらえると幸いです

今回のテーマは”『失楽園』”です

日本人にはあまり馴染みのないテーマですが

一度は聞いたことがあるのではないでしょうか。

Paradise Lost

John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) is a vast, detailed rendition of humankind’s fall from innocence as told in the biblical book of Genesis.

Considered the finest epic poem on English, Milton’s masterpiece is important not only as landmark in Western literature but also as an influential work of the Protectant Reformation.

Paradise Lost is written in blank verse —— unrhymed iambic pentameter a structure with five two-syllable feet per line.

Shakespeare used blank verse in many of his plays, but Milton significantly expanded its possibilities and applications.

He also made extensive use of the epic simile, a type of long, complex comparison that Homer and other classical poets used frequently in their epics.

As Paradise Lost opens, Satan and other fallen angels have just rebelled against God and lost the war in heaven.

As punishment, God has cast them into hell.

Desiring revenge, Satan and his followers decided to try to corrupt huhumankind, God’s most prized creation.

Satan sneaks out of hell and enters Eden.

As Adam and Eve sleep, Satan disguise himself as a toad, whispers into Eve’s ear, and avows the seeds of discontent.

Aware of Satan’s plot, God sends the angel Raphael to warn Adam.

When Satan returns to Eden, he convinces her through flattery and cunning to disobey God and eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

Adam despairs upon learning of Eve’s deed but makes a conscious decision to eat the fruit as well, as he would rather join Eve in her fallen condition that continue to live inEden without her.

After a visit from the archangel Michael, Who shows Adam a vision of the misfortunes that await huhumankind, Adam and Eve leave Eden “hand in hand,” shedding tears, “wand’ring and slow.”

Villains are often the most interesting characters in literary works, and Paradise Lost is no exception.

Satan is the most complex, fully realized, and fascinating figure.

He is an antihero, demonstrating vision, leadership, and eloquence but directing those qualities toward prudent, selfish ends.

Moreover, he is not blindly evil but rather very self-aware, tormented by the wretched knowledge thatGod has banished him.

Ultimately, satan comes as a tragic figure —— a theological twist that prompted some of Milton’s detractors to accuse him, literally, of too much sympathy for the devil.