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Teachers' Resource Web Paradise Lost Review Sheet Vicki Silver, UCI You might locate these ideas and features and frame them into a theory about Milton's manner of justifying the ways of God to men. Motifs: ascent/descent/rising/falling/exaltations/elevation/aspiring/reaching/falling tyranny/imperialism/conquest/thunder/arms/servitude/prohibition/forbidding knowledge/reason/food/fruit/taste/reach "fixed" minds/inner realities courtly/sensuous/irrational idiom erring/wandering/falling/standing art/technology/fire/mining ear/understanding/susceptibility fruit/fruits/fruition/seed wanton/fierce (pre- and post-lapsarian nature/psychology) surfeit/superfluity/satiation/surcharge/abundance/consumption degree/scale/gradation/gradual/several gods/godhood/godlike/godliness "hardening" of hearts/materialism/grossness/wounds/distemper/discord "fit" audience/auditors/ear/regeneracy/sinfulness flowers/vines/ivy/roses/myrtles/decay chance/hap/lot/fate refinement/trial/regeneration/respiration/ascent darts/fatal/mortal Themes self-reflexive/recoiling action of sin/solipsism/narcissism determinism/free will/sufficiency/obedience/liberty/choice naming/styling/fabling/feigning/shape-shifting/hypocrisy/ornament/outward show materialism/fatalism/self-generation Trinity and anti-Trinity/three/heaven and hell parallels cosmic organicity/animation/physiology/natural law hierarchy/relationship/faculties/senses/order/usurpation/submission/obedience pre- and post-lapsarian nature/faculty psychology/reason/rationalism/fancy unity/multiplicity sin/corruption/infection/promiscuity/surfeit/rapacity language/efficacious words/the Word/rhetoric/deception/signs/footsteps/types knowledge/intuition/perception/speculation bringing good from evil/providence/omniscience/felix culpa relationship/sympathy/intercession/mediation/grace/prayer/vicarious atonement Modes invocation/muses/narrative and poetic authority tenses double syntax/ambiguity mimetic syntax/ascent/descent/pause/confusion antithesis/antimetabole/paradox/oxymoron narrator's interpolations/exclamations typological significance epic similes/subversive/digressive/delusive/apt narrative hesitations or qualifications: "or"/"if"/"seemed" pagan analogues hyperbole/circumlocution/chaotic syntax soliloquy/apostrophe/idolatry/animism (the latter two are modes cum themes) language "accommodated" to human understanding/inspiration/prophecy/narrative atoning or sacrificial "me"/despairing or fallen "me" all forms of verbal or structural repetition
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