Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Paradise lost
One of our quizzes contained the question, "Do you need to know the Bible to understand Paradise lost?". I began thinking more in depth about this question and the answer I came up with was no. Bible stories are heard by most and simply hearing the short story of Adam and Eve would give one an idea of what Paradise lost is about but Milton has added plenty of his own story to that of Adam and Eve as well as borrowing from other stories as well. Understanding the Bible is not required to read and understand Paradise Lost but it may help somewhat just to know some of the background behind the epic poem. Personally I do not find this story very interesting because it embellishes too many idea's and adds too many details so I feel as if the poem loses some of its power as compared to if it did not.
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I too feel you don't have to have an immense knowledge of the Bible in order to understand this story. Mostly everyone knows a Bible story or two, especially about Adam and Eve which is the basis of "Paradise Lost." The story had good depth and a good meaning it just at times went "too deep" which left me in suspense and a little confused. I think I interpreted some things wrong and other things I couldn't even find an interpretation to in my mind. The things I did draw from it were positive and I think the idea behind the whole thing was good. It was extremely long, but it had good material within.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that you don't have to know the Bible in order to understand Paradise Lost. After all, I will openly admit that I do not know the Bible very well at all and I believe that I understood Paradise Lost fairly well.
ReplyDeleteI think there was just too much information at times. Sometimes I felt as if Milton was just adding information to show that he was intelligent enough to do so, and that kind of irritated me. There were times where I just wanted to quit reading, but I pushed myself to finish it, even though I really didn't want to.
I think that you are right when you say that you do not have to have a deep knowledge of the Bible in order to understand what Milton was writing when he wrote Paradise Lost. Here is my reason behind it. I think Milton strays pretty far from the Bible in telling this story. I agree with you when you say that he embellishes and adds a ton of detail. I really think that this story strayed far enough from the Bible that people really did not need to know the Bible in order to understand the story Milton was trying to tell. Good thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYou do not need to have a deep understanding of the bible, however, you do at least need to know some of the basics. I believe that Milton wrote this epic poem to show the world how all the different religions/views, if put together form this illusive story. For if you do not know the world then you do not know yourself. It is always better to have a vast knowledge of little things then to have intense knowledge on just one subject. To me Milton did a fantastic job in his epic poem. It might be that I see the world differently or that I do not proclaim a Religion, I do not know. The epic poem Milton drew, is a story told by different views.
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