Page 189 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 21: Paradise Lost-I (Non-detailed Study):

Discussion and Analysis–II

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction

21.1 Book–V

21.1.1 Summary: Prologue and Invocation
21.2 Book–VI

21.2.1 Summary: Prologue and Invocation
21.3 Book–VII

21.3.1 Summary: Prologue and Invocation
21.4 Book–VIII

21.4.1 Summary: Prologue and Invocation

21.5 Summary
21.6 Keywords

21.7 Review Questions

21.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Explain prologue and invocation of Book V-VIII
• Discuss the analysis of Book V-VIII.

Introduction

Eve's dream at the start of Book V is an obvious foreshadowing of the actual temptation scene in Book
IX. This foreshadowing, however, is also ironic in that the reader already knows that Eve and Adam
will yield to the temptation of Satan. Thus, rather than being simply an instance of foreshadowing,
Eve's dream is confirmation and emphasis on what the eader knows must and will happen. Further,
by bringing up the dream at this point in the text, Milton makes the reader analogous to God. Both
God and the reader know that Adam and Eve will fall, but neither the reader nor God is the cause of
that fall. Consequently, when Adam tells Eve that the dream will not come true, that it is bred of fear
rather than reason, the reader, once again like God, knows that Adam is wrong but can do nothing to
help him.

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