Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Huffman, Clifford. | Pfeiffer, Douglas
Date
2013-12-01
Keywords
British and Irish literature
Department
Department of English.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77578
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Modern criticism on John Milton's Paradise Lost has figured the poem as anti-rhetorical in its depictions of God, Satan, and their respective speaking styles. Such critiques, however, reveal a disregard for the rhetorical tradition and Milton's self-proclaimed humanism, and as a result reduce Milton's conception of rhetoric to a rejection of the art form. With an overview of humanist and Renaissance Christian understandings of rhetoric, this paper argues for a reconsideration of the poem's treatment of rhetoric. This paper demonstrates how Milton's depiction of the speech of God and Satan presents the reader with examples of ideal and corrupted eloquence respectively in order to educate the reader about the benefits and dangers of rhetoric. | 46 pages
Recommended Citation
Newhouse, Libby, "Milton's Ideal Orator: God and Ethical Eloquence in Paradise Lost" (2013). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3378.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3378