The corporeality of 'Paradise Lost' (England, John Milton)

This study arises out of the conviction that Milton scholarship has not yet given sufficient attention to the importance of physiological events and experiences in Milton's Paradise Lost. I argue that corporeality energizes the epic and claim this to be a consequence of Milton's unwillingness to recognize any distinction between body and spirit. As a materialist monist, Milton insists that body and spirit are not separate or distinct substances but are one and the same, differing only in degree of refinement. Because Milton refuses to separate body from spirit, the “corporeal” elements of Paradise Lost cannot be dissociated from the epic's “spiritual” project of explaining humanity's fall and eventual redemption. My dissertation, then, reconnects body to spirit, demonstrating the ways in which Milton uses the body—and its most material processes—to “incarnate” his theology. Rigorously examining the epic's representations of physiological functions, I use these episodes to illuminate Milton's understanding of the nature of divinity, the governance of the universe, and the consequences of sin.; The first chapter looks at Milton's evolving ideas about the body, showing how Milton's early dualism evolves into his mature monism. The second chapter considers Milton's representation of Adam and Eve's prelapsarian sexuality, examining the ways in which this representation is driven by Milton's conceptualization of the unfallen human subject. The third chapter discusses Adam and Eve's reproductive potential, demonstrating how this creative ability intersects with Milton's ideas about God's divine authority. In the fourth chapter I investigate the somatic metaphors incorporated into the account of Eve's fall, arguing that the temptation of Eve parodies the process whereby the Father impregnates Mary with his only begotten Son. The fifth chapter scrutinizes the role of the alimentary tract in Milton's epic, pointing to Milton's practice of couching his eschatology in scatology. In the conclusion I consider the implications of my study, showing how Milton's holistic model of the human subject impinges upon our understanding of early modern theology as well as our own postmodern attempts to come to grips with ourselves and our embodiment.