An exploration of the contention that John Milton's "Paradise Lost" is spanned on frail arches over the abyss of the impossible, the unnatural and the grotesque.
Abstract This paper examines the impact of the poem "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, which is intensified by Milton's controlled portrayal of the impossible, the unnatural and the grotesque in dimensions known only in the hypothetical sphere. It looks at how Hell and Chaos, realms of the dark abyss of imagination, are endowed with inventive metaphors and symbols that make their impossible and unnatural suggestions seem almost possible and natural. It also discusses how the grotesque images of Satan, the fallen angels, Sin and Death adorn their dark and fiery abyssal landscape in a manner similar to the grotesque art featured in ancient chambers.
From the Paper "Unnatural, being "contrary to the way things usually happen in nature; contrary to the physical nature of human beings"especially intensely evil or cruel? accurately describes the realms of Chaos and Hell. Milton demonstrates how Hell exists beyond the innate order of nature by depicting it through metaphors for sexual lust which can never be satisfied. If Paradise Lost is "spanned on frail arches" it is etymologically linked with the theme of fornication; the word "fornication" is from the Latin fornix meaning "brothel" but originally "arch". Satan's punishment is that he has been cast into a hell that permits inflamed sexual desire while preventing its consummation. Liquid is a common symbol for the feminine and Milton repeatedly refers to the "lake"; Satan lies "chained on the burning lake" , embodying an unsatiated lust that is aflame with bestial burning."
Abstract This paper reviews and critiques the Tom Wolfe essay "Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died", about how neuro-science has brought humanity to the brink of a final mechanistic and deterministic view of human nature. In the first section entitled "Who's Afraid of Tom Wolfe?", the author thoroughly discusses and then refutes, each of Wolfe's arguments and scientific predictions. In the paper's second section, titled "Into the Abyss," the author assesses Wolfe's views of the divine, comparing it with his own and those of other modern thinkers. The paper concludes with the author's opinion that Wolfe's essay is flawed since it revolves around naive, positivistic notions of "science", which are highly controversial and essentially faulty. Therefore, the author indicates that he does not believe it is time to do away with centuries-old notions of spirituality and human nature.
Outline
Part I: Who's Afraid of Tom Wolfe?
Part II: Into the Abyss
From the Paper "Wolfe starts his essay with the enthusiastic prediction that, "by 2006, the entire digital universe is going to seem like pretty mundane stuff compared to a new technology." This new technology, he announces, is "brain imaging." Brain imaging allows scientists to "actually see the genes light up inside the brain." Neuroscientists like Edward O. Wilson are about to discover "the physical repositories of such philosophical and religious concepts as "'the mind,' 'the self,' 'the soul,' and 'free will' that are already believed in by scholars." Genetics, argue Wilson and Wolfe, "determine not only things such as temperament, role preferences, emotional responses, and levels of aggression, but also many of our most revered moral choices, which are not choices at all in any free-will sense but tendencies imprinted in ... regions of the brain."
Abstract The following questions are answered in a short answer format, 1) Explain the critical comparison of materialism and the theories of the views of the universe and the view of man. 2) Explain Western society's shift from theism to deism that led to naturalism which logically leads to nihilism. Elaborate on how one view leads to another and ends up with nihilism's loss of an abyss for human significance, truth, and moral values. 3) Explain materialism, and with it a statement of some of the reasons why one would choose materialism as a worldview. 4) Explain how to deal with war in the light of the set of materialism. 5) Explain how materialism affects one's actions regarding people in the workplace.
An opinion paper which examines who better understands and describes the nature of this word, "imagination" -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge or William Wordsworth.
Abstract The paper shows that through William Wordsworth's works, we can see how he celebrates the innocence of the child that comes from - a child satisfied with this life, innocent of suffering. In comparison, the paper shows that the child that comes from the imagination of Coleridge comes from a deeper, darker abyss and is a child crying to go home.
From the Paper "Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Wordsworth differ in their examination of what they call the "imagination," and this difference is reflected in their writings. Wordsworth displays a sense of eternal optimism when describing the infinite, while Coleridge effectively illustrates the inevitable darkness that reaches the mind when contemplating unanswerable questions. It is ironic that Coleridge would describe Wordsworth's genius in Chapter IV of Biographia Literaria, and give him credit for having defined the idea of "imagination," when it is Coleridge himself that dares to truly capture the connection of mind, imagination, and the infinite in his poetry. Coleridge states that "Milton had a highly imaginative, Cowley a very fanciful mind." It would be feasible to state that Coleridge had a highly imaginative, Wordsworth a very fanciful mind." Wordsworth sees "imagination as coming up from "the mind's abyss, (p.243 l. 596) while Coleridge's Ode: Dejection describes, symbolically, the poet's imaginative mind going down into the mind's abyss."
Abstract This paper examines the life and writings of Jack London, born in San Francisco in 1876. It discusses his contributions to literary cannon and the major happenings during his life. Some of his works discussed include "Son of the Wolf" and "Call of the Wild".
From the Paper "Jack wrote of the Polynesian people and culture of the islands, breaking the curse and popularizing Hawaii as a beautiful and pristine landscape with many natural phenomena. This untitled writing, which Jack published in many newspapers and tourist booklets proved to dispel the leprosy theory and catapulted Hawaii as a major tourist attraction."
Abstract This paper examines the tense relations between the media and the government -- including the army -- over the current war in Iraq. The paper discusses how, in the age of the internet, digital connectivity allows for the immediate dissemination of facts. However, as the paper also points out, whether or not that factual wave actually makes it o the public is up to two groups: the media and the government. Using the current U.S.-led Iraq war as an example to highlight this issue, the paper dissects the dynamics between the government and the media, both at home and abroad. The paper also examines how those tensions were catapulted into an abyss by the complexity of election season politics, the nationalistic idea of "spreading democracy," and current religious tensions worldwide.
From the Paper "Chronicling the events that incited the current war could be attributed to either these weapons of mass destruction as of yet unfound, a key flaw in evidentiary support on behalf of the Federal government, a familial vendetta against the Hussein family a la House of Bush, House of Saud, the energy and gas crises currently heading the worldwide economy, or the rising Christian: Arab tensions engulfing the powerfully well-resourced Middle East - but the reason for war is different depending on not only which side of the struggle you ask, but all of those reporting on it. From this the political surveyor and astute citizen can glean one key truth in the purpose of this war: America has launched a war on a leader, a country, an idea, and an area based on a wide variety of reasons, sometimes all conflicting, but none without key, moneyed, and powerful supporters."
This paper compares two vampires---the archetype Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and the flamboyant Lestat De Lioncourt from Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles".
Abstract This paper explains that protagonist vampires in all traditions differ from other mythical supernatural beings in their resemblance to humans; Anne Rice's Lestat De Lioncourt possesses human qualities such as a spirit and a mind in different proportions than Bram Stoker's old Dracula. The author points out that the Count is not freed by immortality but imprisoned by it; therefore he has no companions but those unfortunates who find themselves like rodents in a mousetrap in the dingy abysses that he calls home; he would never take a nun as a lover as does Lestat De Lioncourt. The paper relates that the true fans of horror no longer want to be frightened by the mere fantasy of the fearsome as Count Dracula; they want to be scared to their very core by a protagonist vampire that resemble themselves such as Lestat De Lioncourt.
From the Paper "Lestat, also known as 'the brat prince,' is endowed with an unusual wealth of talents and is the most passionate of Anne Rice's vampires by far. However, he and the rest of Rice's vampires can all be killed in the same ways. A stake through the heart or a crucifix won't do a thing to these nearly indestructible beings. In fact, as Louie once said in "Interview with the Vampire," they are "actually quite fond of looking at crucifixes." Decapitation only delays resurrection, regardless of how the remains are scattered. The only two ways to kill Rice's vampires are by fire or by somehow placing them in the sun (which would cause them to ignite into flames, thus making this death a mere variation of the expiration by fire). "
Abstract This paper discusses the contention that the families of Hamlet and of Willy Loman drove them to their deaths. It looks at how, in the first instance, the faithlessness of Queen Gertrude, the stern injunction of the vengeful ghost of Hamlet's father and the evil-doing of Claudius push Hamlet towards the commission of a terrible crime that ultimately costs him his own life. It also looks at how, Willy's pain at seeing his son Biff fall short of his full potential drives the elder Loman to first melancholic madness and thence to death. In the end, the plays both reveal how the environmental stimuli provided by those around us are often the very stimuli which push us into the abyss.
From the Paper "In Hamlet, it is soon enough apparent that the young prince's family is the chief cause of his descent into brooding madness. For example, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, has married the sly and sinister Claudius - the brother of Hamlet the Elder and the man who has profited handsomely from his brother's death (Shakespeare, 154). For Hamlet, who would seem to venerate his father as only a son can, the decision of his mother to join hands in holy matrimony with a fellow Hamlet finds repugnant (Shakespeare, 163) is basically beyond the earthly power of Hamlet to endure."
Abstract This paper examines how both William Golding in "Lord of the Flies" and George Orwell in "1984" present a grim view of human nature, a view that indicates that humanity has an irresistible tendency to fall into an abyss of depravity and oppression. The paper explains that at first, Golding seems to offer a less pessimistic view of human nature than Orwell does but in the end their views are nearly identical. The paper looks at how Golding's boys begin free from the oppressions of society, but fall into savagery and how Orwell's society has already fallen before the novel opens, and escape is out of the question. The writer concludes that, in the end, it is harder to say whose vision is more negative, and a reader can do little more than hope that neither author is correct in his bleak vision.
From the Paper "Orwell presents a society already fallen. The Party controls every aspect of life, especially through the control of the constant propaganda that is bombarded on the inhabitants of Oceana, in which London is located. With the telescreens that watch every person (Orwell 2, 5-6, 9, 11, 27, 97, 148), the "two-minutes hate" each day, to the monthly public hangings (Orwell 23-4, 49-50, 57), the constant fear of the thought police (Orwell 4-5, 62, 101), grim depravation in which goods are always in short supply (Orwell 49, 162), and everything from cigarettes (Orwell 5), to gin (Orwell 5, 77, 150) to housing (Orwell 20-21), is of such poor quality that there is no possibility of joy in life (Orwell 41, 49, 60-61), this is a totalitarian society."
Tags: depravity, oppression, savagery, totalitarian, society
Abstract The paper discusses how, beyond the mirth and liveliness of Swift's characters in "Gulliver's Travels", there are themes of gravity, anger, anxiety, and frustration that Swift meant us to experience fully. The paper goes through the story and shows how Swift, as a master of shock, with perfect control of tone and pace and perfect timing, startles us into an awareness of the abyss of corrupt human natures and its implications.
From the Paper "The most serious charge leveled against Swift has been his negativism: as a person and as a satirist. The first count is easily dismissed if the admonition of almost every twentieth century critic is kept in mind: Swift is not Gulliver; Swift writes his satire, Gulliver at times becomes misanthropic. As far as the second charge is concerned, it may be sufficient to say that all of Swift's satire was written in anger, contempt, or disgust, but it was written to promote self-knowledge in the faith that self-knowledge will lead to right action."
Abstract This paper describes the plot of William Shakespeare's tragedy, "Hamlet', and analyzes the main character of the same name, Prince Hamlet of Denmark. The paper describes how Hamlet sets out upon his quest for revenge of his father's death through a ploy of faking insanity. The paper then discusses how Hamlet missed an opportunity to kill Claudius, the supposed murdered, and relates that Hamlet's disconnection with reality would slip as his level of paranoia rose, largely due to his very correct suspicions that his movements being watched and his conversations spied upon. The paper reveals that by the end of the play, the actions of Hamlet have indirectly resulted in the further deaths of his mother, his uncle, his lover, his two best friends and ultimately, his bloodline. The paper therefore concludes that Hamlet's actions are clearly exhibitive of the fact that he was totally insane.
Outline:
Introduction
The Source of the Silliness
The Means Towards the Abyss Stepping Over the Threshold
Into the Mouth of Madness
The Conclusive Dissolution
From the Paper "The tragedy of Hamlet follows the main character of the same name, Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Shakespeare's plays were written during a time and place within which there was extraordinary richness, complexity, and vitality, all of which were integrated into the brilliant poetry put forth by Shakespeare. Furthermore, the religious scene at the time was fraught with conflict and contention which touched the lives of all living within his times, particularly due to their political and doctrinal implications. (Holt 477) The issue of religion and the world of the dead would serve as intrinsic subjects within the play of Hamlet, as his madness would come about as a result of the after-life iteration of Hamlet's father."
