Milton's "Comus"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the central driving force of Milton's "Comus" is chastity and how, according to Milton's views, it is not chastity alone that is the precious commodity in need of protection, it is also, by association, the soul that chastity feeds through its righteousness, since only through its survival can the soul, too, be saved during God's judgment. The paper contends that for Milton, misfortune is necessary because it precipitates the survival of the righteous soul and that, in order to cope in "Comus", one must have faith in the divine.

From the Paper:

"The Lady's personal and moral strength is also upheld as proof by her brother that she will remain safe even in the face of impossible danger. Here Milton most distinctly connects the survival of the Lady's soul with her chastity; one ensures the health of the other. He writes, again through the voice of the elder brother: "'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: / She that has that, is clad in compleat steel" (420-421). Flannagan writes of Milton's reference to this protection: "...but here the armor is that of the good Christian soldier, protected by virtue" (142). Milton's imagining of the Lady here as an iron-clad agent of the divine, protected by her chastity and for it, appears to be the crux of his entire poem; the Lady's good soul and her virginity are intertwined - the fate of the eternal (her soul) is intimately coupled with the state of her chastity (her flesh). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Flannagan, Roy. The Riverside Milton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

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• Analytical Essay # 55457 : "John Milton's "Comus"
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• Term Paper # 98220 : "The Patronage System and Renaissance Literature"

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