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Chapter 5 - Losing Contentment

Affect, Environment, and Empire in Milton’s Paradise Lost

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2022

Paul Joseph Zajac
Affiliation:
McDaniel College
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Summary

Chapter 5 illuminates the literary, political, and ecological significance of Milton’s depiction of contentment. In Eikonoklastes, Milton responds directly to the appropriation of contentment discourse in Eikon Basilike. Charles I had identified his opponents as malcontents and positioned himself as a contented martyr-king. By contrast, Milton describes Charles’s discontent as the immediate cause of the English Civil War and as the epitome of tyranny. In Paradise Lost, he adds an environmental dimension to the religious and republican significances of content and discontent. The language of self-containment has limited applications for unfallen Adam and Eve, who interact harmoniously with their environment. Satanic discontent reconstitutes the experience of selfhood as a space defined in opposition to the natural world. Satan perverts contentment and finds it impossible to relate to the world around him in any way other than as a conqueror. When Adam and Eve choose to sin, they emulate diabolic discontent and subject all of creation to imperialism. Milton’s revision of Christian contentment reveals his efforts to endure, lament, and resist the Restoration.

Type
Chapter
Information
Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature
Reforming Contentment
, pp. 125 - 152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Losing Contentment
  • Paul Joseph Zajac, McDaniel College
  • Book: Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature
  • Online publication: 15 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271653.006
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  • Losing Contentment
  • Paul Joseph Zajac, McDaniel College
  • Book: Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature
  • Online publication: 15 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271653.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Losing Contentment
  • Paul Joseph Zajac, McDaniel College
  • Book: Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature
  • Online publication: 15 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009271653.006
Available formats
×