All directions in the PDF Slide

Mini-Lesson:
Paradise Lost

NAR 4.D – EXPLAIN HOW A NARRATOR’S
RELIABILITY AFFECTS A NARRATIVE.

©AP Lit & More: Literature
& Writing Resources, 2020

Chapters 7-10

▪ Complete the reading and annotation
of Book IV from Paradise Lost. Use the
text to answer the questions beneath
the excerpt.

▪ John Milton’s Paradise Lost was a
popular work among Romantic
authors, so allusions to his famous epic
would not be uncommon. Poets like
Lord Byron, William Blake, and Percy
Bysshe Shelley included references to
Paradise Lost in their own works. Most
Romantic poets found a hero in
Milton’s Satan, praising his defiance
against God as a rebellion against a
political tyrant. Mary Shelley, however,
uses Paradise Lost as a more complex
allusion.

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost
Notes

©AP Lit & More: Literature
& Writing Resources, 2020

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170419-why-paradise-lost-is-one-of-the-worlds-most-important-poems

Directions: Read and annotate the excerpt from
Paradise Lost included below, which describes Satan’s
feelings at seeing Adam and Eve created and enjoying
their life in Eden. We will return to this text as we
continue our study of Frankenstein. Answer the question
below and on the following slide.

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost
Activity

©AP Lit & More: Literature & Writing Resources, 2019

“Paradise Lost, Book IV” by John Milton

©AP Lit & More: Literature
& Writing Resources, 2020

More woe, the more your taste is now of
joy;
Happy, but for so happy ill secured
Long to continue, and this high seat your
Heaven
Ill fenced for Heaven to keep out such a
foe As now is entered; yet no purposed foe
To you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied: League with you I
seek,
And mutual amity, so strait, so close,
That I with you must dwell, or you with
me
Henceforth; my dwelling haply may not
please,
Like this fair Paradise, your sense; yet
such
Accept your Maker’s work; he gave it me,
Which I as freely give: Hell shall unfold,
To entertain you two, her widest gates,
And send forth all her kings; there will be
room,
Not like these narrow limits, to receive
Your numerous offspring; if no better
place,
Thank him who puts me loth to this
revenge
On you who wrong me not for him who
wronged.

So passed they naked on, nor shunned the
sight
Of God or Angel; for they thought no ill:
So hand in hand they passed, the loveliest
pair,
That ever since in love’s embraces met;
Adam the goodliest man of men since born
His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve…
…When Satan still in gaze, as first he stood,
Scarce thus at length failed speech
recovered sad.
O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief
behold!
Into our room of bliss thus high advanced
Creatures of other mould, earth-born
perhaps,
Not Spirits, yet to heavenly Spirits bright
Little inferiour; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, so lively
shines
In them divine resemblance, and such grace
The hand that formed them on their shape
hath poured.
Ah! gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches, when all these
delights
Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe;

Frankenstein: Paradise Lost
Activity

2. What exactly is making Satan so upset? Is it the beauty of
Adam and Eve? Their carefree attitude? Their freedom in
Eden? A personal jealousy? Explain with textual support.

3. Analyze the role of the narrator. Do you find him
reliable? What does he do that affects his credibility?

©AP Lit & More: Literature
& Writing Resources, 2020

1. What words does Milton use to describe Satan’s
feelings in seeing Adam and Eve? How does it
effectively humanize him?