14. Paradise Lost, Book IV

Milton (ENGL 220)

This lecture examines Book Four's depiction of Adam and Eve and the sexual politics of life in Eden. Seventeenth-century political theory, particularly the work of Thomas Hobbes, is considered with a focus on then-contemporary theories of the structure and government of the first human societies. Critical perspectives on what have variously been proposed as sexist and feminist elements of Milton's Eden are surveyed. Milton's struggle with the problem of depicting an unfallen world to a fallen audience is closely detailed. The lecture concludes with a study of Rembrandt's 1638 drawing, "Adam and Eve."

00:00 - Chapter 1. Dissimiles in "Paradise Lost": Fallen Representation of Unfallen-ness
10:16 - Chapter 2. Politics and Seventeenth-Century Descriptions of Adam and Eve
15:45 - Chapter 3. Milton's Political Philosophy
26:29 - Chapter 4. What Made Adam and Eve Unequal?

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.