Abstract

This dissertation focuses on rhetoric and rhetorical variation in Milton's poetry, especially in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain'd. Both epics draw upon a wide-range and complex variety of rhetorical sources. Both emphasize the capacity of speech to cause harm as well as good. And, both assign rhetoric a unique moral purpose. Thus, rhetoric functions as a means of good or evil: it is the instrument by which the reader exercises the spirit. ;Poetry, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is understood to be a method of moral instruction: it "teaches and delights". Many Miltonists contend that Milton's epic bard is meant to lead us to salvation; they censure Milton for his moral objectives. They claim he composes great speeches for Satan, but fails to do so God and Christ. Thus, Milton's moral purpose mars the aesthetic integrity of his work. However, we should not assume that Milton thought of himself as more than an instrumental means of spiritual rectification for the reader. Indeed, he provides little guidance for the reader. Like the characters of the poem, the reader confronts sin and temptation. He uses rhetoric to understand both. The poems' contrasts act like "disparate" contraries, whereby one thing is better known by its opposite. Thus, we achieve knowledge of virtue and vice by means of the poem's ambiguous, disturbing contrasts. We become increasingly aware of our propensity to desire worldly rather than spiritual goods. Our new awareness proves conducive to our spiritual recuperation. ;In Paradise Lost, rhetoric is tied to mankind's spiritual weakness and intemperance. Classical rhetoric pits worldly against spiritual happiness. It contrasts sharply with God's speeches. But, while God and Christ emphasize spiritual goals, their harsh rhetoric offensives the reader. When read ungraciously, they tempt the reader to harden his heart against God. In Paradise Regain'd, rhetoric is purged of these melodramatic effects. Milton returns to a schoolboy practice--disputatio. Here Christ and Satan debate the usefulness of wealth, military power, and knowledge to the Messiah's reign. Like the Tree of Knowledge, these poems represent a temptation to virtue or vice