Ambition
Paradise Lost
CONTEXT:
Milton writes in the style of epic: deploying Latinate syntax and
epic listing to root us in this tradition. Ambition, at the heart of
epic literature, drives characters to achieve their aims: Beowulf’s
seeking of fame and glory or Odysseus’ desire to reclaim his
kingdom. Milton takes this structure and moulds it into the
biblical fall. He sets Satan up with some typical characteristics of
epic heroes but subverts this.
William Blake interpretation: heroic interpretation of Satan due to
his opposition to God. His metaphysics: ‘good is the passive that
obeys reason, evil is the active springing from energy’
- Therefore, if Satan is emblematic of desire and energy, it
stresses his evilness
Songs of Innocence:
Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Blake acknowledges epic nature:
but sees Satan as more of a character who opposes tyrannical
regime: this something he sees as inherently good and therefore
Satan morphs into this revolutionary symbol of opposition to
oppression.
EVE: “keep the odds of knowledge in my power”
- Shift of power from Adam to Eve
SATAN: “to me shall the glorie be sole”
- Satan craves the power and status of God: arrogance
SATAN: “who aspires must down as low as high he soared”
- Specious logic: lowering himself with the aim of one day being
higher than God
SATAN: “ascended his high Throne”
- Satan viewing himself as superior even though he is still in Hell –
satirical version of ascension
EVE: “render me more equal”
- Her ambition to be of higher status
SATAN: “over man to rule”
- He wants what God has given humans as they live ‘reason to
themselves’
EVE/SATAN: “ye shall be as Gods”
- Eve’s desire through eating the fruit: presenting her ambition
SATAN: “but what will not ambition and revenge descend to?”
- Satan’s ambition enables him to go to any means to achieve power
ADAM on EVE: “though expectation high of knowledge, nor was God-head
from her thought. Greedily she ingorged”
Edward II
CONTEXT:
Marlowe’s presentation of ambition stems from the slight bending
of the histography of the play. Parks notes, readings have relied
too heavily upon ‘a too superficial understanding of the chronicle
, tradition’. The play is not written as the exact replica of the state
of the country at the time but more as a ‘projection of national
identity and historical process’. Parks stresses Marlowe
‘significantly redefines the nation.’
MORTIMER JUNIOR: “there is a point to which, when men aspire, they
tumble headlong down”
- Acknowledging his fate: Aristotle’s Poetics
- Peripeteia: sudden reversal of fortune, Hubris: pride, Hamartia: the
error of judgement
- Ambition viewed as a negative: anagnorisis – he is acknowledging
his tragic nature
GAVESTON: “my knee shall bow to none but the king”
- Highlights his ambition: his desire is to be at the very top of the
hierarchy
GAVESTON: sly, inveiling
- His ambition gives us a window into his manipulative character
a common theme in Edward II is the relationship between overly
ambitious characters and Machiavellian traits. It is often the most
ambitious who will go to any means to achieve what they want
- Theme of music: play him like a “lyre”
- Showmanship: “masques”
GAVESTON: “swollen with ambitious pride, will be the ruin of the realm”
GAVESTON: “base peasant”
- Aim to reverse his fortune
MORTIMER JUNIOR: “the prince I rule, the queen I do command”
STYMEIST: ‘sexual aberration legitimises their persecution, it is the threat
of class ambition which mobilises their enemies’
JOAN PARKS: refers to Mortimer’s ambition as ‘forcefully aligned with his
singular aggression and disdain’
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