“Powerful Persuaders”: A Rhetorical Analysis of John Milton’s Characters in Paradise Lost

Abstract

The characters of John Milton’s Paradise Lost are portrayed throughout large parts of the epic poem in acts of speaking. This thesis sets out to demonstrate how speech plays an essential part in the characterisation by the author’s employment of a rich variety of classical rhetorical figures and devices. Analysing passages where the characters of Satan, God, Adam, Eve, the fallen and the unfallen angels are presented as speaking, this thesis argues that rhetorical figures are used with specific intentions for each character in that they reveal important traits telling of their nature. This analysis attempts to expand on the critical debates regarding Milton’s view on rhetoric to encompass the complex stylistic richness in his epic characters. Scholarly discussions on Milton’s use of rhetoric have often been centred around the infamous character of Satan. It is the contention of this thesis, however, that other major characters in Paradise Lost are equally complex in how rhetoric plays an essential role in rendering their important and revealing traits. To demonstrate this, selected passages will be analysed with regards to rhetorical figures and characterisation. Handbooks written by both Renaissance rhetoricians and contemporary scholars will serve as the main source for identification and names of the figures. In so doing, we may learn more of how Milton’s employment of rhetoric affects the way we view the major characters and how it reveals important character traits reflecting vice or virtue.