Chapter 9
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
-John Milton "COMUS"
OEDIPAL CHRIST AND MILTON
I was forging ahead with my Milton course, and doing rather well
which pleased me and my family. I needed one more essay so I called upon
the Heavenly Muse to inspire me. And in turn, I hope my work inspires
others to read Milton and other great writers, too. I finished my essay
at 10pm and went to bed, not wanting any coffee a friend offered me. I
slept in until 7am, unusual for me, because my last essay was done - at
least for that time. It went as follows:
There is so much mystery, wonder, grandeur, admiration and also
prejudice against the greatest poet, John Milton. For those of you
who are fundamentalists you may be about to be pissed off. For those
skeptic "poets" who read a great deal but avoid Milton, I hope you
will reconsider and study him in depth. The following is an indictment
of both parties, through an eclectic analysis.
If we take history from The Bible that Jesus was born the son of
God or Holy Spirit, that is widely held. But Milton maintained Christ was
lesser than God since Milton did not believe in The Trinity which
still upsets fundamentalists. And since Christ's mother was Mary it
can be argued that she was a goddess or at least holy - unlike Christ's
stepfather, the lesser Joseph, so it is not surprising to consider that
Christ had an impending Oedipus Complex.
While no doubt this view borders on heresy to some, Christ was
closely involved with Mary Magdalene who was a strong female figure
as well as a prostitute. Symbolically, perhaps, Christ was looking
for his mother in his female companion, especially since they had the
same name, Mary. We now know that this tendency is found in Sophocles'
"Oedipus Rex," and this is emphasized by Milton at the end of "Paradise
Regained" where Christ wins out over Satan and then goes back to his
mother's. Clearly, Christ and Milton were attracted to strong women. The
fact that Freud was heavily influenced by Milton's incomparable epic adds
support to the idea of an Oedipal Christ and Milton.
Furthermore, many of us are familiar with William Blake's belief that
Milton was the reincarnation of the pagan Christ. But, Milton was a healer of
the intellect and came forth as a man of unequaled knowledge and wisdom
as he dedicated his life to freedom and was the central figure in changing
our western culture to democracies and uncensored speech. We see in
Milton's towering prose masterpiece, "Aereopagitica" the greatest polemic
ever written which influenced the laws of many countries, especially America.
One of the clinchers comparing Milton to Christ is that Milton's first wife's
name was Mary, too. And his Father was John, too, like him and his son.
There were three key John's in The Bible: The Baptist, The Apostle and
The Divine. So far much of this may seem like conjecture but if we think
of The Baptist as holiness or Milton's love for the world one is reminded of
the parable of Noah's Ark where God baptizes the Mother Earth. The Apostle
John wote one of the gospels and was very closely associated with Christ.
But, St. John the Divine was a prophet who foresaw the future in Revelation
just as Milton predicted the downfall of the church and clergy in his great poem
"Lycidas", and like Christ who prophesied his own Second Coming.
But, Milton's mother, Sara, whom he loved very dearly had been named
after Abraham's wife in Genesis, who gave a miraculous birth in The Bible
when she was nearly a hundred. Like Mary's in The Bible, this was a holy
birth. There are simply too many parallels like this for us not to consider these
two central figures, Christ and Milton, in history as great archetypes of gods.
An overlooked example is the humour and wit that Christ and Milton display
when discussing religion. The famous "Shew me a penny of Caesar" is the
only humour in the Bible and Milton emphasizes this by joking in the opening
lines of "Paradise Lost" with puns on "fruit" and "taste." Also, most Milton
readers remember his hilariously witty remark to King Charles II who said
to Milton: "God took your eyesight for killing my father" and Milton retorted:
"And God took your father's head for being a tyrant." Thus, both archetypes
had dismissed the previous moral canons of the church and state by mocking
them. It was also apparent that both acted "according to conscience" and knew
no fear. Christ was beaten and scourged and Milton was mobbed and beaten
- as a blind man - yet that did not prevent either from fulfilling their roles as
prophet/Messiahs.
If we accept that Milton and Christ approached their mothers with love
and esteem then certainly it would seem ridiculous to assume they treated
other women differently. Too often, for example, writers have taken Eve the
Mother of mankind as weaker than Adam or man. In "Paradise Lost" she is
brave to accept the challenge of the serpent because by doing nothing Eden
would be empty and boring forever. Some have said she was the first Wiccan
because she desired wisdom by filling her mind and body with knowledge of
good and evil. And when she sees herself in the pool in "Paradise Lost" there
are lesbian overtones as she falls in love with herself. Also, it is interesting to
note Milton had a daughter named Mary...
Of course, fundamentalists will often argue against homosexuality but
Jesus enjoyed being around men although, in context again, he hinted its time
was not right as God said "be fruitful and multiply". The Earth was not heavily
populated then, and now after the liberating words of Milton we see a coming
out of homosexuality which is latent in everyone according to the Monotheistic
beliefs Milton and Christ held. Moreover, in "Paradise Lost" angels and demons
shapeshift and often are bisexual. This view is widely held in religions including
early Christianity which accepted reincarnation. And, of course, The Bible says
Satan can transform himself into a being of light. And to Milton, if God knows
all things then God must know how it feels to be a woman and indeed feel
absolutely everything including lesbianism and oppression by men.
A great example that Milton knew things that the rest of humanity didn't was
his description of happy and enlightened beings that live on planets that revolve
around other stars. His 1638 meeting with Galileo who was jailed for saying the
Earth revolved around the sun may have influenced this but Milton's comments
brought about the attention of the Inquisition and fellow poets like Tasso had to
get him out of Italy. This was very much like Christ who was persecuted by Rome.
Milton also portrayed Satan as the first space traveller. And Satan, who to the
church was evil, was a hero to many later readers, especially the Romantic poets,
as he bonded with his daughter, Sin, and son, Death, and did not send them to die
but was given freedom to go to Eden by Sin. He was once compared to Captain
Kirk on a space mission which was somewhat humourous. Surprisingly, Satan was
even sad when a fellow demon was disfigured and his almost comic answer to
Gabriel's challenge that he would punch Gabriel out shows his courage despite
having to answer to Milton's God who like Christ's did little and had to have others
do his work. God may have still been exhausted from creating the universe.
Christ and Milton stood for freedom, love and wisdom. But they suffered,
struggled and scrapped their way knowing that they one day would be freely
accepted not as ridiculous fundamentalist icons but lovers of all people and other
beings. Christ knew he had to become a symbol of hope and he showed the same
courage as Eve had when he went to the cross. Milton knew that he had to suffer
but one day write his supreme epic and other masterpieces or he would be hubristic
and the world would remain enslaved to Kings, Queens and other despots.
The final point that Christ and Milton were Oedipal is that their human mother,
Eve, was a fertility goddess according to Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung and was
the mother and co-creator of mankind. Milton trumps the ridiculous view of being
even a little oppressive towards women as his Eve emerges as the stronger character
between her and Adam at the end of "Paradise Lost". Of course, some may say that
since Milton read The Bible in Hebrew, Greek and English ( he had a total photographic
memory which Christ must have had, too ) that he was showing Eve as a Matriarchal
Jew. But Eve was like the Earth Mother and a goddess since both Christ and Milton
were her descendants. And Milton's "The Doctrine And Discipline Of Divorce" caused
an outrage in the church since Milton advocated divorce if two people did not love each
other. He called this type of marriage an "empty husk," because he knew how women
were sometimes abused and mistreated or if there were other differences. Moreover,
Milton's muse was female and he was inspired by her in dreams to write many parts of
"Paradise Lost". His muse, Urania, the goddess of Memory and Astrology often
identified herself as Moses or King David so it is clear that Milton felt God and the Holy
Spirit were both feminine and masculine. Milton was years, even centuries ahead of his
time and works like "Paradise Lost" are still very perplexing in many ways just as much
as Christ's works are, since Christ did many great things AFTER he rose from the dead.
G.B.
The following great MILTON quote was influential to philosphers and writers, but none
more so than to Thomas Jefferson, whose The Declaration Of Independence was inspired
over 100 years after MILTON's physical demise from The Gout. Jefferson noted that the great
Milton had aided Cromwell in defeating a tryrannical English King.
"No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men were naturally born free."
-John Milton "THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES"
Note: T.S. Eliot was a "true poet" and used Milton's LYCIDAS as a model for THE WASTELAND
without knowing it.
Further Key Notes: The Who's "TOMMY" was about a deaf, dumb and blind boy's musical
religion since Townshend is partially deaf as Beethoven was and both are geniuses. But,
Beethoven was heavily influenced by Byron's poetry who said in his great epic "DON JUAN":
"Thou shalt honour Milton...". The dumb antipun here is poets and critics who no longer read
Milton but all of them unwittingly follow him much like The Who's Tommy who can't speak,
read or write but "turns his rebellion into money" to quote The Clash, whose main influence was
The Who. Townshend's quest for "self-esteem" and "enlightenment" ( Milton coinages ) through
music and eclecticism since he followed Meher Baba, an eastern holy man, said in his great
"Baba O'Reilly" song "Let's get together before we get much older." He recognized, as a prophet,
that time is running out before the abuse of our planet leads to destruction and NO FUTURE as
Johnny Rotten sang. Milton was irritable like Townshend, too, because of their mental illnesses
and hope for the world as idealists.
Northrop Frye's seminal study of William Blake, "FEARFUL SYMMETRY" showed that juxtaposing
Blakean ideas towards Miltonic references no longer made Blake the "madman" as Wordsworth
shamefully misinterpreted Blake. ( Still love ya, WORDS, though ). And since Milton was the most
erudite and intellectual man in history, Frye brilliantly recognized Blake as the mystic people's poet
and visionary; thus, we see the link between Milton ( the epitome of "Classic Art" ) and great folk
poets such as Bob Dylan and Townshend who are avant-garde "Popular Culture Art" artists. Blake
is the center between classic and folk art in English Literature and English Art, although there are
cases like Robbie Burns, Hank Williams and the legendary Elvis Presley, whose impact on our
modern culture has infiltrated into every "nook" in our artistic forest of creativity. Yet, the final point,
is ELVIS PRESLEY was a true artist as his music was called "Devil's Art" by many at first just as
MILTON's had been called by BLAKE. But, as Blake said in his "PROVERBS OF HELL": Enough!
Or, too much!
"Where more is meant than meets the ear."
-JOHN MILTON "IL PENSEROSO" ( 1:120 )
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