The Analysis Of Ambiguity In Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem written by the 17th century English poet John Milton. The poet adopted the Christian story to create this epic, in which the readers could find the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.This thesis is to exemplify the ambiguity represented in the text of Paradise Lost with the related knowledge of ambiguity which is put forward by William Empson. Empson has classified ambiguity into seven types, and the ambiguity in Paradise Lost belongs to the sixth type and the seventh type separately. The ambiguity in the image of God and Satan belongs to the seventh type because two values of the ambiguity are the two opposite meanings defined by the context, and the ambiguity caused by the combination of the Bible and classical Myths belongs to the sixth type in that it is the combination of two irrelative cultural systems. Part of the text of Paradise Lost will be applied to prove the representations of the ambiguity. Besides, the analysis of ambiguity also will excavate the historical roots of the ambiguity with the related theory in new historicism as the methodology. From the perspective of new historicism, the literature works can be regarded as the product of the negotiation between authority and subversion. And through certain analysis, the ambiguity in Paradise Lost also is born from the negotiation between authority (the political environment and the Christianity in Milton's period) and subversion (Miltion's pursuit of freedom and own understanding of the religion). Besides, the ideology of Milton reflected by the ambiguity in Paradise Lost also will be recounted and concluded.In the conclusion, besides ambiguity, the thesis will mention a bit about the intertextuality of the text and the social history in order to strengthen the importance of Paradise Lost.