Drop serene : exploring John Milton's Paradise lost through creative prose
(Book - Regular Print)

ProQuest Number: 10683351.

Advisor: Jessika Thomas.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Humanities from Prescott College.

M.A.,Prescott College,2017.

"The novella Drop Serene follows the narrative of those portions of Paradise Lost in which the character Satan plays an active role, specifically focusing upon Books I, II, III, IV, IX, and X. This creative thesis explores the concept of Satan as a classical hero. It seeks, while following the narrative arc of Paradise Lost, to reconcile the idea of Satan as a tragic hero. Milton's Satan, by inverting and distorting the motifs of the hero, stands as a means of discrediting the heroes of Greco-Roman myth by underscoring the fact that the heroes of classical myth were not, by and large, paragons of morality. In Satan, Milton creates a classical hero who is not simply fallible or morally ambiguous, but outright evil. However, Milton's narrative of Satan's exploits leaves significant space for inference of a lofty morality underpinning the arch-fiend's apparent perfidy. Drop Serene seeks to explore this space and, in so doing, to present a vision of the character who remains essentially Miltonic, but whose motivations are highly moral. This work is intended to facilitate a deeper study of this character as the poet's version of the classical hero. By stripping away the single aspect of this character - evil - that sets him apart from his Greco-Roman progenitors, Drop Serene facilitates a closer study of the many ways Milton's Satan is similar to the heroes written about by authors of the ancient world. This creative thesis is accompanied by a reflective journal, entitled 'Milton and Me,' and by a contextual essay, entitled 'Hazard in the Glorious Enterprise.'"--leaf 2.