• Milton was deserted by his wife, Mary Powell.

• England had inherited the Catholic canon law.

• “Afterwards it was thought so Sacrementall that no adultery or desertion could dissolve it; and this is the sense of our Canon Courts in England to this day, but in no other reformed church els”

Often thought of for his politics, rather than just the words in his poetry Influential figure both in his time and nowadays

• “Yee have now in your hands a great and populous Nation to Reform; from what corruption, what blindnes in Religion yee know well; in what degenerat and fal'n spirit from the apprehension of native liberty, and true manlines.” (Milton’s address to parliament)

• The best way to restore manly dignity in marriage would be to first give the power of divorce solely to the husbands

• Divorce should be liberalized, but not for women, only for men

• Milton considered that women were created for men, as was the marriage institution

• “And what his chiefe end was of creating woman to be joynd with man, his own instituting words declare, and are infallible to informe us what is mariage, and what is no mariage: unlesse we can think them set there to no purpose: It is not good, saith he, that man should be alone”.

• Marriage was about "the apt and cheerful conversation of man with woman, to comfort and refresh him against the evils of solitary life."

• If women did not fulfil that role, men should be able to dispense with them.

• Pufendorf made Milton look like a feminist• In reaction to the idea of ‘conversation’

referred to, Pufendorf ridiculed the idea, quoting Juvenal’s sixth satire

• The ‘Midnight Curse’ of marriage to an intelligent, educated woman, Juvenal says he prefers instead, ‘a quiet humble fool:/I hate a wife, to whom I go to school’

Juvenal Pufendorf

MILTON Of Divorce

 Milton's presentation of women

D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

'Is this real life?'

'David after Dentist'

 

The pathetic jilted man and the emancipated ex wife OR

The older ex wife left raising the children from the first marriage, and the new, younger blonde upgrade for the

husband.

A Woman's Right To Divorce

'As habitually presented by critics now, the divorce scenario Milton entertains is always one in which  1) it is the woman at fault 2) it is only the man who has recourse to the power of divorce.'                       Matthew Biberman, ‘Milton, Marriage, and a Woman's Right to Divorce’ Studies in English Literature 39 (1999), pp. 131-53

Olga Lucía Valbuena  "Divorce for Milton is a process of coming to masculine consciousness. It involves radical separation and realignment, in this case from embracing the feminine to absolutely repudiating it. Divorce means freedom from the tyranny of enslavement to any woman, monarch, or way of thought that would constrict masculine self-determination."    Olga Lucía Valbuena, "Milton's 'Divorsive' Interpretation and the Gendered Reader," MiltonS 27 (1992): 115-37, 134.

Milton?

Overall, Milton's ideas are based on the Hebrew interpretation of marriage. Sexual union between a couple is what makes a marriage - NOT the state or church sanctioned ceremony.

Milton's Presentation

of Women

Paradise Lost:  Adam and Eve as a married couple with a healthy sex life.  17th century Puritan ideas of Virginity and Chaste Marriages. • Virginity as the bodily state

in which you enter into marriage

• Chastity as a temporate and moderate sex life between a married couple.

The Lady in Comus Protecting her virginity, her 'bodily wealth' as her worth. An investment only for her husband.   It is in many ways a classic Greek or even modern Harlequin romance. The woman who must protect herself from rape (stuck in a chair for most of it.

Milton?

http://www.tcnj.edu/~graham/Kuchinsky.html

Bachelorette #1The Lady "Emilia" From Canada    - The first report we have of Milton having any real dealings with a woman, come from his letters to Diodati between 1628, and 1630. He tells Diodati about a lady he met and fell in love with. There is no evidence that this women ever existed. She is essentially the "girlfriend from Canada" dorks make up when they get asked if they ever had a girlfriend. Bachelorette #2 First wife, daughter of a man that owed Milton's father money.      - Milton was also about 20 years older      - Left within days Bachelorette #3-4     - Second and third wives, much younger Themes?     - Milton  was so socially inept, he was unable to have a relationship with a woman (who existed) where he was not in a very clear power position, the first wife due to monetary ties, and the second two by extreme (even for those days) age discrepancy.

Milton's Women

Women in Milton's WorkSuggestion: Milton is unable to deal with women in the real world - and so creates women as 'weak' 'evil' or in a form he can control.

Of Divorce: 1. Marriage and Divorce are one issue, and that

issue needs to be reformed.2. Marriage is a democratic contract, free from

church, state and expecially Monarch.3. Milton is NOT A FEMINIST, but remember - his

audience were 17th C men in parliament.4. Even a bit of polygymy would be nice.

Masculinity

In Of Divorce

Milton's Vibe

• Milton was very much in favour of restoring the 'manliness' to Christian men.

• Men should retain sole power of divorce.

• In fact, Milton appeared to view women and divorce as a threat to manliness, and the liberties once enjoyed by men.

Milton and Men

• Milton does suggest a fallability inherent in men, as he refers to the 'modest mistake' of marrying the wrong woman.

• In book I, Chapter 2, Milton argues that a woman who appears adequate on the outside, can end up being boring and not fit for conversation, therefore a man which makes this mistake is doomed to a life of unhappiness, with no socially or lawfully acceptable way out.

• Milton appears to have no consideration for the well-being or will of the woman, they are portrayed as subordinates.

Commodities

• Also in the Doctrine of Divorce, Milton argues that no man should have to experience the futility of life without a woman. They are an essential item.

• He treats women as 'other' to men, as opposed to equal.

• Coupled with Milton's insistence that women should provide conversation, this suggests that Milton sees women as lesser beings, used for idle chit - chat, to do the washing up, and for sex - they have no purpose other than to serve men.

Who's afraid of the big, bad Woolf?

"The substance of Milton is all made of wonderful, beautiful and masterly descriptions of Angel's bodies, battles, flights, dwelling places. He deals in horror and immensity and squalor and sublimity but never in the passions of a human heart...I scarcely feel that Milton lived or knew men and women; except for the peevish personalities about marriage and the woman's duties...his disparagement rises from his own ill luck and seems even a spiteful last word in domestic quarrels."

  That's her opinion, so...   

Why does he view women in this way?

• As Robyn has already mentinoned, Milton saw women as weak and evil.        • This is something you can see more clearly when you analyse his reasons for

the legalisation of divorce• It is always the men that benefit.• It has been suggested that Milton, having been left by his wife soon after

getting married, was embarassed about the unmanly justifications of divorce that already existed, such as the non-consumation of a relationship, and so

had personal reasons for putting forward new ideas regarding divorce.

From The Text...

• "When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to passe that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanesse in her, let him write a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house" Book I, Chapter 1

• He refers to marriage as "prevention of lonliness to the mind and spirit of a man" Book 1, Chapter 2

• "He who hath happened where he finds nothing but remideles offences and discontents, is in more and greater temptations than ever before" Book 1, Chapter 5

• "What thing ever was more made for man alone and lesse for God than marriage? And shall we load it with a cruel and senseless bondage utterly against both the good of man and the glory of God." Book 2, Chapter 1

Various vibes of mine

To summarise then;• In of Divorce, Milton wanted to bring back 'manliness' to

Christians.• He may have been trying to escape the embarassment

following the breakdown of his first marriage.• Milton suggests that it is a woman's job to provide

companionship to a man, and if they should fail to do this to their husband's liking, then they must be removed from the household. He seems to view women as subordinates, put here to serve men, and was of the opinion that they should hold absolutley no power in matrimony.

Thanks for watching

 

In Conclusion• Milton's poetry reflects a lot of the opinions

that we see in Of Divorce.• It is important to note that Milton's audience

was 17th century parliamentary men.• He had personal motivation.• Marriage was the perfect way for him to

attack.  It affected the church, particurly Catholicism, tradition, the monarchy and the state.

• He is not just talking about divorce, but marriage as well.