I was thoroughly disappointed with Milton after reading today’s chapter in CC. He at first comes across as putting woman on a pedestal on page 180. He vows to celebrate “those in whom both good and faire in one person meet” However, when he comes out with his divorce tracts to “advocate, religious, civil, and domestic liberty for sober and religious men” he gets angry when there isn’t support for his self-serving views of the doctrines of marriage laid out by God. He attempts to twist the scripture to account for the God’s disapproval of the Pharisees. He claims that marriage was created for the “good of man” and that a marriage that doesn’t fall into his (Milton) ideal of good was therefore not “what God hath joined together”He rails against those who believed divorce was only for abused wives, after all “wasn’t woman created for man, not man for woman?” He goes on to say that God could not have intended man who is the image of God, who was given the inferior woman for his enjoyment, to be stuck with someone (who he, Milton) considers to be inadequate as a wife. He puts forth that man, who was “crown’d” by God, should have the right “to obtain his freedom”. Milton feels marriage is a place to where two people can have great conversations with each other and be happy, to enjoyed dignity and love together. Apparently this means if Milton is happy it is a good marriage, if he isn’t being fulfilled as he feels he should be then he deserves a divorce.It seems Milton’s idea of a virtuous woman is one that fits his lofty ideals. If they don’t then they fall into the category of a Delilah. It frustrates me that a man with such great theories and rich depictions of women and love in his poetry could come out with this , in my mind, contradictory rubbish.
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