Original scientific paper
Ontology of Shame in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”
Daniel Miščin
; Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb
Abstract
The author explores the possibility of establishing the ontology of shame in the epic poem “Paradise lost” by John Milton. In this sense, the author identifies two possible approaches to the text: the- odicean and ethical, and points at the reasons for establishing the ontology of shame in the framework of Milton’s ethical discourse. The analysis of the key elements of the ontology of shame reveals Milton’s view that shame is only in the second instance linked with nudity and lust of Adam and Eve after the fall. It is above all the con-sequence of the interrupted relationship, loneliness and disappea-rance of love, and not of the newly realized state of physical nudity. Just like the shame in the Garden of Eden, so does the ashamed- ness after the expulsion, have its ontology. Following this trail of thought, the author shows that the notion of expulsion and “disin-heriting” should not be understood as the deprivation in the sense of a place, but that these notions integrate the important determinants of the post-Eden existential situation of a human being in the ontological sense.
Keywords
shame; metaphysics; ontology; original sin; existence; Eden
Hrčak ID:
168115
URI
Publication date:
28.10.2016.
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