ENG308Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Dialectic, Hubris, Tyrant
ENG308 Jan 9
Heaven and Earth by Byron
-mystery cycles
-stories of biblical events
-first of the mysteries was the story of cain
-heaven and earth is revisiting this issue bc it’s talking about the consequences of
losing the natural world
-not well received by the broader public
-Byron’s religion always had a political element
-The only person who comes close in playwriting style is Shelley
Heaven and Earth
-mortals loving angels
-poses question: what’s wrong with this?
-why would an angel fall in love with a creature of clay?
-man created in God’s image: to love one is to love the other’
-aren’t angels and human beings images of God?
-this turns out to be the wrong view: God doesn’t like it, God wants you to
love him, not angels
-Byron saying that there are things about humanity that are beautiful, things
about loss and change
-but we are built to become more: we have an angelic strain
-the desire of the humans to become more than what they are
-the desire of the angels to become less than what they are
-there is an inherent desire of the creations of god: they live in a
contradictory state
-heaven and earth are not separate
-similar argument as in Prometheus: every human being is a Prometheus
-human beings caught in a dialectic
-justification for loving angels: cannot help but love beauty
-these relationships are understood as a sin
-why is it wrong to love an angel?
-idolatry
-I love azaziel more than.. anah is about to say God
-she doesn’t want to be idolatrous
-there is also something wrong with creatures mixing, which leads to something
monstrous—think about Frankenstein, ideas of natural history
-anah fears that something bad will come of this relationships
-God floods the entire earth as a result of these relationships
-fundamental difference between angels and humans is that humans die
Scene 2
-anxieties over the death of Anah extends to the the death of the rest of the world
-everything on earth gets destroyed because of this relationship
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Document Summary
First of the mysteries was the story of cain losing the natural world. Heaven and earth is revisiting this issue bc it"s talking about the consequences of. The only person who comes close in playwriting style is shelley. Man created in god"s image: to love one is to love the other". This turns out to be the wrong view: god doesn"t like it, god wants you to love him, not angels. Byron saying that there are things about humanity that are beautiful, things about loss and change. But we are built to become more: we have an angelic strain. The desire of the humans to become more than what they are. The desire of the angels to become less than what they are. There is an inherent desire of the creations of god: they live in a contradictory state. Similar argument as in prometheus: every human being is a prometheus. Justification for loving angels: cannot help but love beauty.
