경제 비유에 드러난 밀턴의 소명의식

Abstract

After Milton gave up the expectation of becoming a clergyman, he has dedicated his life to the struggle for the political and religious freedom of his nation. In this paper I focus on Milton's sense of vocation throughout his career in the economic context of three characters' reacting voices to the grace of God; that is, on how Milton persuasively expresses the sense by means of the language of economy. The delicate differences of the poetic words, the poet's diction “account” (6) of “Sonnet 19”, Satan's “debt” (4.52) of Paradise Lost, and Manoa's “score” (433) of Samson Agonistes, show indirectly but convincingly how the vicissitudes of Milton's life have given various voices to his sense of vocation. By “My true account” of “Sonnet 19,” the speaker means that he will at least try to make the best use of his talent in spite of the blindness. Arrogant Satan's term, “debt,” suggests that he takes God's grace not for something to which he should pay gratitude but for something against which he must retaliate. When disappointed Manoa uses the expression of “That rigid score,” he unconsciously implies that Samson's punishment seems to be a little too harsh. Milton, however, comes to “assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men” (PL 1.25-26) through Samson's final concession that “the strife / With me hath end; all the contest is now / 'Twixt God and Dagon” (SA 460-62) and his tragic recognition that only “God will relent, and quit thee [him] all his debt” (509).Even if we can't exactly tell what his sense of vocation is, and how it changes before and after his blindness and the Restoration, we can safely say that he tries consistently to repay God's favor in literary, political and religious fields.