{"id":{"repo_id":"vt","oai_identifier":"oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42655"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vt/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42655","repository":{"repo_id":"vt","name":"Virginia Tech","base_url":"https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"A Devil of a Coincidence: Study on Milton and Gower","abstract":"The seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost is one of the most widely studied texts in all of literary history. The work, written by John Milton, depicts Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent deeds on Earth and in Hell. One of the more remarkable and, often, most overlooked scenes in the story involves the distinctive personification of Sin and Death. Milton depicts Sin as the daughter of Satan, with no mention of a mother, born through a process of spontaneous generation. Satan then becomes so captivated by his daughter's wickedness that he forces himself upon her, causing Sin to bear a son, Death. This illustration is striking, especially given that it also appears in the opening pages of the fourteenth-century Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1376) by John Gower. In both Milton and Gower's poems, Satan, Sin, and Death are personified as having this familial, incestuous relationship which ultimately creates the world's evils. Their depictions are not merely reminiscent of one another, but rather, often match up in nearly identical fashions. John S. P. Tatlock was the among the first to notice these similarities, but was also quick to express his hesitance to say with any sort of assurance that Milton had read Gower: \"Since only one manuscript of the Mirour is known, and that was never published until seven years ago [1899], the chance is infinitesimal that Milton ever heard of the poem. But that his and Gower's sources are ultimately the same seems to me highly probable.\" Yet to date, no studies have been conducted to determine which shared sources could possibly lead Milton and Gower to construct such similar personifications of Sin and Death. Indeed, John Fisher notes that currently \"the influence of the Mirour upon Paradise Lost remains an open question.\" It is upon this open question that I now attempt to help fill this century-old void in literary research","abstract_html":"The seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost is one of the most widely studied texts in all of literary history. The work, written by John Milton, depicts Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent deeds on Earth and in Hell. One of the more remarkable and, often, most overlooked scenes in the story involves the distinctive personification of Sin and Death. Milton depicts Sin as the daughter of Satan, with no mention of a mother, born through a process of spontaneous generation. Satan then becomes so captivated by his daughter's wickedness that he forces himself upon her, causing Sin to bear a son, Death. This illustration is striking, especially given that it also appears in the opening pages of the fourteenth-century Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1376) by John Gower. In both Milton and Gower's poems, Satan, Sin, and Death are personified as having this familial, incestuous relationship which ultimately creates the world's evils. Their depictions are not merely reminiscent of one another, but rather, often match up in nearly identical fashions. John S. P. Tatlock was the among the first to notice these similarities, but was also quick to express his hesitance to say with any sort of assurance that Milton had read Gower: "Since only one manuscript of the Mirour is known, and that was never published until seven years ago [1899], the chance is infinitesimal that Milton ever heard of the poem. But that his and Gower's sources are ultimately the same seems to me highly probable." Yet to date, no studies have been conducted to determine which shared sources could possibly lead Milton and Gower to construct such similar personifications of Sin and Death. Indeed, John Fisher notes that currently "the influence of the Mirour upon Paradise Lost remains an open question." It is upon this open question that I now attempt to help fill this century-old void in literary research","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Whisman, Derek K."],"institution":"Virginia Tech","degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":"English","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":["Eska, Charlene M."],"committee_members":["Sullivan, Ernest II","Colaianne, Anthony J."],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-04-26","date_published":"2010-04-26","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:55Z","subjects":["John Milton","Mirror of Mankind","John Gower","Paradise Lost"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["In Copyright"],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-05142010-000253"],"render_values":[{"text":"etd-05142010-000253","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42655","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.committeechair","label":"Committee Chair","values":["Eska, Charlene M."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Sullivan, Ernest II","Colaianne, Anthony J."]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["English"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Whisman, Derek K."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-03-14T21:36:10Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-03-14T21:36:10Z","2010-05-25"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2010-04-26"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Virginia Tech"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["John Milton","Mirror of Mankind","John Gower","Paradise Lost"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["In Copyright"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.other","label":"Dc Identifier Other","values":["etd-05142010-000253"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42655"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost is one of the most widely studied texts in all of literary history. The work, written by John Milton, depicts Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent deeds on Earth and in Hell. One of the more remarkable and, often, most overlooked scenes in the story involves the distinctive personification of Sin and Death. Milton depicts Sin as the daughter of Satan, with no mention of a mother, born through a process of spontaneous generation. Satan then becomes so captivated by his daughter's wickedness that he forces himself upon her, causing Sin to bear a son, Death. This illustration is striking, especially given that it also appears in the opening pages of the fourteenth-century Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1376) by John Gower. In both Milton and Gower's poems, Satan, Sin, and Death are personified as having this familial, incestuous relationship which ultimately creates the world's evils. Their depictions are not merely reminiscent of one another, but rather, often match up in nearly identical fashions. John S. P. Tatlock was the among the first to notice these similarities, but was also quick to express his hesitance to say with any sort of assurance that Milton had read Gower: \"Since only one manuscript of the Mirour is known, and that was never published until seven years ago [1899], the chance is infinitesimal that Milton ever heard of the poem. But that his and Gower's sources are ultimately the same seems to me highly probable.\" Yet to date, no studies have been conducted to determine which shared sources could possibly lead Milton and Gower to construct such similar personifications of Sin and Death. Indeed, John Fisher notes that currently \"the influence of the Mirour upon Paradise Lost remains an open question.\" It is upon this open question that I now attempt to help fill this century-old void in literary research"]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Master of Arts"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Devil of a Coincidence: Study on Milton and Gower"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.committeechair":["Eska, Charlene M."],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Sullivan, Ernest II","Colaianne, Anthony J."],"dc:contributor.department":["English"],"dc:creator":["Whisman, Derek K."],"dc:date.accessioned":["2014-03-14T21:36:10Z"],"dc:date.available":["2014-03-14T21:36:10Z","2010-05-25"],"dc:date.issued":["2010-04-26"],"dc:description.abstract":["The seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost is one of the most widely studied texts in all of literary history. The work, written by John Milton, depicts Satan's fall from Heaven and subsequent deeds on Earth and in Hell. One of the more remarkable and, often, most overlooked scenes in the story involves the distinctive personification of Sin and Death. Milton depicts Sin as the daughter of Satan, with no mention of a mother, born through a process of spontaneous generation. Satan then becomes so captivated by his daughter's wickedness that he forces himself upon her, causing Sin to bear a son, Death. This illustration is striking, especially given that it also appears in the opening pages of the fourteenth-century Mirour de l'Omme (c. 1376) by John Gower. In both Milton and Gower's poems, Satan, Sin, and Death are personified as having this familial, incestuous relationship which ultimately creates the world's evils. Their depictions are not merely reminiscent of one another, but rather, often match up in nearly identical fashions. John S. P. Tatlock was the among the first to notice these similarities, but was also quick to express his hesitance to say with any sort of assurance that Milton had read Gower: \"Since only one manuscript of the Mirour is known, and that was never published until seven years ago [1899], the chance is infinitesimal that Milton ever heard of the poem. But that his and Gower's sources are ultimately the same seems to me highly probable.\" Yet to date, no studies have been conducted to determine which shared sources could possibly lead Milton and Gower to construct such similar personifications of Sin and Death. Indeed, John Fisher notes that currently \"the influence of the Mirour upon Paradise Lost remains an open question.\" It is upon this open question that I now attempt to help fill this century-old void in literary research"],"dc:description.degree":["Master of Arts"],"dc:identifier.other":["etd-05142010-000253"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42655"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Virginia Tech"],"dc:rights":["In Copyright"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:subject":["John Milton","Mirror of Mankind","John Gower","Paradise Lost"],"dc:title":["A Devil of a Coincidence: Study on Milton and Gower"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"],"thesis:institution_name":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:18:55Z"}