Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dodds, Lara

Committee Member

Claggett, Shalyn

Committee Member

Anderson, Thomas

Date of Degree

5-1-2010

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of English

Abstract

This study sets John Milton’s Paradise Lost in dialogue with Lucy Hutchinson’s Order and Disorder, concentrating on each poem’s portrayal of the Christian redemption narrative as interpreted through typology. Specifically, I focus on the absence of a positive feminine type in Books 11 and 12 of Paradise Lost and relocate it in Order and Disorder in the characters, Sarah and Rebecca. In regard to typology, Milton adheres to a traditional typology steeped in patriarchy, which devalues women’s participation, whereas Hutchinson recognizes both paternal and maternal types. Furthermore, Hutchinson views Sarah and Rebecca as vital to the redemption narrative and shapes them as types for Mary, therefore making an original contribution to typology. This study concludes with a reading of Hutchinson’s use of typology through twentieth-century contemporary feminist theology and suggests that Hutchinson’s role as theologian challenges that of Milton’s.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15081

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