Historical source
John Milton
Paradise Lost · Book X
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?”
02 · Relation under transformation
Relation under transformation.
Explore how a relation persists as the wording changes.
Current textual state
Paraphrase
Constructed demonstration · same relation, different wording
“I never asked my creator to make me or to bring me into life.”
01 QUOTATION
historical anchor“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?”
The relationship is easy to recognise because Milton’s wording is still present.
02 PARAPHRASE
constructed demonstration“I never asked my creator to make me or to bring me into life.”
The same roles remain, although characteristic words have been replaced.
03 ADAPTATION
constructed demonstration“A created being confronts the one who gave it life and questions an existence imposed without consent.”
The situation survives, but its wording and structure have been reorganised.
04 OBFUSCATION
constructed demonstration“Existence became an obligation before assent was possible, leaving its origin as the object of accusation.”
The people and act of creation are no longer named directly; the relation must be reconstructed from dispersed clues.
05 ALLUSION
historical anchor“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel...”
Recognition now depends on literary knowledge: Adam and the fallen angel reconnect Shelley’s creature to Milton’s creation narrative.
Miltontransformation pathShelley
What still connects them
Same conceptual roles- created beingThe speaker as a created entity
- creator / makerThe agent who creates
- creation / originBeing brought into existence
- consent / grievanceA question or lack of consent
Adam → created being Fallen angel → Miltonic creation / fall
The same roles remain, although characteristic words have been replaced.
- Surface wording
- medium
- Evidence comes from
- equivalent expression
Explore the relation model
Computational relation view
The fuller model separates conceptual roles and the evidence used to connect them.
- Surface wording
- medium
- Transformation distance
- local
- Relation evidence
- distributed