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Paradise Lost by John Milton. My aim is to do an essay to analyze Paradise Lost by the English poet John Milton. I want to concentrate in the three important new concepts which appear, for the first time, in the 17th century which are reflected in Million’s Paradise Lost: man, nature, and experience. The 1 7 the century was a time when a great many issues that had arisen since the Reformation came to ahead: religion, politics, power and freedom were questioned as never before. John Milton was born in London in 1 608 at the height Oh the Protestant Reformation in England.
His father had left Roman Catholicism and Milton was raised Protestant, with a heavy tendency toward Puritanism. Milton excelled in languages such as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and in classical studies. For more than 20 years, Milton set aside poetry to write political and religious pamphlets for the cause of Puritanism. For a time, he served as Secretary for Foreign Tongues under Cromwell. Milton was a mixed product of his time. On the one hand, as a humanist, he fought for religious tolerance and believed that there was something inherently valuable in man.
As a puritan, however, he believed that the Bible was the answer and the guide to all. Where the Bible didn’t afford an answer, Milton would turn to reason. At the end of the war, Milton was imprisoned for a short time for his views. In 1660, he emerged blind and disillusioned with the England he saw around him. Milton died of kidney failure in 1674 and was buried in the church of SST. Giles in London. Paradise Lost is considered to be his master piece. It’s a biblical epic poem. It will be the first time in which an author will mix the epic, which was related to man with religion, which was related to God.
All the texts written before Milton dealt with politics (king) or religion (God), but now something appears in the middle: the man and his experience. Paradise Lost is written in blank verse, since it was the only way in which the author could capture his experience (realism) in his work. The possibility of rhyme is lost because it bothers in the process of perception. Now, the poet does not want to write a word which rhyme with the previous one because, maybe, that is not the word to express what he really feels.
The blank verse gives the poet more freedom to express his feelings and maybe that can represent the freedom which Milton was defending in his time. Milton used Latin syntax which was useful to him to create his own syntax. This use shows that he Was influenced by the classical poets but at the same time, it shows that English language was not important yet. As an epic poem, we find a hero (God) who represents the right side, and an antihero (Satan) who represents the evil. The main characters are disobedient, and revolutionary: Dan and Satan are punished because of their rebelliousness.
The evil characters are more credible than those who represent the right side. The character of Satan can represent two kind of different person. On the one hand, Satan can be related to the monarchs who ruled during the 17 the century. From Million’s point of view they were tyrants who were destroying England and they were only worried about getting their own interests: Honor and Empire with revenge enlarged, conquering this new world. So fake the Fiend, and with insufficient, by the tyrants plea, excused his devilish deeds. On the other hand, Satan can be related to Milton himself since, as Satan, he was disobedient and revolutionary.
Milton was considered to be an heretic. He denied the Trinity, he was against bishops, he defended divorce, freedom of the press and the regicide . Satan wants to take revenge on God not by using his force but by using his astuteness. Milton did something similar since he wrote political and religious pamphlets foot the cause of Puritanism he advocated, and in some of his works he denounces what he considered that was corrupt in the society he was living. What William Blake wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell can state Million’s relation with the character of Satan, ‘Milton was a true poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it. This implies that being ‘ of the Devil’s party’ is favorable, as it is the condition of a true poet. ‘ At the end of the poem Satan returns in triumph to Hell. From my point of view it has two different meanings: the first nee is that the tyranny will always exist (if we see Satan as the representation of a monarch) and the second one is that if you fight for what you really want and you do not let the others persuade you, you can get your purpose ( Satan got to take revenge of God and Milton was trying to get to improve his society). The characters of Dan and Eve represent the concept that people had about man and woman.
Dan is superior in strength and intellect while Eve is the ideal companion in her perfect femininity. At the same time, she is the cause of the fall of the man, because she is weak and she falls into temptation. This allegations is really sexist but reflects the belief of Puritan England as well as most of the rest of the world at the time: not equal, as third Fax not equal femme; Though both For contemplation he and velour formed, For fitness fee and feet attractive Grace, He for God only, fee for God in him. The theme of nature is also important in Paradise Lost.
In book IV Milton gives us a meticulous description of Eden. A beautiful place in which everything is perfect. This place in completely different to the turbulent periods of the English Civil War, Cromwell Republic and the Restoration in 1660, which Milton lived in his flesh. With Satin’s entrance in the Garden Milton gives us the idea that even nature can be corrupted by evil: So clomp this first grand Thief into Gods Foul: So fence into his Church lewd Hirelings climbed. Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, Sat like a Cormorant; yet not true Life Thereby regained, but fat devising Death To them who lie’/d.
Your Heaven ill fences foot Heaven to keep out Fuchs foe as now is entered. The final image of Paradise Lost is profoundly forward-looking, an image of gain through loss. As Dan and Eve go hand in hand towards the future, the loss Paradise is seen as humanity’s gain. Now, the man is able to whose and find his way and to change his future for better: The World was all before them, where to chef Third place of reef, and Providence third guide: They hand in hand with wandering fetes and flow Through Eden took third Voltaire way.
This is the first time in which we can feel identify with the characters in an epic poem. In Paradise Lost we have characters who are against authority and the same occurred in Million’s time since, Milton himself was against the king Charles l. So, we can consider that Paradise Lost not only reflects a biblical story but also it reflects the author’s personal experiences. The theme of the fall goes beyond a national epic and give the poet scope to analyze the whole question of freedom, free will and individual choice.