WOW! I had never read Milton until I was forced to in my Chaucer/Shakespeare/Milton class and I was blown away! I absolutely loved this epic poem! Milton was the best educated man in England at this time. He spoke or read every European language and even dabbled in Algonquin. He was part of the Cromwell government and wrote a lot of political tracts that contain the roots of much of the political philosophy that is the foundation of our country. In a scathing political pamphlet called The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton wrote, “all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself…and they lived so until from the root of Adam’s transgression, falling among themselves to doe wrong and violence…they agreed by common league to bind each other from mutual injury." Milton believed very strongly that governments were necessary to protect men from their own vices, but that the “power of the Kings…is nothing else, but what is onely derivative, transferred and committed to them in trust from the people, to the common good of them all, in whom the power yet remains fundamentally." While this concept of executive power is widely accepted in western society today, it was far from the mainstream for seventeenth century England; where the prevailing philosophy was that the king’s right to rule came from God alone. One of the many purposes of Paradise Lost was a medium through which Milton could present his radical political views. In it he argues that men should ideally rule themselves in small familial groups, but because of men’s vices, they must set up stronger governmental systems. He uses Satan, whom he associates with Charles II, as the model of power unrighteously wielded, and sets up Christ as the model of proper authority. tIn book four, Milton describes Adam and Eve’s character before the fall, “Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure / Severe, but in true filial freedom placed / Whence true authority in men." Eve is submissive to Adam (at first) and, because Adam is submissive to God, he rules gently and correctly over Eve. In this state, men are in a state of freedom. A natural hierarchy exists in the patriarchal order of the family. It is the “true authority of men” because it mirrors man’s relationship with God. Later, in book twelve, Milton makes this point clearer as Michael shows to Adam the decedents of Noah who “Shall spend their days in joy unblamed and dwell / Long time in peace by families and tribes / Under paternal rule." Milton sees this natural paternal order as the idyllic form of governing mankind, and the one that allows the most freedom and peace for the individual. tOf course this peaceful set up cannot last, and in the very next sentence Nimrod “arrogates dominion undeserved” to himself and becomes the first King. This new form of authority is a rebellion from the natural power structure of family rule. It makes the many people on the bottom of the hierarchy slaves to the few on top. While this argument could be brought against most rulers throughout history, Milton implicates Charles II specifically in this description of Nimrod by saying, “from rebellion shall derive his name / Though of rebellion others he accuse." This refers to the restoration of Charles to the throne after the Commonwealth collapsed, after which many of the leaders of Cromwell’s government were hanged as traitorous rebels. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton makes clear that he is not just critiquing monarchy, but Charles II in particular. He goes so far as to associate Charles with Satan himself. For example, in book one, Milton describes Charles’ heady lifestyle in connection with Satan's brood, “In courts and palaces he also reigns / And in luxurious cities where the noise / Of riot ascends above their loftiest tow’rs…witness the streets of Sodom." Although Milton surely disapproved of this sort of heady living, it is not the main reason that he condemned Charles’ authority. It is Charles’ claim to divine right that so irks Milton, and he uses Satan to show how spurious this claim is, “Me though just right and the fixed laws of Heav’n / Did first create your leader." Later, Adam counters this assertion with Milton’s sentiments, “But man over men / He made not lord, such title to himself / Reserving” (XII.69-71).Book five shows that Satan assembled his crew of demons with the intent that they would help him get what he wanted. In fact, he assembled his leadership together under the false story that they were going to have a council on how best to “receive our King / The great Messiah. He has no thought of the wellbeing of those who follow him, but instead beguiles them with “counterfeited truth” to fight so that Satan can become as God. Satan does not serve them, they serve him; and follow him to their eternal damnation. For Milton, the real evil in monarchy is that inevitably the king will stop seeing himself as the servant of the people, and begin seeing the people as his servants. Compare this to the approach that The Son takes.Christ willingly accepts the role as savior to mankind; knowing that it will mean his death as God’s sacrificial lamb. It is only after this acceptance to be the servant of men that God gives Christ his divine authority: “Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt / With Thee thy manhood also to this throne…All power I give thee." According to this model, an executive should have as his motivation the welfare of the people over whom he lords. It is only through his service to the people that he receives and maintains authority. This is the model that Milton would have earthly governments follow; and if the executive of the nation, whatever title he may bear, does not serve the good of the people, they have the right to select one who will. Though the Commonwealth for which Milton argued so strongly eventually failed, he, like Christ, found a greater victory in defeat. Milton’s political views espoused in Paradise Lost eventually won over England and most of western society. Thomas Paine used very similar verbiage in his extremely influential political tract Common Sense “Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.” And then later he says. “Here then is the rise and origin of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world.” This is the philosophical bedrock of the concept of a limited government. The idea that powers of government ought to be limited to only that which the people cannot do themselves, and to let people govern themselves as much as possible, is one of the foundational philosophies of the Republican Party today. One can even read Milton in our Declaration of Independence, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” The reach of his work has far surpassed the “fit…though few” audience he envisioned for it. It is a part of our everyday lives. I can’t say whether this idea originated with Milton, but his inclusion of it in Paradise Lost, with its widespread sway in England and here in the US, gave it great influence; which we still feel today. Beyond his political views I was astounded at his theology. I agreed with the vast majority of his doctrinal positions including a trinity of seperate indivduals; God the Father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost (whom he invokes as the muse in good epic fasion). Jesus and several archangels make the earth under the direction of the Father. Satan rebels because of pride and attempts to usurp the Father's athourity, taking a third of the angels of heaven with him. Christ was chosen as the savior in a council in heaven. Men can only be forgiven through the stonement of Christ and through personal repentance...I could go on. He was so ahead of his time in this arena as well. The last thing I wanted to mention was his use of Satan playing the classical hero. Satatn displays the atributes of a classical hero along the lines of Odysseus, and Achiles. Milton does this so that he can show what true heroism is; as modeled by Christ. For Milton the true hero was humble, a servant of the people (which was his ideal for a governmental executive), and found his stregnth in obedience to god's will. He shows throughout the book how the new Christian heroic model is superior to the old classical model of physical prowess, cunning deception, and courtly lover. (for more on this subject I recommend Steadman's Milton and the Renaissance Hero.) It's to bad that Milton is no longer read today as much as it was from the time he wrote it to the twentieth century. It is a true classic, and contains so much that is foundational to our culture still today. If you need help on all of the allusions and classical references in Pardise Lost I recommend this website sponsored by Dartmouth College http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/read... It was very helpful with some of the obscure references.
“This horror will grow mild, this darkness light.” I didn’t intially love this book. We had to read a few chapters for uni, and I remember wanting to read all of it, despite not understanding it particularly well. Something about it drew me in, so when it came time to pick books for our exam I picked this one along with three others. It was a chance to delve into it, to break it open and peer into the cracks, to reach a deeper understanding of it. I don’t think I expected to love it. But I do, in a very singular way. It’s not that I read it and thought it an impressive work and loved it for that, and it’s not that I was moved by it emotionally or intellectually, at first at least. Like I said, I didn’t understand all of it. It took hours upon hours of reading articles about various aspects of it, before I felt I had an inkling of what lay shimmering and moving beneath the surface – and sometimes ON the surface, it’s really not an easy work. It’s rich in reference, in form, and in meaning. There’s nothing about this work that’s insignificant, which makes deciphering it really hard, but rewarding work. I want to talk about all of it, but I won’t – much of it I’m to ignorant to speak on and the rest I know so little of I daren’t say a thing. But, as I’m full of love and respect and admiration for it, I’ll talk about it anyway. The one thing I feel I do have to touch on is Satan. You can’t really talk about Paradise Lost and not talk about Satan. I remember once seeing someone, a random person online, being asked what they thought of Milton’s portrayal of Satan, and they said they felt he’d tried too hard to make Satan a cool bad boy. I felt like crushing something. To read Paradise Lost and think Satan the hero is to gravely misinterpret what Milton sets out to do, and even the text itself. You can do it, pretty much all the Romantics did, but I’ll maintain you won’t be right – or at least won’t be true to Milton’s vision. My teacher pointed out that for Milton to give Satan the epic opening he gets, to grant him sympathetic sentiments at the beginning, is to let the reader be seduced the way Eve is. It’s to let the reader fall into the very same trap and experience the fall from grace for themselves. Satan does appear, at the start, as someone with a just cause, but as the story progresses and the tale of his rebellion and his later ascent back to heaven and into paradise takes place, he’s revealed as petty, selfish and greedy. I don’t blame anyone for missing it, we’re attuned in our society to see the rebellious, ambivalent characters as more interesting and in that regard you could have solid case. In many ways, Satan is interesting (perhaps even more so back when it was written, as Satan hadn’t really been a character the way he is in PL before) and to some extent a complex character, but so are Adam and Eve. There are feminist problems with Paradise Lost and specifically the portrayal of Eve. I find her a more interesting character than Adam, but Adam is portrayed as the ‘master’ of the two of them. Still, I didn’t feel it as though it was a belief of Milton’s that men are raised above women, rather as though it was written that way because he couldn’t entirely disregard the bible and the sexism that’s inherent in it. Not thereby saying he’s exempt from judgement, I wish it was different, but there’s nonetheless an equality (in my opinion!) between them that I appreciated. They co-exist in paradise, and being only two there’s not, between them, anyone who’s better or lesser, they depend on each other. Another thing I love is the implication that the fall of man is brought about due to inexperience. It’s not that there is, within man, an inherent weakness, we were made to have withstood temptation. The reason Eve doesn’t is her inexperience with the world, it’s not that she’s ignorant of evil, both her and Adam have been told the story of Satan and his rebellion, it’s that neither her nor Adam have ever experienced it. The fall of man is, more than a loss of innocence, a gaining of experience. It is to suddenly, intimately know what evil is like, instead of simply knowing vaguely its features. Paradise Lost is not merely an attempt at creating a cosmology, it is not simply an epic retelling of a well-known myth; it reaches higher than that. It doesn’t only recount man’s fall from grace, it recounts the Satan’s as well, which is, perhaps, the true original sin, and a far greater, more severe fall than the one that befalls mankind. The problem with Satan is that he can’t find it in himself to turn back to God and ask forgiveness (granted, God seems a bit unwilling to forgive, but that may be because he knows Satan will never ask), he makes evil his good and corrupts the new race that God has created out of spite – and weakness. If you can’t beat God, teach him a lesson some other way. The corruption of Eve is a sign of cowardice, not only is it a removed attack on God, whom Satan knows he can’t defeat in open battle, it’s also a mission he’s taken on himself simply so he could escape Hell for a bit. His last and final humiliation, after successfully seducing Eve, is to find himself turned into a snake and what would have been applause for his success turned into a chorus of hisses. I understand the issues people may have with this particular work, and I am ready to acknowledge them, but to be honest, I think Milton writes with incredible humanity, and with great hope and belief in mankind. The insistence that man – in fact all creatures, everything in existence – is created free, and in possession of free will, that he may use in whichever way he chooses, is my favorite thing about Paradise Lost. My second favorite thing is the sentiment that no one is exempt from God’s grace. We may have all fallen from it, but we have it on our power, all of us, no matter what, to turn to God and ask to be taken in again. Nothing but ourselves are keeping us from it. These are not new ideas to me, but for the first time in my life, I understood the significance of them. I saw the extreme beauty and hope that comes with such a belief. To hand over responsibility to the individual and trust them with their lives and souls. It’s not new or groundbreaking, not anymore, but to truly understand and feel the gravity of such a thing? I was floored. I still am. “For so I created them free and free they must remain.” I’m not a particularly religious person, I never was, although I’ve believed in God before. But if there ever was a work to make me question my belief or non-belief in God, this is it. In fact, when I was done reading and studying it, I was left with one, immediate and overwhelming question:What do you do with God once you’ve found him?I don’t know. I don’t know.
What do You think about Paradise Lost (2003)?
in middle school i had seen this book lying around the house and for some reason it struck me as very impressive. i didn't ever want to read it but i wanted to give off the impression that i was the type of person who would read it. i did this with a few other books too (catcher in the rye, on the road, ect.) i carried it to school so that teachers would see it in my possession and prominently displayed it on my bedside table to let friends and family know. after actually reading the book for a brit-lit class i realized how wrong my thirteen-year-old self was with the image i assumed i was portraying. most likely people realized that i was desperate for attention and for some strange reason was using john milton to get it, but on the off chance they did believe i was 'into' paradise lost, i must have seemed like a total psycho. the book is about a war waged in hell after satan's fall into the underworld. all of the descriptions are completely graphic and grotesque. i think i blocked a lot out but i do remember a female demon who is repeatedly raped by her sons immediately after giving birth to them. yuck. thank god i realized later that the best way to get attention is through cigarettes and promiscuity not literature.
—Meg
Milton's epic poem about the fall of Man is without any doubts not the easiest or most enjoyable read, but it is of truly epic proportions and provides and excellent insight into the history and development of literature, as well as enough material to think about. The exploration of Satan's motives and the conflict of Good, which is portrayed rather insolent at times, and Evil which the reader at times cannot help but sympathise with is masterfully written, despite the fact that the language is often archaic and the similies and comparisons refer to other myths and stories and parts of history which not everyone is particularly familiar with. I am not going to dive into a discussion why this is a masterpiece here and what Milton did that made it so amazing, but describe a bit why I sometimes struggled with this masterpiece instead. Firstly, as expected it was deeply misogynic. Some passages left me literally gaping at my copy incredulous about what people used to, and some still do, believe in completely disregarding women. I understand that it couldn't have been written differently at that time, but it disturbed me nonetheless. Secondly, the disregard of logic and any kind of common sense. I love fiction, but for me in most cases it will still remain nothing but a story, few touch me deeply enough to think of them as something else. The problem with works like Paradise Lost is that people believed in them like they are history. As a sceptic and somebody who loves science and believes in only what can be proven the disregard of logic had me grinding my teeth more than once or twice. If it were just a masterpiece from the perspective of the work of fiction I would have easily ignored it with a dismissive "It's fiction". But since it deals with Religion and something that used to be the only thing people believed in I couldn't help but feel shocked and exasperated with human kind. It is not a read for everyone. There are only three reasons why I picked this one up. First - the alternative depiction of the Devil as someone who does not only stupidly wants to cause chaos and destroy humanity. Second - educational reasons, I will need this in my courses. Third - I enjoy epic poetry and there is always something you can learn from this style if you write yourself. Although the part of me who studies Literature rates it with four stars, my logical/I-believe-in-science part rates it with one, but it is not about logic here, right?
—Liz
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat,Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret topOf Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspireThat shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth Rose out of Chaos, or if Sion hillDelight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowedFast by the oracle of God; I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song, That with no middle flight intends to soarAbove th' Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme."So begins Paradise Lost. That up there? All one sentence. If you're anything like me, you read it (or just skimmed it) and your response was a long, dejected, "oy vey." That's what I thought anyway when I was assigned to read this for an English class, and was glad that we only had to read about three books from the work total. But - I started sort of liking the story, and vowed to finish it one day, if just to say that I did. Nearly a year later, and I've done it. So, in brief: Milton has a lot to say. Many parts of this book are drawn-out and requiring footnoted explanations every few sentences. But, BUT: the writing really is incredible, and even if I had no idea what was going on in some sections of the book, I could at least recognize that the poetry was beautiful. My favorite parts: the council in Hell between Satan and several other demons to debate how they should wage war against Heaven, and the seduction of Eve. Satan's speeches are amazing, and Milton's version of the fall of Eve is infinitely better than the Bible's. We will now give closing remarks to Professor Jennings of Faber College: "Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible. But that doesn't relieve you of your responsibility for this material!"Thank you, Professor.Read for: Early British Literature
—Madeline
