John Milton Essay, Research Paper

Paradise Lost (1667)

The poem is divided up into 12 books. The verse is English heroic without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin. (Knopf, 1996) ?This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of writing.? (Knopf, 1996)

Book One proposes the whole subject of the poem of mans disobedience and the loss of the Paradise where God had placed him. The serpent or Satan is talked about whom is the prime cause of mans fall. Satan who was once at Gods side had revolted and was driven out of heaven along with thousands of angels to a place of ?utter darkness, filtiest called Chaos.?(Knopf, 1996) While they were recovering from being banished from heaven, Satan regroups them with a speech that they still have a chance to regain heaven. In his speech he also tells them of a new world that is to be created along with a new being. To find out if this prophecy is true, Satan convenes a full council in his palace called Pandemonium. This book ends as the consultation begins.

Book Two is where the debate among his council has begun and they are discussing basically three ideas. They are wondering if another battle will help them with the recovery of heaven and if it would be detrimental to their efforts. Some are for this proposal and others against it. The third proposal is to find out the truth of the prophecy of a new world and a new being. Whether the being is equal to them, or inferior. Satan will undertake this journey alone, which is seen as a very honorable thing to do. The council ends, with the rest of the council choosing a number of ways to occupy themselves until Satan returns from this journey. He needs to pass through the gates of hell. They are guarded and shut. He states the purpose of his journey to explore, and after some difficulty he is allowed to pass through with the help of Chaos who is the power of that place. He is then on his way to the new world that he is seeking.

Book Three is then a prediction of the fall of man. God is sitting on his throne with His Son at His side; they see Satan on his way to the newly created world. God foretells His Son of how Satan is able to trick man, as man is free to make his own choices. Because of the choices that man makes, he must die unless someone can be found who will answer to the sins of man, and will then take on the punishment for these sins. The Son of God then freely offers Himself as the ransom for mankind, and the Father accepts. There is then much celebration in heaven as they now have a plan to save mankind. Satan arrives: ?thence comes to the gate of heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the water above the firmament that flow about it; his passage thence to the orb of the sun: he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel, and pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires him the place of his habitation, and is directed: alights first on Mount Niphates.?(Simmons, 1996)

In Book Four Satan is now in the Garden of Eden, where he at length debates with himself, about his shortcomings, fears, strengths and envy. (Knopf, 1996) He eventually arrives on Paradise, where he sees Adam and Eve, and the good state that they are in. He then makes his plan on how he can bring about their demise. Gabriel, the arc angel hears that there is an evil spirit in the garden, and appoints two angels to watch over Adam.

Book Five starts off in the morning of the next day, when Adam and Eve waken and Eve relates to Adam a dream that she has had. Adam is not very happy about it, but they must go on with their daily tasks. God sends another angel, Raphael to warn Adam of what he might be up against, so he might prepare himself. The book then ends with Adam finding out about the first revolt in Heaven.

In Book Six, ?Raphael continues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were sent fourth to battle against Satan and his angels.? (Knopf, 1996) There is a great battle, where it seems that Satan may win, but Gabriel was able to triumph in the end. However the final victory was to be reserved for the Son of God, where Satan will be banished from heaven and the Messiah will return with triumph to His Father. (Knopf, 1996)

Book Seven then is where Raphael answers all of Adams questions about why a being like Satan was allowed in the first place, the story of the creation in six days, and the celebration in heaven of this new creation.

Book Eight has Adam asking more questions about God and His powers. He is detaining Raphael and wants to know more about his own creation, ?his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve; his discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after admonitions repeated, departs. (Knopf, 1996)

Book Nine is the fall of man. Satan had entered the serpent while he was sleeping. Adam and Eve are going about their duties in the garden, and to speed things up, she asks Adam if they can split up. Adam says no and tells her of the danger they had been forewarned about. After much persuasive talking that she would be strong enough, Adam lets her go off on her own. While going about the things she wanted to do, she comes across the serpent that speaks to her. She asks him how he now was able to talk to her with a voice, so the serpent told her that he had eaten from a certain tree. She asks the serpent to lead her to that tree, and found it to be the tree of knowledge forbidden. The serpents gets her to have a taste of the forbidden fruit, and she then goes on to share this with Adam. Adam is first upset that this has happened, but because of love, he partakes of the fruit also. The effect is immediate as they now show their nakedness, and are blaming each other for this error that the have made.

Book Ten mans fall is now known, and God sends His Son to judge Adam and Eve. When He sees them, he feels sorry for them, places clothes on them, then returns to heaven. Saran returns to Pandemonium, triumphant about his success. When the assembly receives him, they are all along with Satan changed into snakes. God then relates his plan where His son will eventually triumph over Satan. A promise is also made that the serpent will now forever be the lowest of creatures and that Eve?s offspring will forever be revengeful.

Book Eleven ?The son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them; God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of cherubim to dispossess them but to reveal to Adam future things.? (Knopf, 1996)

Book Twelve is the conclusion of Gods plan for Adam and Eve, how their offspring will eventually lead to the promised One who will die for all their transgressions. Michael relates to them the history of the world to come and finally the Second Coming. This comforts them. Michael then takes them by the hand and leads them out of Paradise.

?The world was all before them, where to choose

Their place of rest, and providence their guide;

They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,

Through Eden took their solitary way.? (Paradise Lost, lines 646-649)

Works Published in his Lifetime

Worktime: Comus (performed 1634; published 1637) [masque], Lycidas (1638) [a pastoral elegy on the death of a fellow student, Edward King], Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (1641) [an antiprelatical tract], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643) [a tract arguing for the legality of divorce], Areopagitica, A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens’d Printing to the Parlament {sic} of England (1644) [an oration advocating freedom of the press from government censorship], Poems of Mr. John Milton (1645, during the English Civil War) [containing "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"], Of the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649, during the trial of Charles I) [a republican argument that monarchs can rule only with their subjects' consent], Eikonoklastes (The Image Breakers) (1649) [a defense in Latin of the execution of the king, entrusted when Milton was secretary to the Council of State under Oliver Cromwell; he continued in his post until the restoration of the monarchy (1660), when he was imprisoned and fined and then allowed to retire], Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671), Samson Agonistes (1671)

Other Authors Views on the Work of John Milton

John Spencer Hill wrote this, ?When Milton began the composition of Paradise Lost, probably in 1658 but perhaps earlier in the decade, the need to admonish his fellow countrymen of their high calling and to impress upon them their covenantal responsibility was a matter of immediate and pressing concern. By the time the Protectorate was established in 1653 the national mission as Milton conceived it had been abandoned by the Presbyterians on the theological right and by many of the sects on the Puritan left; the national destiny lay precariously in the hands of Oliver Cromwell and his dwindled remnant of advisers and supporters — a remnant which shrank yet further in the years between 1653 and 1658. After the Lord Protector’s death in September 1658, the political situation became acute, then desperate and, finally, hopeless.?

?Throughout this period of national disintegration, as the shadows of returning night lengthened over the wan face of his departing dream, Milton labored tirelessly — but in vain — to rouse the consciences of his countrymen or at least the sensible and ingenuous among them and to recall them to the continuing need for regeneration. The slender hopes of national rebirth that he still cherished in the pamphlets of 1659-60, however, were erased forever by the Restoration in May 1660; and the depth of Milton’s despair may be gauged by Paradise Lost, a poem originally planned to honor a restored Paradise in England. Significantly, England is never mentioned in the epic; indeed, even in Michael’s brief resume of church history from the time of the Apostles to the Last Judgment there is no reference to English affairs. On the contrary, with no mention of the Reformation at all — whether in England or on the Continent.?(Hill, Chapter 4 p1-3)

Another critic wrote, ?Paradise Lost portrays the frailty of its nominal hero rather than his strength; in argument and plot it tends rather to dispraise than glorify him. Stressing the cardinal importance of the heroic exemplar in Milton?s epics and tragedy?(Steadman, jacket insert). This was a study written looking at Milton in the light on Renaissance theories of heroism.

A Personal View

Paradise Lost started out to be a very difficult read, as I really did not have any background and insight to who John Milton was and is today. I still don?t think I can say I read every word, but I sure gave it a try. There is a vast amount of criticism and scholarly musing on the works on John Milton, and this will continue for centuries to come. Milton had a great dream for England and its people, which I could see in this epic poem. I hope he did not die too bitter of a man, as he had already lost just about everything except his ability to write at the very end. He will always be an icon in literature, and my look on life is broader for having had the chance to scratch the surface of the man known as John Milton.

577

Hill, John Spencer. John Milton: Poet, Priest and Prophet. London: Macmillin, 1979

http://axil.uttawa.a/~phoenix/jm-ch-2.htm

Marlowe, Christopher. Milton-What?s His Gig? [email protected]

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. (Electronic version.)

Internet WWW at URL: http://dreamfarer.home.mindspring.com/milton.htm

(accessed [March 1998]).

Patterson, Frank Allen. The Student?s Milton. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. New York

1961

Steadman, John M. Milton and the Renaissance Hero. Oxford at the Clarendon Press,

1967