11th John Milton

Paradise Lost By John Milton (blind poet, borrows from Latin)

Written as an epic- long narrative poem featuring a larger-than-life hero, and reflecting the values of the society in which it was created

Shares traits of a Homeric epic:

                A story that begins in the middle of the action (in medias res)

                An opening invocation in which the poet calls for divine aid in telling his story

                Extended similes (comparisons using like or as)

Milton’s poetic concerns were shaped by the English Civil War (1642-1649). The war originated from King Charles I vs. Parliament along with new radical religious ideas such as Puritanism and development of own conscience instead of blindly following the king’s church.

Paradise Lost – epic poem of the Biblical story of the creation, fall and redemption of humanity.

Satan rebelled against God and his army has just lost the war. They have been expelled from heaven and plummeted into Hell (“one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames / No light, but rather darkness visible / Served only to discern sights of woe.”) Then tells the story of Adam and Eve.

Satan’s war is a symbol for England’s Civil War and the dark, destructive forces that have torn through the nation.

3 parallels: Like Satan, the English had rebelled against their traditional ruler

                Like Satan, the English king had demonstrated excessive pride

    Like Satan, England had been abruptly plunged from one condition into another

Themes: 

Reason and Free Will – Humanity can see the difference between right and wrong. With that ability comes the freedom to choose between the two.

Free Will and Predestination – God knows everything that is, was, and will be. Yet God’s foreknowledge of a person’s actions does not mean that the person’s choices were determined in advance, by God. People have free will.