Paradise Lost
John Milton
Type of Work
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..Paradise Lost is an epic poem which—like
the epic poems of Homer, Dante, Vergil, and
Goethe—tells a story about momentous
events while incorporating grand themes that
are timeless and universal.
Date Completed
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.......Milton completed the first version of Paradise
Lost in 1667.
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It consisted of 10 books.
In 1668 and 1669, he added an introductory
comment about the verse form and a special section
with summaries of each book.
In 1674, he published the final version of the epic, in
which he divided Books 7 and 10 into two books
each.
The completed work thus had 12 books instead of
10.
He also placed each summary at the beginning of
the book it summarized.
Sources
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.......Milton used the Bible, Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, and the stories in
Greco-Roman mythology as sources of
information and as writing models.
The Bible's Book of Genesis is the main
source for his retelling of the story of creation
and the first humans, Adam and Eve.
Settings:
.......The settings are heaven, hell, the
firmament (Chaos), and earth.
Characters:
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God the Father, God the Son:
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Two of the three divine persons making up the all-powerful
Godhead, the single deity that created and rules all that
exists outside of itself.
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The third divine person, the Holy Spirit, does not play a role in
Paradise Lost.
God the Father is portrayed as just but merciful,
condemning the defiant and unrepentant rebel angels but
permitting redemption of the repentant Adam and Eve. God
the Son volunteers to redeem them by becoming human
and enduring suffering and death.
Characters
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Satan (Lucifer, Archfiend): Powerful and prideful
angel who, with legions of supporters, leads an
unsuccessful rebellion against God and suffers
eternal damnation.
To gain revenge, he devises a plan to corrupt God's
newly created beings, Adam and Eve, through
deceit.
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Modern readers often admire him for his steely defiance.
He would rather rule in hell, he says, than serve in heaven.
It was not Milton's intent, however, to create an admirable
character; rather his intent was to create a character of
colossal hatred—loathsome, execrable, incurably
remorseless.
Characters
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Adam and Eve: The first human beings, created by
God to fill the void that resulted when God cast
Satan and his supporters out of the celestial realm.
Adam and Eve live on the planet earth in utter
happiness in a special garden where spring is the
only season and love and godly living prevail.
Though they have all that they want and need,
cunning Satan tells them they can have knowledge
and status beyond their reach if only they eat of the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
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Eve can become a goddess, he says.
Vanity overtakes her. She eats. Adam reluctantly does the
same.
Characters
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Gabriel, Raphael,
Michael, Uriel:
Powerful and fearless
angels on the side of
God.
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Beelzebub, Mammon,
Belial, Moloch:
Powerful leaders in
Satan's army. In a great
council in hell, each of
them speaks his mind
on what policy devilkind should follow after
losing paradise. Should
they make new war?
Should they make
peace?
Characters
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Ithuriel, Zephron: Angels
who expel Satan from the
Garden of Eden with the
help of a sign from God.
Satan returns to the garden
later to complete his
devious enterprise.
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Mulciber: Fallen angel who
designs hell's capital city
and seat of government,
Pandemonium. In ancient
Roman mythology, Mulciber
is another name for Vulcan
(Greek: Hephaestus), god
of fire and the forge. As a
blacksmith, he kept shop in
burning mountains
(volcanoes).
Characters
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Sin: Daughter of Satan.
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She was born from his head in the manner of
Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war, who
sprang from the forehead of Zeus, king of the
gods.
Death: Son of Satan and Sin
Milton's Solar System
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.......In describing the planets and other celestial
bodies, Milton models God’s creation on the
Ptolemaic design (also called the geocentric design)
rather than the Copernican design (also called the
heliocentric design). .
Milton was aware of the Copernican theory, but he
used the Ptolemaic design—either because he
believed it was the more credible theory or because
he believed it would better serve his literary
purpose.
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In Paradise Lost, Adam inquires about the movements of
celestial bodies—in particular, whether earth orbits the sun
or vice versa—in his conversation with the archangel
Raphael, but Raphael gives no definite answer.
Raphael may have been speaking for Milton.
Style and Verse Format
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Milton wrote Paradise Lost in dignified, lofty,
melodic English free of any colloquialisms
and slang that would have limited the work's
timeliness and universality.
The format, Milton says in an introductory
note, is "English heroic verse without
rhyme"—in other words, blank verse, the
same verse form used by Shakespeare in his
plays. ...
Style and Verse Format
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.......Milton's strong religious faith infuses the
poem with sincerity and moral purpose, but
he does not allow his enthusiasm for his
subject to overtake control of his writing.
Though Milton frequently uses obscure
allusions to mythology and history, as well as
occasional difficult words and phrases, his
language is never deliberately affected or
ostentatious.
Style and Verse Format
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What is more, it does not preach and does not take
the reader on circumlocutory expeditions.
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Like a symphony composer—mighty Beethoven, for
example—Milton is always in control, tempering his
creative genius with his technical discipline.
.......With a good dictionary and an annotated text, a
first-time reader of Milton can easily follow and
understand the story while developing an
appreciation for the exquisite writing.
Epic Conventions
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In Paradise Lost, Milton used the classical
epic conventions—literary practices, rules, or
devices established by Homer that became
commonplace in epic poetry. Some of these
practices were also used in other genres of
literature.
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(1) The invocation of the muse, in which
a writer requests divine help in composing his
work.
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(2) Telling a story with which readers or listeners
are already familiar; they know the characters, the
plot, and the outcome.
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Most of the great writers of the ancient world—as well as
many great writers in later times, including Shakespeare—
frequently told stories already known to the public.
Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected plot twists,
no surprise endings.
If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and
theatergoer, consider that many of the most popular motion
pictures today are about stories already known to the
public.
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Examples are The Passion of the Christ, Titanic, The Ten
Commandments, Troy, Spartacus, Pearl Harbor, and
Gettysburg.
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(3) Beginning the story in the middle, a
literary convention known by its Latin term in
media res (in the middle of things).
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Such a convention allows a writer to begin his
story at an exciting part, then flash back to fill the
reader in on details leading up to that exciting
part.
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(4) Announcing or introducing a list of
characters who play a major role in the story.
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They may speak at some length about how to
resolve a problem (as the followers of Satan do
early in Paradise Lost).
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(5) Conflict in the celestial realm.
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Divine beings fight and scheme against one
another in the epics of Homer and Vergil, and they
do so in Paradise Lost on a grand scale, with
Satan and his forces opposing God and his
forces.
Among the classical conventions Milton
used are the following:
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.......(6) Use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a
literary device in which a character in a story fails to
see or understand what is obvious to the audience
or readers.
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Dramatic irony appears frequently in the plays of the
ancient Greeks. For example, in Oedipux Rex, by
Sophocles, dramatic irony occurs when Oedipus fails to
realize what the audience knows—that he married his own
mother.
In Paradise Lost, dramatic irony occurs when Adam and
Eve happily go about daily life in the Garden of Eden
unaware that they will succumb to the devil's temptation
and suffer the loss of Paradise.
Dramatic irony also occurs when Satan and his followers
fail to understand that it is impossible ultimately to thwart or
circumvent divine will and justice.
Main Theme
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In Book 1 of Paradise Lost, Milton reveals the
central theme of the work: to justify the ways
of God to man.
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Justify here means to explain and defend, and
ultimately to vindicate, God’s course of action in
dealing with Adam and Eve after they succumbed
to the temptation of Satan and ate forbidden fruit.
Other Themes:
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Inordinate pride: It leads to Satan's downfall and his continuing
defiance of God.
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Envy: Arising from Satan's pride, it makes him jealous of God the
Son, who is the favorite of God the Father.
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Revenge: It motivates Satan to corrupt Adam and Eve and
thereby subvert God's plans.
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Vanity: It leads Eve to believe—under the temptation of Satan—
that she can become godlike.
Other Themes
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Deceit: Satan appears in many disguises and
tells many lies during his mission to trick
Adam and Eve.
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Infidelity: Adam betrays God by siding with
Eve and eating the forbidden fruit.
Unbridled pursuit of knowledge: It leads
Adam and Eve to seek knowledge beyond
their ken, knowledge that will make them
godlike.
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Other Themes
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Volition: Angels and humans alike possess
free will, enabling them to make decisions.
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Satan freely chooses to rebel against God, and
Adam and Eve freely choose to eat forbidden fruit.
The consequences of their actions are their own
fault, not God's. Milton uses this theme to help
support the central theme, "to justify the ways of
God to man."
Other Themes
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Disobedience: All sins are acts of
disobedience against God, impairing or
cutting off the sinner's relationship with God.
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Adam and Eve and all of the devils disobey God
through their sins.
Loyalty: Loyalty to God and his ways are
necessary for eternal salvation.
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Loyalty requires obedience. All of the good angels
exhibit loyalty.
Other Themes
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Repentance: Even though Adam and Eve have
disobeyed God, their repentance makes them
eligible for eventual salvation.
Hope: At the end of Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve
enter the imperfect world with hope; they can yet
attain eternal salvation.
Redemption: Through the suffering and death of the
Son of God, sinful man can reconcile himself with
God if he is sincerely sorry for his sins.
Climax
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The climax, or turning point, of Paradise Lost
occurs when Adam and Eve succumb to
Satan's temptations and eat the forbidden
fruit.
This act of disobedience results in their
downfall and eviction from Paradise.