JOHN MILTON
Poetry and Paradise Lost

WHO WAS MILTON?
9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674
Born into middle class family, son of composer and musician
Tutored at home; began equivalent of high school at 13;
mastered Greek, Latin, and Hebrew as well as several
modern European languages
Poet, author, civil servant for Commonwealth of England
Best known for Paradise Lost and Areopagatica,
(condemnation of censorship)

CROMWELL SUPPORT
Was away when Charles I was executed
Wrote treatise defending the execution of Charles I
Cromwell makes him Secretary of State for Foreign
Tongues: he had to translate official documents into Latin
and write in defense of new government
Lost his eyesight while serving this position
1660: Monarchy restored; hard times for Milton
(imprisoned, stripped of his property)

PARADISE LOST
Companion piece: Paradise Regained
Story of creation, fall, and redemption of humanity in two
epics
Dictated poem to his daughters (blind)
Written over 10 years, nearly 11,000 lines
Critics: greatest epic in the English language

OVERVIEW
Begins in medias res
Introduction of Satan, rebellion against G-d
Satan and his angels expelled from Heaven and sent to Hell
War in Heaven is Milton’s invention
Biblical story of Adam and Eve

COMMENTARY
Wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained to “justify the ways
of G-d to man.”
Reason and Free Will
Free Will and Predestination
Answer to historical crisis as Puritans challenge Church of
England and English Civil War

SATAN AS HERO?
19th century Romantics viewed Satan as hero of Paradise Lost
Ambitious and proud
Defies his creator, omnipotent G-d
Wages war on Heaven, defeated and cast down
William Blake on Milton: “He was a true Poet, and of the Devil's
party without knowing it.”
Precursor to Romantic Byronic hero

SATAN NOT THE HERO?
20th century criticism: political and philosophical focus to
interpretation
Satan presented in terms that are Classically heroic
He is diminished and reduced to a dust-eating serpent
Politics: Satan’s conservative, hierarchical view of universe
versus G-d’s new way of the Trinity - tension between
traditional or “Old Testament” and “New Testament”
revolutionaries

MILTON’S LEGACY
Milton’s story as well known as biblical version
Inspiration for poets William Blake and John Keats and
novelist George Eliot
Study of Paradise Lost an essential part of a respectable
education