paradise lost

1. Conflict between free will and fate in Paradise Lost
By JOHN MILTON
John Milton was mid-seventeenth century poet and political activist. He wrote against the
corruption of King Charles and The Church of England. He was totally blind by the time he
wrote Paradise Lost, dictated the entire thing to his secretaries.
Paradise Lost is an Epic. Paradise Lost has many of the elements that define epic from. It is a
long, narrative poem. It follows the exploits of a hero or anti-hero. It involves warfare and the
supernatural. It begins in the midst of the action, with earlier crises in the story brought in later
by flashback and it expresses the ideals and traditions of a people. It has these elements in
common with the Aeneid, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Poetic form of the epic:
The poem is in blank verse, that is non-rhyming verse. In a note he added to the second printing,
Milton expresses contempt for rhyming poetry. Paradise Lost is composed in the verse from of
iambic pentameter- the same used by Shakespeare. In this style, a line is composed of five long,
unaccented syllables, each followed by a short, accented one.
Stages:
Paradise
Lost
Adam &
Eve, the
first human
being
Satan's
revenge
Eve's eating
the fruit of
knowledge
and then
Adam too
Fall of
mankind
God's
Creation of
Earth

2. Bad side:
Hell
Satan
Fallen Angels
Sin & Death
Chaos & Night
Good side:
Heaven
God
The son
Raphael
Michael
Eden:
Adam & Eve
Free will & Fate:
Free will is defined as the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. The ability
to act at one’s own discretion. This definition of the term illustrates the necessity for free will to
be present in a relationship with god, to have a relationship with god we must posses free will.
The free will gives us the power to have faith in god and put trust in god. According to the Bible
and Milton’s Paradise Lost, free will did not exist in the world until god influenced Adam and
Eve. God has knowledge of everything that has happened and will ever happen and also
possesses the power to change anything do his creatures really have free will. God is careful not
to influence his creatures but to leave their individual choices to them. God can see the outcome
but he does this because he wants all his creatures to obey him out of love not because they are
forced to do.