John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost recounts the biblical story of Adam and Eve's disobedience and fall from God's grace. It is written in blank verse and tells of Satan convincing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, despite God's command. As a result, humanity is cast out of the Garden of Eden. Through this story, Milton aims to justify God's ways to humanity and convey his Christian worldview that disobedience leads to suffering, until Jesus redeems mankind.

1. PARADISE LOSTJOHN MILTON
ART BY: PABLO AULADELLL
PRESENTATION BY: MARIA-CLARA ASSUNÇÃO

2. Paradise Lost
by John Milton
Minors and Windows page
495
“Man’s first
Disobedience”
One sentence summary:
God created the earth and
humankind BUT
Beelzebub suggested that
the devils should corrupt
His creation, SO Satan
travels to earth and
convinces Eve to disobey
God.

3. THESIS: John Milton uses the genre of epic poem
and elements to covey his Christian worldview
about disobedience and to justify the ways of God to men.
“The mother of mankind, what
time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven,
with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid
aspiring
To set himself in glory above his
peers”
(Milton, Paradise Lost)
GENRE:
Epic Poem - Like most
epics, Paradise Lost
describes gods and
mythical figures
participating in
major events. The
gigantic struggle
between Satan and God
is typical of epic
warfare. The loss of
Paradise is an event of

4. PARADISE LOST HAS 12 BOOKS, THE FIRST ONE HAS 798
LINES.
• Blank verse: Category of
poetry based on
unrhymed lines and a
definite meter, usually of
iambic pentameter.
• Prosody: Speaking rate,
timing, pausing,
articulatory quality, voice
quality and pitch. The
same sentence can have
different communicative
meanings depending on
the choice of prosody
• Syntax: How a writer
executes a sentence to
convey meaning, place
Rhyme and Rhythm: Prosodic analysis
shows that John Milton ranges freely within
his chosen limits: there is no iambic jog-trot,
and the rhythms are endlessly varied.
The verse of Paradise Lost is distinguished
by the sustained length of its sentences,
which are on average about ten lines long,
despite the frequent use of short sentences
for rhetorical effect. Its blank verse is a
deliberate and distinctive creation, influenced
by but antithetical to late Shakespeare,
through working within a strict
discipline. Prosody and syntax are almost

5. ALLEGORIES:
“The Fall”: Paradise Lost is about
Adam and Eve's loss of Paradise;
their eating of the Forbidden Fruit
has often been called the "Fall"
(as in, "fall from innocence" or "fall
from grace" (Shmoop Editorial
Team)
WRITING STYLE:
Milton writes in a very elevated,
allusive, and dense style. If we had
to pick one word to sum up his style
that word would be Latinate.
Latinate means characteristic of the
Latin language. In Latin, word order
doesn't matter, which allows for
some very cleverly structured
poetry. (Shmoop Editorial Team)
SETTING:
Paradise Lost takes place
right around what Christians
would say is the beginning of
human history. The poem
begins after Satan's
unsuccessful rebellion and
the creation of the universe.
(Shmoop Editorial Team)
ALLUSIONS:
There are literally
hundreds of allusions
in Paradise Lost, many of
them to the Bible – mainly
from Genesis.
(Shmoop Editorial Team)

6. Paradise Lost has a Christian theme: “Favored of Heaven, so highly to
fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint,
lords of the world besides? Who first seduced them to that foul
revolt?” (Milton, Paradise Lost)
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were
naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for
themselves.” (NIV, Genesis 3)
BIBLICAL ALLUSION: “Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the
world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore
us” (Milton, Paradise Lost) “The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it,
or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that
the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave
some to her husband” (NIV, Genesis 3)
Paradise Lost is a poem based on Genesis so even the devils
recognize God as the Creator. Adam and Eve, the first humans,
practiced disobedience but they regret of it and sought for God.

7. John Milton
John Milton was born in London and had the
best education that the money could buy, he had
strong political and religious opinions and this is
the reason why he was disowned by his Catholic
family when he decided to convert to
Protestantism. Milton also fought against King
Charles reign writing pamphlets who brought
him great publicity and angry criticism from the
religious establishment in England. Milton
believed that all poetry served a social,
philosophical, and religious purpose. He thought
that poetry should glorify God, promote religious
values, enlighten readers, and help people to
become better Christians. In 1656, completely
blind after an eye disease, Milton began to recite

8. ContextHistorical context: Paradise Lost takes place in a mythic,
prehistoric past, but Milton still filled it with allusions to the politics
of present-day England.
Religious context: “Pandemonium becomes a grotesque
parody of the most magnificent churches, all glitter and no
substance.”
(Cosby, Matt. "Paradise Lost Book 1." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC,
28 May 2014. Web. 25 Sep 2018.)
The author’s audience were the English people at the
time with critical religious and political thinking.

9. Allusion in popular
culture:
The film The Devil's
Advocate makes
references to the poem
and its author. For
example, the main
antagonist, John Milton,
is named after the
author, and in the finale
of the film the main
protagonist, Kevin
Lomax makes a
quotation from Paradise
Lost: "'Better to reign in
Hell, than to serve in

10. Visual art by
Gustave Doré:
Dore’s illustrations of
Paradise Lost were some of
his later works, and also
some of the most famous.

11. Poem's tone:
TRAGIC
"The Fruit Of that
Forbidden Tree,
whose mortal taste
Brought Death into
the World"
"With hideous ruine
and combustion
down
To bottomless
perdition, there to
dwell In Adamantine
SERIOUS SAD
"The Mother of
Mankind, what time
his
Pride Had cast him
out from Heav'n"
"Both of lost
happiness and
lasting pain
Torments him;
round he throws his
baleful eyes
That witness'd huge
affliction and
dismay
Mixt with obdurate

12. CONCLUSION:
In Paradise Lost, John Milton tries to describe the “Fall of Man” and
how Satan and the other devils, motived by their expulsion from the
Heaven after their rebellion against God, construct the
Pandemonium and seek revenge against God trying to corrupt his
new creations, the earth and the men. Satan assumes the form of a
serpent and convinces Eve - who convinces Adam - to disobey
God’s command to not eat the forbidden fruit. In his epic, Milton,
through a Christian worldview, discusses about the first
disobedience which is the reason why the Son came to restore us.
Take home message: Mirrors and Windows question:
What is Milton's purpose in writing this epic poem?
His purpose is to affirm God's benevolence and to explain God's
treatment of humanity.