Milton and Free Will
Scholar and writer John Milton believed in the enhancement of his nation both socially and politically. As a 17th century poet he portrayed his various thoughts on political ideals and the improvement for the United Kingdom during his time, through literature and poetry. Even with a brilliant mind and literary ethic, his ideas and influence garnered much criticism with the masses especially with authorities. Milton’s political ideals were contributing factors to some of his best writing and fortunately for him, it translated into his greatest poem to date, Paradise Lost where he emphasizes the issues amongst society and authority through the actions and mind processes of God and Satan.
Paradise Lost, which is considered
Satan was thrown into existence, into the world heaven and realizes there in fact is a hierarchy, the one who rules and those who are ruled. In Satan’s case, every step he takes he feels he is getting closer to Hell. Satan is on a path he doesn’t want to be on but he has to fulfill his promises, committing to a world where it is better to reign in hell, then to serve in heaven. Satan takes initiative over Adam and Eve because they remind him of himself, and it his way in overtaking the almighty monarch, God. He describes Adam as being the strong one of the pair and Eve being quite interesting but not so strong. Satan’s mission becomes to get them to turn on the father in heaven, but they have to be willing to turn themselves. But how does he accomplish this, he does so by examining them and penetrating their minds. He listens to them talk (line 415). Satan listens to Adam (line 515). Satan is the only one who gives a damn about Adam and Eve, ironically. Which digs deeper into the one forbidden thing motif. The one forbidden thing is always taken: forbidden knowledge. Further questioning, why would God forbid them knowledge, is it because knowledge makes you like the devil? Satan makes you wonder, who are the people that will prevent you from knowing things? The people who will prevent you from knowledge are the tyrants of the world, in this case
When wisdom is mixed with disobedience it opens the door for evil to abound. Although Eve was the first to take of the fruit and Adam the second, both shared responsibility in the transgression as Arnold describes it. (62;67,
Paradise Lost is John Milton’s epic poem about the battle between Satan and God. The poem is quite controversial due to the fact that this was written during the time period that the Catholic Church was facing major corruption. People were already having concerns about God and what was right from the Catholic Church; because of this and many other textual reasons Paradise Lost has a very controversial relationship with Christianity.
The great debate whether Satan is the hero of Milton’s Epic Poem, Paradise Lost, has been speculated for hundreds of years. Milton, a writer devoted to theology and the appraisal of God, may not have intended for his portrayal of Satan to be marked as heroic. Yet, this argument is valid and shares just how remarkable the study of literature can be. Milton wrote his tale of the fall of man in the 1674. His masterpiece is an example of how ideas of a society change with time. This is because it wasn’t until the 1800’s during the Romantic era, that people no longer saw the hero of literary works as perfect in every way. It started to become more popular to develop the flawed character similar to the ones written in the classics. A literary criterion that is based on a protagonist, who undergoes conflict on the outside and from within and is prevented by a specific flaw to accomplish their main goal, creates an epic Hero. In Paradise Lost, God does not face conflict because he is perfect and all-knowing, and Adam’s conflict is not presented from the very start, Satan’s is. Because Satan is the main character of the work and possesses qualities that would deem him heroic, such as his determination against tough odds, his ability to lead, and his human-like nature to error, he can be seen has the Hero of the famous poem.
The theme of the 'heroic' in John Milton's Paradise Lost is one that has often been the focus of critical debate, namely in the debate surrounding which character is the 'true' hero of the poem. Most critics of the subject have, however, noted that the difficultly in defining the 'hero' of Milton's work is mainly due to our “vague understanding of what constitutes heroism”1 and the fact that “the term itself is equivocal”2. The 'vague' terming of what heroism can be defined as it what draws critics to disagree with one another over the nature of heroism, as Charles Martindale points out that there are 'different models of heroic', many of which Milton employs in his epic poem. To incorporate these different 'models' of the heroic into his poem, Milton relates various elements of these models to his characters, allowing him to 'test' and 'revalidate' certain ideas and images of the heroic. For the most part, the models of the heroic fit broadly into two camps, which leads critics like John Steadman to identify the “conflict between secular and divine criteria of the heroic”3. Furthermore, within these two main models of heroism critics mostly attempt to define the characters of Satan, Adam and the Son of God, depending on their characteristics throughout the poem.
limitedly free beings; to say that a certain world is more valuable than any other appears to be simply an arbitrary statement. Moreover, it is necessary to contemplate whether humans are indeed free, as Augustine argues. There is always a possibility that we are totally determined. After all, one may argue, humans do not freely decide to be born, do not freely decide to be the recipients of a free will, and do not freely decide to live in a world dominated by a God that in the end decides whether one receives punishment or reward. In other words, if one looks at the world this way, i.e., a place created and totally dominated by God who decides what is morally good, who ultimately decides the fate of every human being, it seems that humans are not significantly free after all, unless one considers freedom from God’s perspective.
Now, to the untrained eye, it may be possible to interpret the aforementioned text as having certain "scheisty" tendencies coming from both the serpent and, believe it or not, God himself. As possible as it may seem, the main theme of the passages of Genesis are not trying to show God as being greedy with the knowledge of good and evil. It isn't like God was worried that Adam and Eve would gain knowledge that would empower them and make them as gods. That is almost preposterous to think that God, the almighty creator of heaven and earth, would be worried about two mortals obtaining a little bit of information. In all actuality, that idea is incredibly far from the truth. God gave Adam and Eve the world, literally. This perfect world, a "heaven on earth", was just given to them out of the goodness of his heart. All they had to do was look over God's creations and enjoy true eternal bliss. As a matter of fact, the only rule that God gave to Adam and Eve was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All they had to do to live in the eternal paradise, with all the cookies and milk they could stomach, was to follow that one freakin' rule. Acknowledging the fact that the serpent (a.k.a. Satan Incarnate) did do its part in persuading Eve to eat the fruit and to give the fruit to her husband. Even still, Eve should have realized that she was risking eternal happiness for the words of a snake.
Martin, Jessica. "John Milton, Part 3: Does Paradise Lost Really Attempt to Justify God's Ways?" Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
John Milton was born on December 9 1608. He graduated from Christ’s College at Cambridge University. Once he had graduated, Milton became a big supporter of Oliver Cromwell, a man who opposed the power of the monarchy. Milton worked diligently to write and print pamphlets for Cromwell. He was warned that all the work would damage his already poor eyesight, but he didn’t listen and in 1651 at the age of 44 Milton became blind. In his later years he lived in the country and wrote poetry. His poem Paradise lost is considered to be one the most important poems written in English.
In Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve is first shown. It is a slight contrast from the Paradise story, mainly because there is not actually ever a mention of the name Satan, there is only a reference to the serpent. Also there is no mention of Satan looking for an animal to take the form of it only shows the serpent and Eve together and how Satan begins asking questions to Eve. There was no flattery mentioned in the Bible. Only knowledge is mentioned as a side effect of eating the apple.
Milton's introduction of Satan shows the reader how significant Satan is to Paradise Lost. He uses Satan's heroic qualities to his followers, and his ability to corrupt to show the thin line between good and evil. Satan was one of the highest angels in Heaven and was know as Lucifer, meaning, light bearer. This shows he was once a good angel. Milton makes the reader see him as a leader and a strong influence to all in his presence. He best describes Satan's ways when stating, "His pride/ had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host. / Of rebel angels, by whose aspiring/ To set himself in glory above his peers" (Milton Book I). Satan's pride was the main reason that God banned him from heaven. Satan always tried to be number one and a leader, instead of following in God's shadow. He would of lived a life in Paradise forever, but he had to follow his feelings as he states, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 31). This shows how strongly he felt about not being above everybody else.
Milton, John. ‘Paradise Lost.’ 1674. Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1817-2044.
Paradise Lost is one of the finest examples of the epic tradition in all of literature. In composing this extraordinary work, John Milton was, for the most part, following in the manner of epic poets of past centuries: Barbara Lewalski notes that Paradise Lost is an "epic whose closest structural affinities are to Virgil's Aeneid . . . "; she continues, however, to state that we now recognize as well the influence of epic traditions and the presence of epic features other than Virgilian. Among the poem's Homeric elements are its Iliadic subject, the death and woe resulting from an act of disobedience; the portrayal of Satan as an Archillean hero motivated by a sense of injured merit and also as an Odyssean hero of wiles and craft; the description of Satan's perilous Odyssey to find a new homeland; and the battle scenes in heaven. . . . The poem also incorporates a Hesiodic gigantomachy; numerous Ovidian metamorphoses; an Ariostan Paradise of Fools; [and] Spenserian allegorical figures (Sin and Death) . . . . (3)
In conclusion, Paradise Lost can be seen through a historically contextual lens that allows us to see the parallels between Milton’s life and experiences during the reign of Charles I, and the predominant themes in his epic poem. Many of the themes in Paradise Lost, from the broader situational occurrences to the behavior of individual character’s and their attitudes toward the situations in which they find themselves can be seen as directly influenced by Milton’s time as a Parliamentarian in 17th century England.
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.