After two-thousand years of Western science making excuses for the problems of a geocentric model of the universe, Galileo finally did the unthinkable; he declared that the sun did not orbit the earth. This not only invalidated almost everything astronomers of the time held true, but it threw into question humanity’s place in God’s plan. If he had not put us at the center of the universe, did that mean he did not value us as much as we had previously thought? This revelation of a heliocentric universe threw astronomers’ world out of the nice, orderly spheres of the Ptolemaic system, and into a random and chaotic existence, without as much clear proof of a divine plan. Milton picked up on this idea of a reversal of God’s plan when he wrote his epic, Paradise Lost. Milton’s Eve and Satan, two of the most vilified figures in Judaeo-Christian theology, represent freedom of thought, inquisitiveness, and a desire for equality, qualities that Milton himself espoused.
When Galileo tracked the sun and moon and found spots of imperfection on their faces, he rebuked the previously held idea that the superlunar spheres were perfect. Similarly, in letting Satan into the garden of Eden, Milton admits to the possibility of malities in a place of God’s design. Like Galileo's spots, Milton’s placement of Satan reflects an idea of corruption lurking in a supposedly innocent and unblemished place, and challenges the illusion of a perfect and divine sanctuary. If the garden of Eden had been a perfect divine garden, God would have made it impermeable to evil. Similarly, if a perfect space outside of the moon existed, Galileo would not have found spots on sun and moon. After Galileo’s proclamation of imperfections in a supposedly perfect spiritual ...
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...the existence of a perfect superlunar realm, and realized that the planets’ movements pointed to a heliocentric universe. Milton’s Paradise Lost lets the prime fiend of Western and Arab religion into God’s perfect playpen for His perfect creations, and does not condemn Eve for picking sensory knowledge and reason over God’s demands. After centuries of the church and God dictating thought, science, art, and moral, Galileo chose to ignore doctrine of the Church, and a few decades afterward, Milton picked up on these ideas in his great epic, both of them fearlessly challenging the iron grip of the Church on intellectualism and ushering in a new era of freedom, knowledge, and artistic expression.
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Milton, John, Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Volume C. 3rd ed. Martin Puchner et al. eds. New York: W. Nortan, 2012. 656-751. Print.
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.
Milton, John, 'Paradise Lost', in Gordon Campell (ed.), Complete English Poems, of Education, Areopagitica, (Orion Publishing, London, 1998)
The seat of faith resides in the will of the individual and not in the leaning to our own reasoning, for reasoning is the freedom of choosing what one accepts as one’s will. In considering the will was created and one cannot accuse the potter or the clay, Milton writes to this reasoning, as “thir own revolt,” whereas the clay of humankind is sufficient and justly pliable for use as a vessel of obedience or disobedience (3.117). The difficulty of this acceptance of obedience or disobedience is inherent in the natural unwillingness in acknowledging that we are at the disposal of another being, even God. One theme of Paradise Lost is humankind’s disobedience to a Creator, a Creator that claims control over its creation. When a single living thing which God has made escapes beyond the Creator’s control this is in essence an eradicating of the Creator God. A Creator who would create a creature who the Creator would or could not control its creation is not a sovereign God. For who would not hold someone responsible for manufacturing something that could not be controlled and consider it immoral to do so? To think that God created a universe that he has somehow abdicated to its own devices is to accredit immorality to the Creator. Since the nucleus of Milton’s epic poem is to “justifie the wayes of God” to his creation, these ‘arguments’ are set in theological Miltonesque terms in his words (1. 26). Milton’s terms and words in Paradise Lost relate the view of God to man and Milton’s view to the reader. Views viewed in theological terms that have blazed many wandering paths through the centuries to knot up imperfect men to explain perfect God.
First of all, it is important to address that Milton’s Paradise Lost still contains many elements that define it as a member of the epic genre. It follows the story of a hero (or anti-hero), it involves warfare and elements of the
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.
Milton establishes himself as the legitimate teller of the tale – and this tale will take us beyond the mythology of the Greeks’Aonian Mount and inoculate us against Hell’s prodigiousness. He is taking us beyond mythological or explanatory pictures of ourselves, to an area where we may bask in a greater comfort:
Reichert, John. Milton's Wisdom: Nature and Scripture in Paradise Lost. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. 1992
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A. gen
Yet, while Raphael is warning Adam not to think of these things, he himself speculates on the nature of the universe, planting ideas in Adam’s mind he did not have before. These ideas concern the theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo, much in dispute in Milton’s time. Though Milton seems to advance the Ptolemaic theory of the universe in Paradise Lost , the debate over which system Milton truly believed in is not the most important aspect of Raphael and Adam’s discussion in Book VIII. Knowledge is the true topic. What and how much can humans know?
Although the epic poem centers around the story of the fall of man, it is interesting that Milton intertwines in this story the fall of Satan from heaven and the consequences it has not only for Satan himself, but for Adam, Eve, and the world as a whole. Milton allows the reader to see the fall from the point of view of Satan, God, as well as Adam and Eve. Because Milton gives insight into these characters feelings regarding the fall, it is no surprise that he uses “eternal providence” in conjunction with the stories of Satan, Adam, and Eve. The providence being described here is the knowledge of good and evil. However, ev...
The. “Paradise Lost.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, M.H. Abrams.
Milton. New York: Norton, 1957. Elledge, Scott, ed., pp. 113-117. Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources.
Milton, John. ‘Paradise Lost.’ 1674. Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1817-2044.
MacCaffrey, Isabel. "Satan’s Voyage". Modern Critical Views: John Milton . Bloom, Harold, ed. Chelsea House Publishers: New York, 1986.
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.