Paradise Lost Research Paper

This week’s lecture is on John Milton and his epic poem, Paradise Lost. This essay will focus on Milton’s life, a few examples of Milton’s tracts, Miltonic themes, epic poems, and Paradise Lost.

First, John Milton was born to John Milton Sr. and Sara Milton on December 9th, 1608. Around 1620, Milton begins to study at St. Paul’s School. Milton would go on to attend Cambridge: Christ’s College from 1625 to 1632 with a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Arts. Milton decides to retire to his family homes at Hammersmith and Horton; where he would study for five years. Milton was supported by his father during his five year study. After his mother’s death, Milton makes the choice to travel around Europe but mainly focusing on Italy. While traveling,

Miltonic themes were known to overlap and combined. A lot of his themes are seen in his political work. For example, people enslave themselves when they focus passion and evil. Liberty is found when people focus on reason and goodness. All of this is connected through chastity. I found this to be interesting because Milton believed that sometimes reason is not always available to us so we need God’s grace in order to find reason from sin. This is seen several times throughout Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. Fate versus human responsibility are the main themes seen in Book Three of “Paradise Lost”. Milton challenges predestination because God knew that they were going to commit the first sin and be the cause of the fall of man. This is explained because God created man to have free will because if they did not have free will then man would live by “going through the motions”. Milton’s themes for a relationship between man and woman is seen throughout his divorce tracts and the sonnets for his wife. All of this connects to the importance of marriage and what is considered to be a good marriage. In my opinion, I think that everyone has a different definition of a good marriage because everyone has a different lifestyle. Some people might believe that God is important in a good marriage or even having multiple wives constitutes towards a good

It consisted of ten books. “Paradise Lost” Part One is about Satan, also known as Lucifer, being banished from Heaven with his followers because he did not agree with some of God’s latest project, mankind. Satan and his followers have a debate and come up with the idea to corrupt Adam and Eve. The poem goes on the describe the war between Heaven and Hell and how The Son was sent out by God on the third day to defeat the rebels. Soon the poem shifts to the six day creation of Earth and the first humans. God commanded Adam and Eve to near eat from the Tree of Knowledge because is will result in a punishment of death. However, Satan is able to enter Paradise and trick Eve into eating an apple from the tree; who then convinces Adam to do the same thing. This results in Adam caving into his sexual lust for Eve and then being shameful that they are naked. Although, God knew this was going to happen but decided not to intervene because he made the decision to grant them with the power of free will. The archangel, Michael, shows Adam visions of the future and how mankind will suffer but he is also shown events that can lead to the human race entering Paradise again. Adam and Eve are then banished from Paradise into the world to endure their