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Paradise Lost

John Milton

London, 1667

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Literary Classic

Epic
Early modern period

What It’s About

Justifying the Ways of God to Man

When John Milton (1608–1674) set out to retell the story of the Bible, he sought to do what no epic poet had ever accomplished: to lay out in verse the Christian story of creation and the fall of humankind. It is Milton’s Satan who most captures the reader’s imagination, seducing us just as he seduces Eve; his pride, rebellion and impressive oratory make him a compelling and popular literary figure. Yet for all Satan’s rhetoric, Milton – himself a revolutionary who fought what he perceived to be a tyrannical king – makes clear the distinction between righteous and satanic rebellion. In his own words, Milton seeks to “justify the ways of God to man,” helping his readers understand the felix culpa, or “fortunate fall,” that led to their redemption through Christ. Though often prized for its grand style, equivalency with the great classical epics and its rich poetry, Paradise Lost offers more than exquisite language. The poem is dense with theological and political debate. It offers a fierce interrogation of the nature of tyranny, sin, redemption, free will, fate, reason, individual liberty and love.

Take-Aways

With Paradise Lost, John Milton wrote the greatest English epic poem – an artistic and theological masterpiece.
Satan, having lost the war for Heaven, seeks revenge by seducing God’s newest creation, Man, into disobedience. Satan enters Paradise by guile and persuades Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, resulting in sin and death’s entry into the world. However, because the Son of God offers to die for their sins, humans can be redeemed. Once expelled from Eden, the angel Michael shows Adam humankind’s future.
Milton utilized a new style of poetry for his new English epic – that of heroic verse.

About the Author

John Milton was born on December 9, 1608, in London. The son of a composer, he studied at St. Paul’s School and in 1625 attended Christ’s College, Cambridge. In 1630, Milton contributed a celebratory verse for the second folio of Shakespeare’s plays. When Cambridge fellow Edward King died in 1637, Milton wrote “Lycidias,” one of the most famous memorial poems ever written. In 1638, he traveled the continent, and when he returned to London in 1639, he took up a position as a schoolmaster and began writing anti-prelatical tracts. In 1642, Milton married Mary Powell, but they separated a few weeks later. Beginning the following year and for decades to come, Milton wrote pamphlets lobbying for the expansion of the grounds for divorce. In August 1642, The English Civil War erupted. Milton continued publishing political and philosophical pamphlets, including “Areopagitica,” which attacked the censorship of books prior to publication. In 1645, Milton reconciled with Mary; their daughter Anne was born the following year. During Charles I’s trial in January 1649, Milton wrote Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, which argued for the right of the people to try and execute a tyrant king. After the king’s beheading, Cromwell gave Milton an official government role as Secretary for Foreign Tongues. His son John was born in 1651, and in 1652, Mary died giving birth to their daughter Deborah. In the late 1640s, Milton’s eyesight had begun to fail, and by 1652 he was entirely blind. By now estranged from his daughters, he married Katherine Woodcock in 1656, but she died shortly after. Cromwell resigned in 1659, and in 1660, Charles II claimed the throne and issued a warrant for Milton’s arrest. The writer went into hiding. The threat of execution was lifted when Milton wasn’t named as an exception to the Act of Free and General Pardon. But royalists imprisoned him in the Tower of London, from which he emerged a few months later – bankrupt. In 1663, Milton married Elizabeth Minshull, and the couple moved to Buckinghamshire. He completed Paradise Lost by 1663, publishing it in 1667. John Milton died at age 65, likely due to complications from gout, on November 8, 1674.