Paradise Lost

1
Paradise Lost

• John Milton

2
Type of Work

• ..Paradise Lost is an epic poem whichlike the
  epic poems of Homer, Dante, Vergil, and
  Goethetells a story about momentous events while
  incorporating grand themes that are timeless and
  universal.  

3
Date Completed

• .......Milton completed the first version of
  Paradise Lost in 1667.
• It consisted of 10 books.
• In 1668 and 1669, he added an introductory
  comment about the verse form and a special
  section with summaries of each book.
• In 1674, he published the final version of the
  epic, in which he divided Books 7 and 10 into two
  books each.
• The completed work thus had 12 books instead of
  10.
• He also placed each summary at the beginning of
  the book it summarized.      

4
Sources

• .......Milton used the Bible, Homer's Iliad and
  Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, and the stories in
  Greco-Roman mythology as sources of information
  and as writing models.
• The Bible's Book of Genesis is the main source
  for his retelling of the story of creation and
  the first humans, Adam and Eve.

5
Settings

• .......The settings are heaven, hell, the
  firmament (Chaos), and earth. 

6
Characters

• God the Father, God the Son
• Two of the three divine persons making up the
  all-powerful Godhead, the single deity that
  created and rules all that exists outside of
  itself.
• The third divine person, the Holy Spirit, does
  not play a role in Paradise Lost.
• God the Father is portrayed as just but merciful,
  condemning the defiant and unrepentant rebel
  angels but permitting redemption of the repentant
  Adam and Eve. God the Son volunteers to redeem
  them by becoming human and enduring suffering and
  death.    

7
Characters

• Satan (Lucifer, Archfiend) Powerful and prideful
  angel who, with legions of supporters, leads an
  unsuccessful rebellion against God and suffers
  eternal damnation.
• To gain revenge, he devises a plan to corrupt
  God's newly created beings, Adam and Eve, through
  deceit.
• Modern readers often admire him for his steely
  defiance.
• He would rather rule in hell, he says, than serve
  in heaven.
• It was not Milton's intent, however, to create an
  admirable character rather his intent was to
  create a character of colossal hatredloathsome,
  execrable, incurably remorseless.   

8
Characters

• Adam and Eve The first human beings, created by
  God to fill the void that resulted when God cast
  Satan and his supporters out of the celestial
  realm.
• Adam and Eve live on the planet earth in utter
  happiness in a special garden where spring is the
  only season and love and godly living prevail.
• Though they have all that they want and need,
  cunning Satan tells them they can have knowledge
  and status beyond their reach if only they eat of
  the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
• Eve can become a goddess, he says.
• Vanity overtakes her. She eats. Adam reluctantly
  does the same.     

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Characters

• Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Uriel Powerful and
  fearless angels on the side of God. 

• Beelzebub, Mammon, Belial, Moloch Powerful
  leaders in Satan's army. In a great council in
  hell, each of them speaks his mind on what policy
  devil-kind should follow after losing paradise.
  Should they make new war? Should they make
  peace?  

10
Characters

• Ithuriel, Zephron Angels who expel Satan from
  the Garden of Eden with the help of a sign from
  God. Satan returns to the garden later to
  complete his devious enterprise.

• Mulciber Fallen angel who designs hell's capital
  city and seat of government, Pandemonium. In
  ancient Roman mythology, Mulciber is another name
  for Vulcan (Greek Hephaestus), god of fire and
  the forge. As a blacksmith, he kept shop in
  burning mountains (volcanoes).

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Characters

• Sin Daughter of Satan.
• She was born from his head in the manner of
  Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war, who
  sprang from the forehead of Zeus, king of the
  gods. 
• Death Son of Satan and Sin

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Milton's Solar System

• .......In describing the planets and other
  celestial bodies, Milton models Gods creation on
  the Ptolemaic design (also called the geocentric
  design) rather than the Copernican design (also
  called the heliocentric design). .
• Milton was aware of the Copernican theory, but he
  used the Ptolemaic designeither because he
  believed it was the more credible theory or
  because he believed it would better serve his
  literary purpose.
• In Paradise Lost, Adam inquires about the
  movements of celestial bodiesin particular,
  whether earth orbits the sun or vice versain his
  conversation with the archangel Raphael, but
  Raphael gives no definite answer.
• Raphael may have been speaking for Milton. 

13
Style and Verse Format

• Milton wrote Paradise Lost in dignified, lofty,
  melodic English free of any colloquialisms and
  slang that would have limited the work's
  timeliness and universality.
• The format, Milton says in an introductory note,
  is "English heroic verse without rhyme"in other
  words, blank verse, the same verse form used by
  Shakespeare in his plays. ...

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Style and Verse Format

• .......Milton's strong religious faith infuses
  the poem with sincerity and moral purpose, but he
  does not allow his enthusiasm for his subject to
  overtake control of his writing.
• Though Milton frequently uses obscure allusions
  to mythology and history, as well as occasional
  difficult words and phrases, his language is
  never deliberately affected or ostentatious.

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Style and Verse Format

• What is more, it does not preach and does not
  take the reader on circumlocutory expeditions.
• Like a symphony composermighty Beethoven, for
  exampleMilton is always in control, tempering
  his creative genius with his technical
  discipline. 
• .......With a good dictionary and an annotated
  text, a first-time reader of Milton can easily
  follow and understand the story while developing
  an appreciation for the exquisite writing.   

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Epic Conventions

• In Paradise Lost, Milton used the classical epic
  conventionsliterary practices, rules, or devices
  established by Homer that became commonplace in
  epic poetry. Some of these practices were also
  used in other genres of literature.

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Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(1) The invocation of the muse, in which a
  writer requests divine help in composing his
  work.

18
Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(2) Telling a story with which readers or
  listeners are already familiar they know the
  characters, the plot, and the outcome.
• Most of the great writers of the ancient worldas
  well as many great writers in later times,
  including Shakespearefrequently told stories
  already known to the public.
• Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected
  plot twists, no surprise endings.
• If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader
  and theatergoer, consider that many of the most
  popular motion pictures today are about stories
  already known to the public.
• Examples are The Passion of the Christ, Titanic,
  The Ten Commandments, Troy, Spartacus, Pearl
  Harbor, and Gettysburg.     

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Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(3) Beginning the story in the middle, a
  literary convention known by its Latin term in
  media res (in the middle of things).
• Such a convention allows a writer to begin his
  story at an exciting part, then flash back to
  fill the reader in on details leading up to that
  exciting part.  

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Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(4) Announcing or introducing a list of
  characters who play a major role in the story.
• They may speak at some length about how to
  resolve a problem (as the followers of Satan do
  early in Paradise Lost).

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Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(5) Conflict in the celestial realm.
• Divine beings fight and scheme against one
  another in the epics of Homer and Vergil, and
  they do so in Paradise Lost on a grand scale,
  with Satan and his forces opposing God and his
  forces.  

22
Among the classical conventions Milton used are
the following 

• .......(6) Use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony
  is a literary device in which a character in a
  story fails to see or understand what is obvious
  to the audience or readers.
• Dramatic irony appears frequently in the plays of
  the ancient Greeks. For example, in Oedipux Rex,
  by Sophocles, dramatic irony occurs when Oedipus
  fails to realize what the audience knowsthat he
  married his own mother.
• In Paradise Lost, dramatic irony occurs when Adam
  and Eve happily go about daily life in the Garden
  of Eden unaware that they will succumb to the
  devil's temptation and suffer the loss of
  Paradise.
• Dramatic irony also occurs when Satan and his
  followers fail to understand that it is
  impossible ultimately to thwart or circumvent
  divine will and justice. 

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Main Theme

• In Book 1 of Paradise Lost, Milton reveals the
  central theme of the work to justify the ways of
  God to man.
• Justify here means to explain and defend, and
  ultimately to vindicate, Gods course of action
  in dealing with Adam and Eve after they succumbed
  to the temptation of Satan and ate forbidden
  fruit. 

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Other Themes

• Inordinate pride It leads to Satan's downfall
  and his continuing defiance of God. 
• Envy Arising from Satan's pride, it makes him
  jealous of God the Son, who is the favorite of
  God the Father. 
• Revenge It motivates Satan to corrupt Adam and
  Eve and thereby subvert God's plans. 
• Vanity It leads Eve to believeunder the
  temptation of Satanthat she can become
  godlike.  

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Other Themes

• Deceit Satan appears in many disguises and tells
  many lies during his mission to trick Adam and
  Eve. 
• Infidelity Adam betrays God by siding with Eve
  and eating the forbidden fruit. 
• Unbridled pursuit of knowledge It leads Adam and
  Eve to seek knowledge beyond their ken, knowledge
  that will make them godlike.   

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Other Themes

• Volition Angels and humans alike possess free
  will, enabling them to make decisions.
• Satan freely chooses to rebel against God, and
  Adam and Eve freely choose to eat forbidden
  fruit.
• The consequences of their actions are their own
  fault, not God's. Milton uses this theme to help
  support the central theme, "to justify the ways
  of God to man." 

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Other Themes

• Disobedience All sins are acts of disobedience
  against God, impairing or cutting off the
  sinner's relationship with God.
• Adam and Eve and all of the devils disobey God
  through their sins.    
• Loyalty Loyalty to God and his ways are
  necessary for eternal salvation.
• Loyalty requires obedience. All of the good
  angels exhibit loyalty.  

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Other Themes

• Repentance Even though Adam and Eve have
  disobeyed God, their repentance makes them
  eligible for eventual salvation.  
• Hope At the end of Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve
  enter the imperfect world with hope they can yet
  attain eternal salvation. 
• Redemption Through the suffering and death of
  the Son of God, sinful man can reconcile himself
  with God if he is sincerely sorry for his sins.

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Climax

• The climax, or turning point, of Paradise Lost
  occurs when Adam and Eve succumb to Satan's
  temptations and eat the forbidden fruit.
• This act of disobedience results in their
  downfall and eviction from Paradise.