Paradise lost

John Milton
John Milton (9th December1608-8th November 1674) was an English
poet, polemicist, pamphleteer and man of letters. He is called the
greatest English author according to William Hayleys biography,1796
and he ramains generally regarded as one of the preeminent writers in
the English language. He wrote also during the period of study, he wrote
poetry and prose, but he is famous for the best epic poem Paradise Lost
written in blank verse and published in 1667. It had ten books at the
beginning, but after he divided the two of longer books into four and now
it does have twelve books.
Miltons poetry reflects his deep personal convictions and he chose
the fundamentals of Christian theology. He contemplated many years for
writing the composition of an epic poem. He composed the blank-verse
epic poem when he was blind and impoverished from 1658 to 1664 and it
was the first edition published in 1667 and the second one in 1674.
Paradise Lost has many of the elements that define epic form. It is a
long, narrative poem; it follows the exploits of a hero (or anti-hero); it
involves warfare and the supernatural; it begins in the midst of the action,
with earlier crises in the story brought in later by flashback; and it
expresses the ideals and traditions of a people. It has these elements in
common with the Aeneid, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.
Because he used the history and mithology throughtout the poem he
added an introductory prose argument where he summarised the plot of
every book to prepare readers to understand the complex poetry.
In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that one can
take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin and
degradation, represented by Satan, and the road to redemption,
represented by Adam and Eve.
The central story line is built around a few paragraphs in the
beginning of Genesisthe story of Adam and Eve. The epic also uses
elements from many other parts of the Bible, particularly involving Satans
role. Focusing his poem on the events surrounding the fall of Adam and
Eve, Milton intended, in his words, to justify the ways of God to men, by
tracing the cause and result for all involved.

In the last two books of the epic, Milton includes almost a complete
summary of Genesis. This lengthy section may seem anti-climactic, but
Milton's mission was to show not only what caused man's fall, but also the
consequences upon the world, both bad and good. A concept central to
this tale is that of the felix culpa or fortunate fall. This is the philosophy
that the good which ultimately evolves as a result of the fallGod's mercy,
the coming of Christ, redemption and salvationleaves us in a better
place, with opportunity for greater good than would have been possible
without the fall.
The first book can be defined as Satan wakes up in Hell, the
second as Satans plans to go to Earth, the third as ``God sees Satan
going to Earth``,the fourth as ``Satan finds Adam and Eve``, the fifth as
``Raphael tells Adam and Eve about Satan ``, the sixth as ``Raphael tells
about the war in Heaven``,the seventh as ``Raphael tells about the
creation of the world``,the eighth as ``Adam and Raphael talk some
more``,the ninth as``Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit``,the tenth as
``God judges Adam and Eve``,the eleven as ``Michael shows Adam the
future`` and the last as ``Adam and Eve are expelled from Paradise``;
from all these titles we can see that the entire poem is has link with the
creation of world, the beginning, the first two humans and their sin, the big
sin and the religious story from Bible about how the world was created and
what happend between God and the angel who became an evil, Satan, and
the angles who remained to worship God.
The poem is an entire story and every book is one more step and all
are cronological as the Bible said it happened, but because it is a poem it
has an artistic view over everything happened: the God is represented by
the light and the angles too from the physically point of view with the
place from where they belong, the Heaven, while the darkness express the
opposite,the bad things, Satan,the Hell. In the end this comparison has
mythical sense and it is used to show that the absence of light in Hell and
in Satan himself represents the absence of God and his grace.
Milton divides the universe into four major regions: glorious Heaven,
dreadful Hell, confusing Chaos, and a young and vulnerable Earth in
between. Every region is the place where the principal actions happened:
the plans of God with angles in Heaven, the battle between God and Satan
on the Earth, the hell being the place of darkness.
John Milton sought to divert the readers attention from basic story
to the conversations between his characters. The conversations comprise
almost half of ``Paradise Lost`` and it is used to show the fundamental
importance for a moral person. Adam and Raphael first and Adam with
Michael after, both dialogues share the ideas which allows a person to

become closer and obedient to God and His message. Adam constantly
contemplates God before the fall,whereas Satan contemplates only
himself. All these are a lesson for Adam and Eve who must learn to
maintain their conversation and contemplation if they hope to make their
own happiness outside of Paradise.
The symbol of the scales in the sky appears when Satan prepares to
fight Gabriel when he is discovered in Paradise, God causes the image of a
pair of golden scales to appear in the sky. On one side of the scales, he
puts the consequences of Satans running away, and on the other he puts
the consequences of Satans staying and fighting with Gabriel. The side
that shows him staying and fighting flies up, signifying its lightness and
worthlessness. These scales symbolize the fact that God and Satan are not
truly on opposite sides of a struggle-God is all-powerful, and Satan and
Gabriel both derive all of their power from Him. Gods scales force Satan to
realize the futility of taking arms against one of Gods angels again.
The symbol of wearth of Adam is also present and First, of all it
represents his love for her and his attraction to her. But as he is about to
give the wreath to her, his shock in noticing that she has eaten from the
Tree of Knowledge makes him drop it to the ground. His dropping of the
wreath symbolizes that his love and attraction to Eve is falling away. His
image of her as a spiritual companion has been shattered completely, as
he realizes her fallen state. The fallen wreath represents the loss of pure
love.
Milton's theme in Paradise Lost, however, does not end with the idea
of disobedience. Milton says that he will also "assert Eternal Providence." If
Man had never disobeyed God, death would never have entered the world
and Man would have become a kind of lesser angel. Because Adam and
Eve gave in to temptation and disobeyed God, they provided the
opportunity for God to show love, mercy, and grace so that ultimately the
fall produces a greater good than would have happened otherwise. This is
the argument about the fall called felix culpa or "happy fault."
Eternal Providence moves the story to a different level. Death must
come into the world, but the Son steps forward with the offer to sacrifice
himself to Death in order to defeat Death. Through the Son, God is able to
temper divine justice with mercy, grace, and salvation. Without the fall,
this divine love would never have been demonstrated. Because Adam and
Eve disobeyed God, mercy, grace, and salvation occur through God's love,
and all Mankind, by obeying God, can achieve salvation. The fall actually
produces a new and higher love from God to Man.

This idea then is the final point of Milton's theme - the sacrifice of
the Son which overcomes Death gives Man the chance to achieve
salvation even though, through the sin of Adam and Eve, all men are
sinful. As Adam says, "O goodness infinite, goodness immense! / That all
this good of evil shall produce, / And evil turn to good" (XII, 469-471). The
fall of Man, then, turns evil into good, and that fact shows the justice of
God's actions, or in Milton's terms, "justifies the ways of God to men."

Sources:
1. http://www.paradiselost.org/
2. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/paradiselost/themes.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton#Paradise_Lost
Name: Mehr Muhammad Meryem Lili
Section: Arabic-English, Ist year.