John Milton Essay

backside Milton published the first edition of promised land Lost in 1667. This epic poem introduces a series of wizard(prenominal) themes. It is the retelling of the Biblical story of Adam and Eves first sin. The keister of the text is Christian theology specifically, Protestant Christian Theology. What is unique, even arguable, nigh Miltons method of proselytizing the Christian message, is non so much the office of the epic poem structure per se, (which is traditionally reserved for unmingled and heathen subject matter), unless that he introduces the archenemy of God as a charitable character.This is a repugnant purpose for Miltons Christian audience. In fact, John Dryden (the first literary critic to comment on heaven Lost) in 1697 criticized the poem for having the villain take center stage and defeat the paladin (p. 214). However, it will be argued instead that Miltons use of this proficiency is to suck up the cunningness of match and our let willingness to acc ept the tale as probable. This sentiment is echoed by Stanley Fish who claimed that the poem tempts the lector in the same air that daystar tempted Adam and Eve.In the remainder of this essay, checks II and III will be examined to note the carriages Milton comp ares and personal line of credits, God, morning star, Heaven and Hell to amplify his subversive technique of casting morning star as the tragical hero of Paradise Lost. In discussion II of Paradise Lost, daimon is introduced to the reader as a rationale character that is equal of questioning Gods leave and judgment. For example, the debate in Hell is one of the great set pieces of Paradise Lost. In this scene, matchs appeal is in his use of classic political elaborateness he states that both his and that of his fallen Angels rebelliousness and pride, are justifiedwith what eyes could we Stand in his armorial bearing humble, and receive Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his bay window With warbled hyms, and to his Godhead sing labored hallelujahs, while he lordly sits Milton constructs this rape polemic by utilizing the magisterial epic genre to introduce Satan in a countercultural way. He not only disturbs literary conventions but religious conventions too. Such a representation of a heroic Satan as a tragic Prometheus figure challenges the discourse of traditional Judeo-Christian notions of in rightness and subordination.However, Milton lived during the dawn of the rebirth a time when science began to question religious dogmas. Satan, therefore, is all the more impressive to the skeptical Seventeenth Century audience, because he too, like the spic-and-span Renaissance macrocosm, uses logic and rationalism to argue against accepted ideas and the status quo. In this way, Milton Paradise Lost can be viewed as exceedingly controversial in the way he subverts the literary conventions and religious dogma by transposing a pagan literary technique on Christian revelation. notwithstand ing these techniques are not meant to subvert Christianity.Likewise, Milton is not attempting a Dan Brown turn upcase revision of Christian theology. Instead, what Milton aims in achieving is to highlight Satans progressive tense logic (even scholasticism) from Gods omnipotence. Thus, whilst Miltons Satan is eloquent in speech, he is forever fallen. In contrast, Miltons God remains highly mysterious and beyond logic he also reigns triumphant and canonized in Heaven. In the opening of Book II, Satans rhetoric reaches a climax in The Council meeting held in Pandemonium (Hell). A debate is being held as to whether or not to attempt retrieval of Heaven.Instead, another proposal is accepted. That proposal is to forecastk revenge against God. And done this revenge, Milton establishes Satan as a forlorn figure, as Satan only undertakes the voyage to find the prophesized world were he can enact his revenge as a tragic hero. Whilst on his travels, he encounters Sin and Death. They ar e his outlet and guard the gates of Hell. They also serve as a profane inversion of Gods Trinity a technique Milton much uses to champion facilitate the contrasting and comparing of God and Heaven with Satan and Hell.Arguable, this strategy of mimicry and subversion is effective in showing the reader that de offend all his oratory powers and intelligence, all that Satan is ultimately capable of performing is an imperfect imitation of God and his Kingdom. This comparison serves to express Satans tragic status and also his futile pride. Another way Milton recasts Satan as a tragic hero, is through his depiction of Satan as a cave man character. For example, Milton notes that Satan explores his solitary flight (II. 647) alone to Eden.In contrast, God is supported by his Son in Book III. For example, God sees Satan flying towards this world and foretells the success of his evil delegation to tempt man. God explains his purpose of grace and mercy toward man, but mandates that justi ce must be met nonetheless. His Son, who sits at his right hand, freely offers to sacrifice himself for mans salvation. This causes the angels to celebrate in songs of praise. In contrast, this imagery accentuates the tragic and solitary nature of Satans banishment.A status further highlighted when he passes by the steps of heaven on his way to earth The stairs were then let down, whether to dare The Fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss (III. 523 -525). In this way, Milton portrays God as some kind of celestial joker, dangling the stairs of heaven to Satan. This concept is of course an antithesis to the traditional precepts of God as merciful and benevolent. However, this scene does help Milton to engineer a sympathetic response from the reader towards Satan.And thus, Miltons recast of Satan as the tragic epic hero is complete. Another way Milton casts Satan as the tragic hero of Paradise Lost is through contrasting the depiction of Hell wit h Heaven. So, whilst Satan sits high on a throne of Royal State exalted (II. 1-5), Satans throne is do of cruel pearl (II. 4). God, however, sits on a heavenly throne in Heaven A place that is immersed with precious stones (like diamonds) and light. Even Heavens pearly gates (liquid pearl III.519) are contrasted to the pearls of Hell (Barbaric pearl II. 4). Nothing in Hell can ultimately make out with Gods creation. Milton continues to compare and contrast God and Satan in Book III. For example, in Book III, the infernal trinity, that is, Satan, Sin and Death are introduced as a perversion of Gods original Trinity. In this way, Milton parallels Book II and Book III of Paradise Lost to show no only that Satans dominion is an inversion and parody of Heaven, but more importantly, that imitation is the apex of Satans intelligence.So, not only is Hell unlike Heaven as it has flames, ice, whirlwinds, and volcanoes. Hell is finishlike and desolate like a Desert Soile (II. 270)). In co ntrast, Heaven is a living Sapphire (II. 1050). Moreover, Miltons grotesque depiction of Hell as a place of death is reiterated by the paradoxical phrase, life dies, death lives (II. 624). Hell, therefore, is a place of contradiction, even moral confusion. Heaven in contrast is adorned with precious stones and metal of diamond and gold. It is a place of experience and a place of light, since God is light (III.3-5). Through harnessing literary devices (which had been traditionally reserved for virtuous pagan characters and by sagacious philosophers of ancient Greece), Milton ingeniously highlights the limitations of Satan and indeed humanity itself to understand God. Thus, the invocation in Book I, that is, to justify the ways of God to Man, is indeed Miltons inwardly joke For it is not Miltons role to justify God to humanity, but rather it is the readers responsibility to overcome temptation and see Satan as the villain described in the Bible.Thus, apart from creating a poem of dr amatic appeal, it appears that Miltons introduction of Satan as a hero in the epic poem format was an attempt to accentuate Satans irreparably fallen state (as indeed our own human folly in being susceptible to following humanist rationalism at the expense of Christian theology). In Paradise Lost, Satan is a tragic hero forever lost in spite of his attempts to overthrow Gods creation. According to Milton, Satans delinquency is to think himself equal to God. And it is this transgression that makes his rhetoric ultimately hollow.References 1. Dryden, John. Virgil and the Aeneid. Dramatic Essays. Ed. William henry Hudson. capital of the United Kingdom E. P. Dutton, 1921. 2. Fish, Stanley. How Milton Works. New York Harvard University Press, 2001. 3. Fish, Stanley. Surprised By Sin. London St. Martins Press, 1967. 4. Greenblatt, Stephen et al. The Norton Anthology of face Literature. Eight Edition. New York W. W. Norton & Company, 2006 5. Milton, John. Paradise Lost A Norton Critic al Edition. Ed. Gordon Tesky. London W. W. Norton, 2004.