The Living Milton: Paradise Lost

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Paradise Lost
John Milton
The Living Milton

(MILTON'S LIFE AND PERSONALITY)
(A) Milton's Life
Born in London, 1608. His father at an early age destined him to the "study of letters", and
Milton became a devoted student first at St. Paul's School, then at Christ's College, Cambridge.
After leaving Cambridge (1632) he lived with his father in studious retirement at Horton (Bucks);
but in 1638 travelled for eighteen months on the Continent (mainly in Italy.) Returning to
England, he took up cudgels against the Established Church and on behalf of the freedom of the
Press. His first marriage (1643) proved unhappy. In 1649 he became foreign Secretary to the
Common-wealth. He lost his sight in 1653, the year of the death of his wife. Married a second time,
in 1656; a third time in 1663. After the Restoration he was deprived of all his offices, forced to go
into hiding, but by the Act of Indemnity allowed to return to London, where he died in 1674.
(B) Milton's Works

1. 1629. Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, a poem characteristic of his beliefs and
his imaginings.
2. 1634. Comus, Masque, one of the most exquisite and perfect of his shorter poems.
3. 1637. Lycidas, a monody on the death. This friend, Edward King, published in the volume
of 1638 which contained L' Allegro and IL Pensoroso, Comus, and other verses.
4. 1644. Areopagetica an address to Parliament, pleading for freedom of the Press. The
noblest and most impressive of his many prose writings. "The balance of epithet, the delicate
music, the sentence that resembles a chain with link added to link rather than a loop whose ends
are welded together with a hammer- these are the characteristics of Milton's prose" (Herford).
5. 1667. Paradise Lost (originally divided into ten, afterwards into twelve books) the greatest
of English epics, and ranking with the two great epics of the ancient world (theIliad and
the Aeneid). Written (like Paradise Regained) in blank verse throughout.
6. 1671. Paradise Regained (in four books) and Samson Agonistes (a noble drama on the
Greek model).
7. His Sonnets ("soul-animating strains-alas, too few") were mainly written during his "Prose
period"; viz. 1638-60; but one or two belong to an earlier date.
(C) Three Periods of Milton's Literary Career
(i) The third period extends from 1632 to 1637. This is popularly known as the Horton period.
In this period there are the poetical characteristics of a belated Elizabethan in Milton. But the
Puritanic note is manifested even in these early poems.
(ii) The second period extends from 1640 to 1660 - the period of the momentous
constitutional struggles. Milton's poetic faculty was largely held in abeyance during this period
and he was mainly engaged in writing controversial pamphlets during this time. This is also the
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period of his sonnets, every one of which is a gem in the quarry of English poetry. They form a
noble autobiography of Milton and show that a change has come over his poetic career.
(iii) The third period. The storm has blown over. The old, blind, disappointed poet has seen
much of life and things. This is the period of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson
Agonistes. The deep spiritual import, soul-stirring music, political symbolism, serious elevation,
magnificent diction etc., of these poems show that Milton's poetic power is at its highest.
(D) Chronology of Milton's works
Below is given a list of his chief works in poetry and prose in the order of their composition.
The first period - 1629: Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity 1630-3. Two English
sonnets 'O Nightingale and 'How soon hath time' and five Italian ones. '
1630-34. Arcades
1631-34. L'Allegro and IL Penseroso.
1634 Camus.
1637 Lycidas.
The second Period - 1641-42: The antiprelatical pamphlets: Church Discipline, Prelatical
Episcopacy, Animadversions, The Reasons of Church Government and Apology for
Smectymnius.
1643-45. The divorce pamphlets: Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The judgement of
Martin Bucer, Tetrachordon and Celasterion
1644. Of Education.
Areopagitica
1649. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.
Eikonoklastes.
1651. Defensio pro populo.
1654. Defensio Secunda
1955. Defensio pro Se.
1660. The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Common-wealth.
1642-58. The remaining sixteen English sonnets.
The Third Period -1658-65: Paradise Lost.
16,65-67 Paradise Regained.
1668-70 Samson Agonistes.
(E) Milton's Personality and Temperament
Milton is one of those English poets, whose personality and character are indelibly stamped
upon their poetry. Milton's poetry is inseparable from Milton the man.

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1. Humanist and Puritan: The first thing that strike one in Milton's poetic personality is
that he combines in himself what is best in classical and in Christian culture. If, on the one hand,
he had the humanist's scholarship, culture, refinement, and love of beauty, and love of art and
music, on the other hand, he possessed the moral earnestness and religious zeal of the puritan.
He always insisted on the purity and simplicity of private life. He was a man of lofty ideals, and
his life was a constant endeavour to live upto them.
2. Stern lover of liberty: Milton was stern lover of liberty. He was an uncompromising
upholder of the liberty of individual conscience, and was intolerant of the forces which aimed to
suppress it. He fought against monarchy, because monarchy aimed to destroy the civil liberties of
the people and assumed divine right to rule the people. He denounced the Church, because the
Church aimed to impose upon the people a particular mode of worship, tyrannised over them and
was corrupt.
3. Noble conception of poet's vocation: Milton had a noble conception of the poet's vocation.
According to Milton, a poet's life should be "a true poem" that is, a poet should live a pure and
chaste life. To him poetry was a sacred vocation, and he always regarded his life as one dedicated
to the purest and noblest ideals. He never lost sight of his life's mission. In his old age, fallen upon
evil days, he fulfilled the mission of his life. Poor, blind, and overwhelmed by misfortune, he gave
to the world his immoral work, Paradise Lost, Paradise regained, and Samson Agonistes.
To Sum up
An ardent love of learning, intolerance of tyranny and corruption in all forms, intense love of
liberty and fanatical zeal of fight for it, high seriousness of purpose - all these combined with a
broad culture and high scholarship are some of the feature that distinguished Milton the man.
Long years of continuous struggle, no doubt, made him bitter, and at places, his work shows the
narrowness of outlook born of this bitterness; but the nobility and purity of his character, and his
fortitude and piety and stamped everywhere on his poetry.
The Age of Milton and Its Influence on His Life and

Works
Introduction
The life of Milton is seen to be considerably influenced by the age in which he lived; similarly
his poems bear unmistakable traces of the spirit of the age in which he lived. It is a question as to
whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that Milton should have been thrown upon an age of
clashing principles and sharp controversies. Perhaps like everything else in the world it has got
its advantages and its disadvantages for the poet. One thing is certain - that Milton lived in
particularly stirring times, and that his intelligence and his imagination were considerably
influenced by conflicting principles in politics, in religion and in social life.
Influence of the Spirit of the Renaissance

The two great influences that worked upon the poetic career of Milton were the spirit of the
Renaissance and the spirit of the Reformation. The Renaissance is the name given to the revival
of ancient Greek and Latin learning which took place in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Renaissance brought with it not only an increased interest in Greek and Latin literatures but
also an increased interest in Art and a greater zest for life as a whole and a keener appreciation of

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what is beautiful, bright and joyous in life. Greek literature especially had the influence of making
people take a keener zest in life, develop a deeper sense of appreciation of what is beautiful, and
at the same time it induced a logical and rationalistic outlook on affairs and institutions. To a
certain extent, therefore, the Renaissance was responsible for the religious reformation of Europe,
because people who developed a rational outlook on religion began to question the validity of
several beliefs, institutions and practices connected with the Roman Catholic Church; in other
words, the Renaissance developed that spirit of enquiry and that spirit of rational analysis which
ultimately led to the breach with the Roman Catholic form of Christianity and to the establishment
of Protestantism.
As far as Milton was concerned the influence of the Renaissance is clearly noticeable in his
outlook on life and in his poems. The wealth of classical learning with which his poems are
studded, the frequent references to ancient Greek and Latin ideas and ideals, the love of Art and
the love of music and love of the beautiful and the aesthetic and the sublime—all these are
indications of the influence of the Renaissance.
Influence of the Spirit of Puritanism
By a cross development of ideas and ideals this spirits of the Renaissance ultimately
developed another spirit that was different from and hostile to the influence of the Renaissance,
namely, the spirit of Puritanism. It happened this way. The Reformation as we have seen, was an
indirect result of the Renaissance. As far as England was concerned, the work of the Reformation
was carried out by men of markedly conservative temper, that is to say, the reformers of England
did not want completely to break away from the Roman Catholic Church, though at the same time
they did revolt against certain of its practices and beliefs. It is remarkable that to the last Henry
VIII did not break away completed from the Roman Catholic Church, though he repudiated the
political and the religious authority of the Papacy. When during the regime of his daughter Queen
Elizabeth the work of the Reformation was more or less completed, we find that a good deal of the
ritual and the ceremonials of the Roman Catholic Church are still retained though apparently
Protestantism has become the established religion of England. This peculiar kind of Protestantism
in England, otherwise known as Anglicanism, is a kind of compromise between extreme
Catholicism, and extreme Protestantism. Naturally there were two sets of people in England -
some who opposed the breach with Rome and other who protested against this half-hearted
Protestantism. This latter of people were known as the Puritans, because they stood for the purest
form of Protestantism, or in other words for Christianity based upon the literal wording of the
Bible—a Christianity that recognised the supremacy of Christ alone without any temporal or
mortal intermediaries. The Puritan stood for an austere, high-principled, God-fearing and
blameless kind of life. He was against any form of episcopal government and any sort of autocratic
authority by priests. The Bible, as far as he was concerned, contained sufficient guidance for him
to direct him through all the walks of life.
The Puritans were, during the age of Elizabeth, essentially a minority. Queen Elizabeth
herself although she had broken away completely from the Roman Catholic Church and
persecuted the Roman Catholics, was equally opposed to Puritanism; and Puritans were
persecuted with as much rigour as Roman Catholics. The reason for this is to be sought in the fact
that the Puritan was taken to be, and to certain extent was, a rebel against all established
authority. He revolted against Church government or the government by priests as far as his
religious life was concerned. It was feared, to a certain extent justifiably, that he would rebel
against established authority in political matters as well. This fear was soon to materialise in the
succeeding age, the reign of the Stuarts. Milton too was a Puritan and this reflected in his poems.
The revolt of Satan in a way the revolt of Puritan against the established authority.

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Age of Bitter Controversies and Influence on Milton

Had Milton lived in a different age, an age of tranquility and peace, had he not been torn
between opposing ideals and conflicting schools of thought, a good deal of his time and energy
wasted in fruitless controversy, might have gone to enrich English poetry.
Another Comus or Lycidas might have been written; another epic of the magnitude of Paradise
Lost or some great dramatic production, of which there is an indication in Samson Agonists,
might have been written. But it was not to be, because Milton was thrown on an age of violent and
bitter controversies, an age of political unrest and bitter religious conflict, a stormy age torn
between conflicting outlooks and ideals. But perhaps we should not forget that there is also
another side to the question. The poet who entered the arena of life and fought with the
combatants of his side, to that extent enriched his poetical genius and his intellectual outlook.
Had not Milton mixed with the controversies of his age and taken that active part in life which he
did, he might have been more of a recluse and a scholar and less of that great and sublime poet
that we recognise in him. To this extent the stormy age in which he lived helped to widen his
outlook and enlarge his knowledge of men and affairs. Whether the age in which he lived did more
harm or more good to the poet's genius, one thing is certain that he was immensely influenced by
it and that his poems carry unmistakable traces and impressions of the ideas and the ideals that
inspired the age in which he lived.
Development of Milton's Mind and Art

Introduction
There were three stages in the development of Milton's poetic genius. In the first stage come
all the early poems upto Lycidas. After this stage he wrote mostly prose except for most of his
sonnets. It was at the final stage that some of his best works were produced. Some of his best
poetry like Paradise Lost Paradise Regamed and Samson Agonistes are the product of this stage
of Milton's development.
Ode on the Nativity of Christ is one of the early poems of Milton which shows unmistakable
signs of his poetical genius. It is in this ode that we are exposed to a mind that is alert, varied and
rich in fancy and imagination. We are assured, after going through this poem, of Milton's future
poetical attainments.
Perfection of Form
The early Milton had an impression of Spenser on him. However, his keen love for beauty is
at one with the Elizabethan poets. But Milton at the same time respected the classical conventions
and did not rely entirely on inspiration to which the Elizabethans gave great importance. The
strong intellectuality which is to be found in his earlier poetry is nevertheless "touched with a glow
and beauty of the receding romantic colour, emotion and vital intentions" (Shri Aurobindo). There
is no doubt that the blending of greatness and beauty is hard to find in any other English writer.
Love for Beauty
The lighter and more fanciful aspect of Milton's genius can be seen in his earlier poems. His
love for beauty is best revealed in these poems. Poems like Allegro and Penseroso possess the
charm of youth and there is a freshness about them that is uniquely Miltonic. Grierson has this to
say of Milton's early poetry: "Of the wonderful richness and perfection of the art there can be no
question. As I have said elsewhere, Keats' fine Odes are almost the only poems that give the same

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sense of sensuous and imaginative richness and perfection of form, that is capable of evolution
and changing but always as appropriate cadences."
The Use of Blank Verse
The quality of word music in Milton's poetry is of a special kind. His Lycidas when read aloud
can make the reader feel its blended harmony. There is not the least trait of monotony in it. Milton
was master in the use of proper names and though Lycidas is composed in a metre different from
blank verse the cadence and music of the epic and elegiac poems have a striking affinity to each
other.
Milton's use of the blank verse was equally masterful. The use of the "verse paragraph" in
his Comus was regarded as a great contribution to the poetic art in English. This poem shows
Milton's originality to a great extent.
The Sonnets
In the second stage of his development, Milton wrote mostly prose and a few sonnets. These
handful of sonnets show a stateliness of manner and great dignity which is rarely equalled in
English poetry. But all in all this was a period in which Milton had gone we might say, perhaps in
a stage of "poetical hibernation." There was no marked development in his art. It was primarily a
period of political pamphleteering and the mind of our poet seems to be fully occupied and excited
by the heart of the controversy.
The Last Poems: Sublime, Incomparable
and Complete in Majesty
The final phase of Milton's poetic career (1661-1674), shows the maturity of his poetic powers.
His puritanical background matured him into a serious and meditative sort of person. It is only
natural that such a person should shy off from such subjects as the Arthurian legends and take up
a more ambitious project for his epic - the fall of man from God's grace. Paradise Lost (1667) is
remarkable for the fusion of the two important elements - the Hellenic and the Hebraic, the
Renaissance and the Reformation. The great story of the fall of man is matched by an appropriate
style rising to great heights of sublimity. The variety and contrasts of character, scenes and ideas
were exploited by the poet to compose an epic which the world will not willingly let die.
Paradise Regained (1671) shows the dominance of the Hebraic element. However, Milton's
world is three-fold; the medieval, the Renaissance and the Puritan; and it is noteworthy how he
has been able to harmonise them.
Samson Agonistes (1671) on the other hand is a kind of classical tragedy depicting conflict in
the soul of the hero. Critics have identified Samson with the poet and like him he has been pushed
to the wall. The poet's faith in God, however, remains unshaken.
Thus, we see that there is a marked progress in Milton's poetical genius. The later Milton is
far superior to the earlier Milton. Yet all the poems reflect the personality of the poet and show
his classical and puritanical bent of mind. His experiments in versification and his skilful use of
figures of speech not only show his originality but also secure to him a niche in the mansion of
English Poetry.

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Milton's Concept of Poetry

Poet: An Inspired Creator
Like Aristotle, Milton held a very high notion of the poet's calling. The poet is divinely
inspired and capable of persuading people to a life of dedication and virtue. Milton has given his
views on poetry in one of his early poems entitled Lycidas. He writes: "The abilities of the poet are
the inspired gift of God rarely bestowed". On the other hand, he expresses his anxiety regarding
the vulgar productions of poets who write amorous verses for the sake of cheap popularity. Such
poets are not true to the high and noble ideals of poetry.
Alas what boots it with incessant care

To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade,
And strictly mediate the thankless man.
Poetry as an entertainment and a means of delight to the readers was given a very low place
in Milton's concept of poetry. For him the poet like the man in the pulpit offers seeds of virtue and
guides the people in noble and righteous conduct. The aim of poetry is therefore quite high and
idealistic. He writes -
Teaching over the whole book of sanctity and virtue through all instances of example with
such delight to those especially of soft and delivious temper who will not be so much as look upon
Truth herself, unless they see her elegantly drest, that whereas the paths of honesty and good life
appear now rugged and difficult though they be indeed easy and pleasant they would then appear
to all men both easy and pleasant though they were rugged and difficult indeed.
Choice of Themes
In order to leave to posterity an immortal and grand work of poetry he mediated a national
epic on the legends of pre-historic England. He finally rejected this topic on account of the
unreality of the legends of King Arthur and his republican views - that Kings should not be
glorified. Moreover being a Puritan he wanted to glorify religion and to cultivate the seed of
morality and public civility, and to use his words,
"to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections; in right time to celebrate
in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's almightiness, and what
he suffers to be wrought with high providence in His church; to sing victorious agonies.
of martyrs and saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious nations doing valiantly
through faith against the enemies of Christ; to deplore the general relapses of kingdoms
and states from justice and God's true worship."
Moreover the lofty theme of the Fall of Man, apart from reflecting his religious zeal, is
intended to cover a great field and show his love of philosophy, literature, architecture and other
arts - a matter not quite palatable to staunch Puritans.
"Paradise Lost" As Embodiment of his Concept of Poetry
Milton had indicated the worthwhileness of his theme. In the first 26 lines of Paradise Lost he
invokes the Divine... to help him to complete his great assignment:

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Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song.

That with no middle flight intents to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while in pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
His great theme is purely religious and moral:
I may assert Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men.
Again in Book IX, the poet dwells on the moral theme-Crime and Punishment, sin and
suffering:
That brought with this world of woe
Sin and her shadow death, and misery.
Death's harbinger.
Moreover, Milton has no doubt as to the authenticity of the Bible and the sublimity of his
theme. The heavenly muse which inspires Milton is akin to the Holy spirit which helps him in
fulfilling his noble task:
Who deiques
Her mighty visitations unimplor'd
And dictates to me slumbering or inspire
Easy my unpremeditated verse.
Secondly, the story of the Fall of Man is superior to the themes of other epic poets.Paradise
Lost stands in a class by itself and its greatness is built on the unending struggle between good
and evil. Moreover, it is not based on any fleeing event like the capture of a town or fortress. Bowra
writes in this connection: "Paradise Lost sets forth the noblest virtues and the darkest sins. On
one side is the Son, on the other Satan. By displaying these extremes of conduct Milton may
seriously claim that his persons are, by his standards, more heroic than Achilles or Aeneas. For
him the question of right and wrong was more important than any other question; he recognised
almost no kind of good except the good in conduct. Other poets had valued other more wordly
goods such as power and success; though they had related these to some sort of divine scheme
and justified them morally, their concept of the good was wider and much less strictly ethical than
Milton's. For heroism is goodness, and he sets out to show what he means by this. It is this-
Which justly gives Heroic name
To persons or to Poem (IX.40-41)
and which guides Milton in the construction of his epic."
Limitations of Milton's Concept
Milton's concept of poetry suffers from several inadequacies and Limitations. Firstly, he has
no belief in the entertainment value of poetry. He is oblivious of the recreational side of poetry.
He only thinks of poetry as a means to an end, the end being the improvement of the moral tone
of individuals and society. His Puritanism stood in the way of appreciating the function of delight
and aesthetic joy which the earlier poets had stressed—to convert poetry into a channel of religious
philosophy of moral edification is to inhibit the realms of poetry.
Secondly, Milton regards poetry as a reflection of the author's personality and character.
Poetry, however, cannot be limited to subjective poetry. There is something like objective and
dramatic poetry where the poet enters into the mind and personality of his characters. Keats calls
it "negative capability" of the poet. Any way to estimate poetry to the poet's character is a serious

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limitation to Milton's view of poetry. Thirdly, according to Milton, the poet himself should be a
true poem, that is he should possess the experience and practice of all that is praiseworthy. He
should be a model of religion and morality.
Moreover, Milton's poetry does not conform strictly to his theory. There is a gulf between his
theory and practice. In spite of his highly ethical tone, Milton's sympathies are with Satan who
becomes, in sense, the hero of Paradise Lost. Perhaps the epic should have gained in appeal if
Milton had paid attention to aesthetics and depicting the beauty and colour of the heavenly world,
instead of emphasising the moral intention of the story. The poetry of Paradise Lostwould have
certainly gained in appeal if Milton had been more of an artist and less of a politician and Puritan.
Characteristics of Milton's Poetry: Merits and Demerits

MERITS
1. Literary Position
Shakespeare and Milton are two poets of England who are head and shoulders above the rest
of the age to which they belong to the age of Elizabeth or the age of the first Romantic movement
in English literature.
Shakespeare was the dramatist and the poet of universal humanity; and Milton, was the epic
poet and the poet of Puritan England. Milton however suffers a great deal from needless
comparison with Shakespeare. People usually praise Shakespeare and so they hope to find in the
latter's poetry the same gaiety and variety, the same breadth of view and depth of insight that they
get from Shakespeare. Though nobody can call in question the greatness of Milton, yet it is not
possible for him to satisfy the very highest demand made upon him.
2. Milton's Scholarship
Possessed of a daring and sublime imagination, he is one of the most learned poets of
England. He studied all the literary masterpieces of ancient Greece and Rome. He was equally
acquainted with the contemporary literatures of Italy, England, and Spain. He appropriated the
thoughts of his predecessors more than any other poet. His poems are exquisitely rich in beautiful
classical allusions. He illustrated and decorated his ideas by borrowing from the Bible to an extent
which it is difficult to measure.
3. Milton's Sublimity
Sublimity is the only word that can truly characterise Milton's poetry. Even in his early
poems, such as the Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, there is an unmistakable touch of the
sublime. The constitutional sublimity of Paradise Lost is the greatest feature of the poem. Here
Immensity communes with Infinity. It overwhelms us by the vastness of its conception. It
transcends our imagination and experience. The subject-matter of this superhuman drama is the
fate of Man. The time is Eternity; the space is Infinity, and the actors are God, the Angels and the
primitive man. Milton's poetry has the roaring of the ocean in it. Other poets have given us more
beauty, more philosophy and more romance, but none has given us such sublime things as Milton.
4. Milton's Imagination
The next aspect of Milton's poetry is revealed in the quality of his imagination. It ranges freely
over heaven and earth; it makes the invisible concrete and visible.

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5. Milton's Love of Beauty

Milton was possessed of a keen sense of beauty. He loved beauty in all its forms. He was
deeply sensitive to the beauties of external nature; the two poems L'Allegro, II Penseroso testify
to his love of nature. He was a lover of art and music. "Nowhere is Milton's love of beauty better
displayed than in the early poems, L’Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus and Lycidas. They have all the
freshness and charm of youth, and exhibit the lighter and more fanciful side of Milton's genius."
6. Milton's Classicism
Closely wrought in Puritanism, there is in Milton's nature a strong bent for classicism, which
is pagan and sensuous. He was a keen student of the ancient classics, and drank deep at the
springs of the classical learning. He wrote Latin prose as freely as he wrote English. He chose
classical forms of poetry to express himself-epic (Paradise Lost), the Greek tragedy (Samson
Agonistes)the pastoral elegy (Lycidas) and the ode (Ode on the Nativity of Christ). His style was
built, conscious or unconsciously on the classical models.
7. Milton's Seriousness
Milton from his very boyhood was a man of a very serious bent of mind. He always thought
his life to be a dedicated one. He lived with the consciousness of being ever in the awful presence
of God. Every thought and every act of his life was influenced by such consciousness. To him life
was real and earnest, and not "a dream by an idiot." It is for this reason that Milton's poetry has
always a touch of seriousness in it.
8. Milton's Spiritual Import
The distinctive feature of Milton's poetry is its spiritual quality. His intense godliness found
its expression through his poetry. Like the needle of the mariner's compass which always points
to the north pole, Milton's thoughts and actions always pointed to God. He always felt that he was
living under the eye of his loving Taskmaster. All his writings have a deep religious undertone. To
spend an hour with Milton is to feel the living presence of God. Paradise Lost was written to justify
the ways of God to man.
9. Blend of Ancient and Modern Art
Like Milton the man, Milton the poet also is a meeting point of contradictory elements. He
was a Puritan, but had the polish and chivalry of a Cavalier. He was a great hater of tyranny, but
had all the ornamental qualities of a Royalist. His opinions were democratic, but his tastes were
those of an aristocrat. Similarly, in his poetry, we find the simplicity and romantic richness of
modern art. His Adam, Eve and Satan are simple and majestic epic characters, but the dress, style
and illustrations have the splendour, complexity and subtlety of modern art.
10. Milton's Picturesqueness
Milton has an extraordinary power of drawing wonderful and vivid pen pictures. His
descriptions of scenes and events are so impressive that it is difficult to forget them. He seldom
goes into details; but with a few strokes of his mighty and magic pen draws a vast impressionistic
picture.
11. The grand style of Milton
Milton's style has been called the 'grand style' because it has always an unmistakable stamp
of majesty in it. It has not 'the voice of the sea' as Wordsworth says, but it has an elevating effect
on the reader. The subject of Milton's poetry is always lofty; even when he speaks of common
things, he elevates them to lofty heights. Coleridge defines poetic style as 'the best words in the

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best order.' Milton's style, more than that of any other poet, fully justifies this definition. Matthew
Arnold says: "In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm and diction, he is as admirable as
Virgil or Dante, and in this respect he is unique amongst us. None else in English literature
possesses the like distinction."
DEMERITS
1. Want of Human Interest
The most glaring defect which strikes even a careless reader of Milton's poetry is its want of
human interest. We do not find in his poetry any sweet and homely picture of this ordinary work-
a-day world where we live and move, love and hate, quarrel and struggle. The greatness of an art
lies in its nearness to human life; but in this respect, Milton's poetry is hopelessly deficient.
2. Want of Humour
This is another conspicuous defect of Milton's poetry. The intense seriousness of his mind did
not allow him to indulge in humour of any kind. Moreover, in breadth of views, in sympathy for
man which are essential conditions of true humour, Milton was sadly deficient.
3. Want of the Element of Love
Another serious defect of Milton's poetry is the absence from it of the element of love. His
Puritanism is largely at the root of it. Though there has been scarcely any son of Adam who has
not been at some time or the other tempted by a daughter of Eve, their parents in Milton's poem
do not indulge in love-making.
4. Involved Diction and Complex Construction
Milton's love of digressions, ellipses, inversions, Latinism, involutions, etc., make his
sentences often gnarled in structure and their meaning often obscure. His long drawn similes,
profusion of allusion, proneness to unnecessary elaboration sometimes torture his readers and
make the reading of his poetry a laborious intellectual exercise.
Introduction to "Paradise Lost"

(A) ANALYSIS OF BOOK-I
Lines 1-26: An invocation of the Heavenly Muse and the holy Spirit to aid him in this, his
great work of singing about man's disobedience, and the consequent loss of Paradise.
Lines 28-83: The prime cause of man's fall, the temptation of Satan in the form of a serpent.
Satan, revolting against God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was defeated and
driven out by God, and cast into hell. There he is discovered, when the action of the poem begins,
surrounded by fallen angels, among whom Beelzebub, next to him in power is conspicuous.
Lines 84-124: Satan's speech to Beelzebub. Asserting his own indomitable will and
determination to resist, he urges his companion in rebellion to persevere likewise.
Lines 125-156: Beelzebub's answer. He acknowledge Satan's courage, whilst lamenting
their fall more bitterly than Satan. But he urges the hopelessness of continuing the context against
the Almighty, for the very fact that the force of angel is unfailing, may be meant to aggravate the
bitterness of their servitude.

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Lines 157-191: Satan's reply. Though servitude may be their portion, yet they must hope,
and study in that servitude to frustrate the intention of their Master. He points out that the
thunder and lightning, the artillery of heaven, have ceased, and urges him to employ this respite
to collect their scattered forces and consult for the future.
Lines 192-241: A description of Satan as he lies stretched out on the fiery flood; his-size is
illustrated by comparisons. He is allowed by Providence to rise and wing his way to land, but the
land burns no less than the sea.
Lines 242-270: Satan's speech Lines 242-264 is a soliloquy, the rest is addressed to
Beelzebub. He first laments the change from heaven to hell, then consoles himself with the
thought that the mind and not the place makes for happiness or misery. Hell at least is his own,
here he can reign. He then exhorts Beelzebub to rally the rest.
Lines 271-282: Beelzebub's answer. It needs but Satan's voice to raise them, still prostrate
as they were lately.
Lines 283-330: Satan is described as he appeared making for the shore. That gained, he
surveys his host lying scattered and amazed on the flood. With bitter irony he bids them arise.
Lines 331-375: The rebel angels rise obedient to his call as numerous as locusts or barbarian
hordes. In heaven they were princes, but they had lost their heavenly names, and not yet got their
name among men.
Lines 376-521: A catalogue of the chief leaders, being an enumeration of the principal
Syrian and Arabian deities, to which is added a general preference to the gods of Greece.
Lines 522-621: Satan encourages his defeated hosts, and bids Azaziel raise his standard. At
the signal the army falls in battle array, and marches to the sound of martial music. The
appearance of Satan, still glorious, though fallen, is compared to the sun seen through a mist or
eclipse. Touched by remorse at the sight of his comrades, he essays to address them, but is long
hindered by tears.
Lines 622-662: Satan's speech. The battle, though fatal in its issue, was not inglorious. Who
could have foreseen the defeat of such forces, who would not predict that they should recover their
loss? The reason of their defeat was their ignorance of the strength of their foe. Now they know
their strength and they can meet it by fraud. It is reported that a new world is to be created. This
may give them a starting for their enterprise. In any case they determine to presevere in war.
Lines 663-751: The effect of Satan's words. A group, under the direction of Mammon,
proceeds to built a palace to serve as a council-hall; some quarry the hill for gold, others melt the
ore. The structure rises as if by magic. Its magnificence is illustrated by comparison with the
monuments of men's hands.
Lines 752-798: The council is summoned. The thronging councillors are compared to bees
swarming. As they enter they contract in size till they are no bigger than pygmies or fairies. The
seraphim and cherubium alone who are seated by themselves retain their proper dimensions.
(B) THEME OF BOOK-I
The first book of Paradise Lost opens with an invocating to the Muse, then goes on to describe
the cause of man's fall: the temptation of Satan in the form of a Serpent and the consequent fall
of man. Satan's revolt against God; his banishment to Hell with his supporters; Satan's efforts to
rouse the spirit of his supporters; the catalogue of the chief leaders. The effect of Satan's words
and the building of the palace of Pandemonium to serve as a council hall and finally the

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summoning of the council and consequently the reduction in the size of the fallen angels form the
substance of the first book.
(C) ARGUMENT OF "PARADISE LOST":
TWELVE BOOKS
Book I opens with a statement of the subject, the Fall of Man, and a noble invocation for light
and divine guidance. Then begins the account of Satan and the rebel angels, their banishment
from heaven, and their plot to oppose the design of the Almighty by dragging down his children,
our first parents from their state of innocence. The books closes with a description of the land of
fire and endless pain where the fallen spirits abide, and the erection of Pandemonium, the palace
of Satan.
Book II is a description of the council of evil spirits, of Satan's consenting to tempt Adam and
Eve and his journey to the gates of hell, which are guarded by Sin and Death.
Book III transports us to heaven again. God, foreseeing the Fall, sends Raphael to warn Adam
and Eve, so that this disobedience shall be upon their own heads. Then the Son offers himself as
a sacrifice to take away the sin of the coming disobedience of man. At the end of this book Satan
appears in a different scene, meets Uriel, the Angel of the Sun, inquires from him the way of earth
and takes his journey thither disguised as an angel of light.
Book IV shows us Paradise and the innocent state of man. An angel guard is set over Eden,
and Satan is arrested while tempting Eve in a dream, but is curiously allowed to go free again.
Book V shows Eve relating her dream to Adam, and then the morning prayer and the daily
employment of our first parents. Raphael visits them, is entertained by a banquet (which Eve
propose in order to show him that all God's gifts are not kept in heaven), and tells them of the
revolt of the fallen spirits.
Book VI: His story is continued in Book VI.
Book VII: We read the story of the creation of the world as Raphael tells it to Adam and Eve.
Book VIII: Adam tells Raphael the story of his own life and of his meeting with Eve.
Book IX is the story of the temptation by Satan, following the account in Genesis.
Book X records the divine judgement upon Adam and Eve; shows the construction by Sin and
Death of a highway through chaos to the Earth, and Satan's return to Pandemonium. Adam and
Eve repent their disobedience and Satan and his angels are turned into serpents.
Book XI: The Almighty accepts Adam's repentance, but condemns him to be banished from
Paradise, and the archangel Michael is sent to execute the sentence. At the end of the book, after
Eve's feminine grief at the loss of Paradise, Michael begins a prophetic vision of the destiny of
man.
Book XII continues Michael's vision. Adam and Eve are comforted by hearing of the future
redemption of their race. The poem ends as they wander forth out of Paradise and the door closes
behind them.

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“Paradise Lost" Book-I: A Critical Appreciation

Introduction
Paradise Lost (1665) is the great epic which Milton had been planning for years to write.
During the years of political activity he had been looking around for a suitable subject and for a
little while he even toyed with the idea of writing on the Arthurian legend. But eventually he chose
to write on a far greater subject - the fall of Adam and Eve from God's grace and though them, the
fall of the human race.
No other poem but Paradise Lost contains such treasures of learning. The Bible, the
Talmud, the church Fathers - all have contributed to the outline of the story. The structure and
tragic tone of the poem are indebted to Homer and Virgil. But everywhere one will find
transfigured for Milton's own purposes a world of literary tradition, i.e. Greek mythology, the
scriptures, Ovid, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser and many Renaissance writers in Italian, Latin, French
and English. The reference, in Milton, to the lore of learning is not mere decoration; it is the very
tissue of his thinking. Like the creation of the universe which it celebrates, the poem creates a
world that is timeless and placeless; it is the past, the present and the future.
Theme of "Paradise Lost"
The theme of a literary work is a concept made concrete through its representation in
character, action and imagery. The subject of Paradise Lost is Man's disobedience and the
ensuing loss of Paradise on earth, but its theme in the simplest term is love. The central episode
of Satan's revolt against God and his defeat by the Son is illuminated as the origin of the difficulties
which Man will experience (though not yet created) and as continuous admonition of Satan's
defeat before, during, and at the end of mortal time.
The thesis of Paradise Lost is that full recognition of Eternal Providence will justify to men
the ways of God towards men:
"That, to height of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men"
The justification of God's ways lies in the demonstration that man can learn the nature of God
only by knowing the nature of evil, that he can rise only by first having descended, and that
obedience is the natural consequence of love.
Structure of "Paradise Lost"
The fable of this epic poem can be read more or less in three distinct parts: the rebellion of
the angels and their struggle with God (Books I, II, III and the end of the greater part of Books V
and VI); the creation of mankind, the intervention of the Saviour; and the state of man's existence
(touched on in Books I, IV, and part of V, VII and VIII); the stratagem of Satan against Man, the
disobedience of Adam, and Eve, and their banishment from paradise (Books IX to XII).
The universe of "Paradise Lost"
"Every great work of art creates its own universe that obeys is own universe that obeys its
own imaginative laws. As we read on, or look, or listen, we come to learn what may be expected
and what may not, what we can demand and what we cannot or should not ask." This view of

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Helen Gardner is very sensible and we should agree with her that the universe of Paradise Lost is
intensely dramatic and filled with energies and wills. But besides having an unprecedented
concentration, Milton's epic also has a wider scope in time and space than any other epic poem.
It ranges from the height of Heaven to the depth of Hell. In Helen Gardner's words: " Milton's
conception of his subject is the source of what has always been regarded as one of the chief glories
of Paradise Lost, its wealth of epic similes". And to say that Milton's world is lacking in sharp
outlines is to completely overlook the nature of his subject as he conceived it.
Paradise Lost is the outcome of a Puritan's deep reflections on the Bible. And though Milton
accepts the whole of biblical history as genuine and sacred, he takes great liberty in interpreting
it. The outcome is a ceaseless conflict between his faith and his temperament - a universe, with its
wealth of epic similes which keeps us charmed all the way through.
Milton's Style "A Wealth of Epic Similes'
"The name of Milton", says Raleigh, "is become the mark, not of a biography, not of a theme,
but of a style, the most distinguished in our poetry." Milton's is the language, says Pattison, "of
one who lives in the companionship of the great and the wise of the past time." It would not be
wrong to say that the word "sublimity" best describes Milton's mature style. The portrait of Satan
is Book I is an ample proof:-
He, above the rest
In shape and gesture, proudly eminent.
Stood like a tower, his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess,
Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight shades,
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs
Images of a tower, an Archangel, the sun rising through mists, or in an eclipse, the ruin of
monarchy, and the revolutions of kingdoms this crowd of great and confused images affect us
exactly because they are crowded and confused. The images used in poetry are always of this
obscure kind. His remoteness from common speech is not a defect. As Tillyard puts it: "The
heightened style of Paradise Lost was something demanded of him as an epic poet a rigour
against which there was no possible appeal." In fact Milton's vast learning became a part and
parcel of his poetic sensibility. Satan's size and power is compared to "that sea-beast Leviathan".
He compares the vast number and confusion of the fallen angels too "thick as autumnal leaves
that strew the brooks in Vallombrose". The truth is the Paradise Lost is resplendent with such
epic similes.
Characterisation in "Paradise Lost"
The character of Satan strikes us as the most impressive figure in Paradise Lost. The poet's
great achievement lies not only in the portrayal of the majestic figure of Books I and II but in the
slow and steady degeneration of the "arch fiend" into a slimy, deceitful serpent. The portrayal of
Satan in the first two Books is such that a controversy has cropped up about the hero of this epic.
Many critics have taken Satan to be the hero. This misinterpretation, perhaps, is due to the fact
that such a view is based on the reading of the first two books only. In fact the hero is Adam - a
tragic figure in many ways. Adam's character, though not as dynamic as Satan's is nevertheless
very finely etched. Adam's role is not that of a warrior (which Satan is) but that of a God fearing

16
man, faced with temptation and defeated in the conflict between himself and Satan. But the defeat
is not final. Adam regains the Paradise "happier far".
There are some critics who feel, that either God or the Messiah is the hero of this epic. This
seems to be an absurd thesis. Neither God nor the Messiah takes part in the central action of
"Paradise Lost". It is true that Adam has a somewhat passive role as well but the fact remains that
the whole epic turns round 'man's first disobedience'. Adam disobeyed God, and by this act of
disobedience, he not only lost Paradise but brought about the fall of the while human race. No
action can be more tremendous in its import and significance than that which brought the fall of
the whole of humanity. And Adam being responsible for it, is obvious meant by the poet to fill the
role of the hero of the great poem. Ultimately, Adam and his race come out triumphant by the
grace of God and regain the lost Paradise.
Conclusion
In the final analysis Milton's Paradise Lost proves to be a stupendous work of art which offers
idea and conclusion for man in all ages. Down the ages, all men have been concerned with what
seems to be a discrepancy between a benevolent and omnipotent God and their own state of ill-
war, famine, disease and death. Though many critics have stressed the analysis of evil which the
poem presents thereby producing the major controversies over the poem it also analyses good,
and it is by this idea of good that the seeming discrepancy is annulled.
"Paradise Lost": A Classical Epic

Characteristics of an Epic
An epic is the highest type of narrative poetry. It is a long narrative poem in which the
characters and the action are of heroic proportions. From the works of Homer and Virgil, certain
characteristics have become established in the West as standard attributes of the epic. The main
attributes are given below.
(i) The hero is a figure of great national or international importance. Moreover, the characters
must belong to the highest class in a society, raised above the common man by birth, position,
manners and appearance. They must be kings and princes descended from heroes, and even from
the gods, compelling in their deportment and arresting in their personal appearance. In Paradise
Lost the hero is Adam, who incorporates in himself the entire race of man.
(ii) The setting is ample in scale, sometimes world-wide, or even larger in the classical epic.
The scope of Paradise Lost is cosmic, for it includes Heaven, Earth and Hell.
(iii) The action involves heroic deeds:Paradise Lost includes the war in Heaven, the journey
of Satan to discover the newly created world, and his audacious attempt to outwit God by
corrupting mankind.
(iv) The action should be an entire action, complete in itself. By this is meant that it should
have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
(v) The next characteristic of the epic poem according to Aristotle is that it must have
greatness, by which is meant that it must produce far-reaching consequences in which the
destinies of great men and nations are involved.
(vi) God are also used in the epic as a tragedy, as deux ex machina; the intervention of
supernatural machinery advances the plot and solves its complications. It not only gives ample

17
scope for the exercise of the poet's imagination, it also provides a proper spiritual support for the
heroic deeds.
(vii) An epic poem is a ceremonial composition and deliberately given a ceremonial style
proportionate to its great subject and architecture. Hence, Milton's Latinised diction and stylized
syntax, his resounding lists of strange and sonorous names, and his epic similes, that is, sustained
similes in which the comparison is developed far beyond the specific points are appropriate.
(viii) The poet begins by stating his theme, then invokes a Muse in his great undertaking and
addresses the Muse.
MAIN ATTRIBUTES OF MILTON'S EPIC:
"PARADISE LOST"
(i) Universality of the Subject-matter in "Paradise Lost"
Milton's Paradise Lost is not a national epic like the Iliad or the Aeneid; nor is it an epic after
any of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human species-an epic of our entire planet or
indeed of the entire astronomical universe. The vast compass of the story, its space, time,
characters and purpose make it unique among the world epics and fully entitle its author to speak
of it as involving:
"Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme."
It is a poetical representation of the historical connection between the created World and the
immeasurable and inconceivable Universe of Prehuman Existence. The newly created Earth with
all the starry depths about it has as yet but two human beings upon it, and these are the persons
of the epic. The grand purpose of an epic is to connect, by stupendous imagination certain events
of this pre-supposed Infinite Eternity with the first fortunes of this favoured planet and its two
human inhabitants. Now the person through the narration of whose acts this connection is
established is Satan, a central character of the epic.
Milton's Paradise Lost has a wider scope and larger significance than either the llliad or
the Aeneid, because it deals with the whole human race and indicates the destiny of all humanity
through the sin of the first man created by God. Thus Milton promotes a universal view of man's
life on this earth and shows how he has a past, a present and a future devised for him by the might
of God and as a result of his own exertions. This is the didactic or philosophical view of an epic.
Milton says that he has undertaken to write of the Fall of Man and to justify the ways of God to
men. Man is born endowed with free will and great powers, but he is subject to the decrees of the
Almighty who is filled with love for his own creations. We can make or mar our destiny since we
are given freedom to work out the will of God or suffer from the consequences of disobeying Him.
This is a cosmic or eternal view which is bound to inspire all of us with hope for the future.
Coleridge commented on the universal appeal of Paradise Lost saying "it represents the origin of
evil and the combat of evil and good, it contains a matter of deep interest to all mankind, as
forming the basis of all religion and the true occasions of all philosophy whatsoever."
(ii) Unity of Action in "Paradise Lost"
There is a perfect unity of action in Paradise Lost as in the great classical epics of Homer and
Virgil. The theme of Paradise Lost is 'Fall of man'; everything in the poem either leads up to it or
follows from it. The plucking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge by Eve is the apex of the whole
architecture of Paradise Lost. The lines,
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.

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Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through her all works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost:
are the central lines round which everything else in the poem turns. The war between God and
Satan, followed by Satan's fall, is only a prelude to the main action. Satan defeated and punished,
sought to take revenge on God by bring about the fall of man. Hence the fall of Satan does not
constitute a separate action, as contended by some critics. The whole action of Paradise Lost is
single and compact. There are some episodes, as that of Sin and Death, which are the necessary
appurtenance of the classical epic. Since Milton's characters are mostly supernatural-God, Angels,
Devils - with but two human beings who are also more like angels than men, this makes the action
of Paradise Lost also different from other epics. In Paradise Lost it concerns the whole creation:
"everything is done under the immediate the visible direction of Heaven".
(iii) Beginning, Middle and end of "Paradise Lost"
Paradise Lost begins not at the beginning, but in the middle, then retraces the earlier history
bit by bit and finally takes the story forward to complete the narration in a striking end. The fall
of man is a long story, and its beginnings are to be traced back to Creation itself by the Almighty.
But Milton chooses to deal with the Fall of Satan or Lucifer in the first book. This is a striking
episode which arrests our attention, for we are introduced to Satan lying stunned in the
sulphurous lake of endless fires after having been hurled down from high heaven by God. This is
according to the classical convention that the action of an epic should plunge abruptly into the
middle of the action. Who was Satan, why he fell, are the questions that engage our attention, and
the poet then proceeds to tell us all about these in the later book of the poem.
(iv) Invocation of "Paradise Lost"
There is an introductory invocation or prayer to God to inspire and bless the poet to complete
his task properly. This is a common feature of all ancient epics. But the ancient epics appealed to
gods and goddesses in whom the moderns no more believe. Instead, Milton prays to God to give
him the necessary inspiration to complete his task. Here he brings out his faith in the concept of
God according to the tenets of the Christian religion.
In the invocation to the Muse, Milton follows a poetic tradition adopted from antiquity-but
in such a way so as to fill it with significance. The Heavenly Muse is in reality the divine inspiration
which revealed the truths of religion of Moses and also the spirit of God which dwells in the heart
of every believer.
(v) Hero and other associates in "Paradise Lost"
The characters introduced into an epic poem are all endowed with powers and capacities of
heroic proportions. For only then are our imagination and sympathies roused to their fullest
extent, and we are thrilled by their exploits. Not only is the hero of outstanding personality, but
his associates are also of heroic mould and stuff. This we find in the description and sketch of
Satan, Beelzebub and the other fallen angels.
In one respect 'Paradise Lost' differs from the classical epics and that is in the number of the
characters portrayed. The earlier epics were rich in characterization with many mortals and gods
taking part in the action. Their personality and the motivations of all the participants in the
different phases of the story, capture the interest of the readers; and there is also constant
suspense about their fates. The subjects-matter of the fall of Adam and Eve obviously precluded
any such generosity of characterization, especially of human beings.

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(vi) Speeches of Elaborate Length in "Paradise Lost"

Speeches of elaborate length are another feature of epics. A part from the poet's explanations
and descriptions of the background and scenery, the characters themselves speak fully explaining
their thoughts, feelings and motives for our understanding. There is often a good deal of
repetition, but this very repetition adds to a sense of the magnitude the fullness of the action.
Besides direct reporting adds to the vividness of the narrative, and we feel as if we are spectators
or participants in the scene or action.
(vii) Similes and metaphors and allusions in
"Paradise Lost"
Another feature of epics is the frequency with which figures of speech are employed. Similies
and metaphors are most common. Book I abounds in a peculiar type of smiles which is called the
Homeric Similes. They offer scope for the poet to exhibit his varied knowledge of nature, books
and men in all aspects of life. Their appropriateness, picture sequences and beauty add to our
enjoyment of the poem as a whole.
Next to similes, we have allusions, references to different aspects of older tradition, folklore,
mythology, art and related activities of human beings in different parts of the world. Milton was
one of the most learned of the world's poets. All that was known to the ancient world and to his
own contemporaries in all branches of human endeavour is found referred to in one context or
the other in Paradise Lost.This is another source of pleasure and profit to the reader.
(viii) Grand Style of "Paradise Lost"

The next essential characteristic of an epic is its grand style. A great action needs a worthy
style for its adequate presentation, and Milton's poetic style in Paradise Lost is the last word of
sublimity in English poetry. Paradise Lost excels as a poetic work both for the loftiness of its
theme and for the grandeur of its style. Truly, Tennyson called Milton "mighty mouthed inventor
of harmonies" and "God gifted organ-voice of England." The language of Paradise Lost bristles
with Latinisms and to some extent this fact lifts the style above the common place. Anything
common or trivial would have spoilt the effect of the great epic.
(ix) Human Interest in "Paradise Lost"
Above all, the human interest in the poem centres round the figure of Adam, who is the
central character of Paradise Lost. The Epic, like the Tragedy, is according to Aristotle, a story of
human action. Paradise Lost is essentially a story of human action; though there are only two
human characters in the epic - and they make their appearance as late as the fourth book of the
poem - yet their act of disobedience is the central theme of the epic; and this act of eating "the
fruit of that forbidden tree" is of tremendous significance, for on it depends the fate of the whole
human race. The last two lines of the poem describing the departure of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden are pregnant with deep pathos, and appeal to every human heart:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.
(x) Sublimity in "Paradise Lost"
An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. There is no room for
pleasantry and fun and light-hearted gaiety in a classical epic. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a sublime
and noble poem characterised for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater ideas than

20
those which Milton has presented in the first, second and sixth books. The seventh book. The
seventh book, which describes the creation of the world, is equally wonderful and sublime.
(xi) Moral Tone of "Paradise Lost"
An epic is not without a moral. Besides giving a general representation to passions and
affections, virtues and vices, the epic poet does not leave out a moral which he expects his readers
to imbibe. The moral forms an integral and intrinsic part of Milton’s poem. It seeks to "vindicate
the ways of God to men, to show the reasonableness of religion and the necessity of obedience to
the Divine Law."
DRYDEN'S OBJECTION AGAINST "PARADISE LOST"
AS A CLASSICAL EPIC
Dryden, however, doubted its claim to be called an epic, because, (1) it is not heroic enough;
its main theme is not a war but the tale of man's loss of his happiness; (2) unlike other epics it
ends unhappily; (3) again, unlike other epics, it contains only two human characters, the other
being "heavenly machines".
The objections are either superficial or conventional. It is a needless restriction on epic poetry
to say that it must always have a war as its main theme. Similarly, the fact that epics generally end
happily does not mean that all epics must end so. Besides, as Johnson points out, Paradise
Lost does not end unhappily. "If success be necessary," he says, "then Adam's deceiver was at last
crushed; Adam was restored to his Maker's favour, and therefore may securely resume his human
rank." If Adam loses the eternal Paradise, he gains "a Paradise within him happier far." Dryden's
third objection is sufficiently refuted by Addison. He says that though the number of characters
in Milton's epic are not many, yet each of the characters is represented in more than one aspect.
Thus we have Adam and Eve as they are before their fall and as they are after it. God is revealed
as the Creator, the avenger of man's wrongs and as man's redeemer. Satan has three different
aspects of his character. He is God's enemy, man's tempter and a great leader to his followers.
Besides, abstract characters such as Sin and Death, are introduced. And surely, God and the
angels, good and bad, are also characters. They are not merely "heavenly machines."
To sum up: Paradise Lost is an epic. And it possesses all the essential characteristics that
Aristotle demanded of an epic poem. (1) Its action or plot has unity, entirety and sublimity. The
subject-matter, viz., the fall of man, forms the centre of the poem. Everything else moves round
it, leads towards it or follows from it. Milton secures the unity of action by starting at the middle
of the story and by opening the poem with the infernal council debate in Hell where man's fall is
plotted. The story is also told in its entirety. We are told, all that went before to cause man's fall
and all that followed as its result. The action is also sublime; there cannot be any more sublime
theme than the fall of our first parents and the war in Heaven. (2) The Characters of Paradise
Lost are also true epic characters. They are majestic and they are as many and as various as the
peculiar nature of the poem allowed. (3) Its language is also sublime and appropriate to the
characters. It is a perfect model of epic diction.
There are other incidental characteristics of epic poetry also in it. Like other epics, Paradise
Lost treats a war; it employes "long-tailed" similes: it obeys the convention of invoking the Muse.

21
The Portrait of Satan

Introduction
Satan is the most important character in Paradise Lost. Though the action of the poem turns
round Man's first disobedience, yet the character that gives epic grandeur to Paradise Lost is that
of Satan. He is endowed with some of those qualities that make the hero of an epic. In fact, Milton
partly expressed himself through Satan.
He is the most heroic subject ever chosen for a poem and the execution is as perfect as the
design is lofty. In the words of Addison, he is "the most exalted and most depraved being." Why
then does Milton give the importance of a hero to Satan in the first book and in all the parts of the
epic where he makes his appearance? The reasons for opposing God Almighty himself is said to
be ambition, pride and the love of supreme leadership. Egoism is at the bottom of his life and
actions, and because he shows it under almost certain difficult circumstances we cannot but
sympathise with him. For he knows in due course that God cannot be overcome either by men or
by devils. Instead of resigning himself to the inevitable as most sensible people might think of
doing, he resolves on eternal warfare, hatred and opposition to God, just to vindicate his
unconquerable love of freedom, liberty, and independence. This strikes a responsive echo in our
hearts, and we are forced to admire him although we may also detest him at the same time. Viewed
in relation to God, whom he opposes, he is the weaker party and so doomed to failure. Being
immortal, he is incapable of destruction, But he can offer battle to God in all possible ways, and
thus stand out above all else. But viewed in relation to innocent man, whom he resolves to seduce,
corrupt and turn against God himself, he is a villain, for just as the fight between him and God is
one-sided and unequal, so also the struggle of man against Satan proves one-sided and unequal.
In thus representing Satan, he invests him with intensely human traits, both virtues and vices or
failings which bring him intimately to our understanding. God is beyond our understanding, since
we are finite and He is infinite Man in the state of innocence is equally beyond our understanding.
For we now live in a world very different from the conditions in which he lived with Eve in Eden
or Paradise. Between the two extremes, he therefore, occupies the stage in its entire length and
depth and engrosses our attention continuously at high pressure whether he is present or absent.
Satan's Towering Personality
In Book I, we see him in the moment of his greatest disaster. There is no lower point to which
he could be pushed down by fate or fortune. We see him a fallen creature, his face and form
disfigured, stunned by his defeat and downfall and an object of terror and pity. Milton's first
description of him is intended to impress us with his superhuman appearance and powers. He is
of gigantic stature, yet without body, such as we possess. There is nothing grotesque or absurd or
comic in describing him as a huge giant sprawling over the burning lake and occupying many
occupying many leagues of space to keep his body. We are naturally impressed by such a figure.
Satan is known to have genius and all its charm great beauty, great intellect, great emotions,
great physical daring; in all things proudly eminent. This was the personality of Satan before his
degradation.

22
Satan's Courage
Milton's Satan is endowed with heroic qualities. The outstanding trait of his character is
courage. He may be wrong headed: but he has infinite courage in himself. As the poem, Paradise
Lost begins, we find Satan in a hopeless situation. He and his companions have been hurled down
into the bottomless pit of Hell. He lies dazed and stunned in the Lake of Liquid fire and so do his
companions, the rebel angels. Heaven is lost to Satan and his companions, and they are doomed
to live forever in the darkness of Hell. But this gloomy prospect of the future does not fill Satan
with despondency robbing him of his power of action. When Beelzebub, his lieutenant, tells him
that their situation is hopeless beyond redemption, he replies:
Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable.
Doing or suffering.
Satan is determined not to be weak under any circumstances. If one retains his courage and
strength of mind, he "can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." Even in Hell Satan discovers
an advantage:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
Satan's Affection for his Followers
Satan has great anxiety for his followers. It is the trait of a great general of any army, to think
of the welfare of his followers even before he think of his own safety. All great warriors and
conquerors were able to inspire their followers with loyalty and devotion which make them ready
to suffer and die for their leader. In return, the chief guard cherishes them as if they were all his
own brothers or children. This feeling of chivalry overcomes Satan as he sees his unconscious
friends lying in profound slumber all round him. He cannot forget that they had met this cruel
fate because of their devotion to him. He sees their self-sacrifice as heroic in its essence. So, he is
represented as shedding tears of sympathy for them - Tears such as angels weep. This is pathetic
fallacy since angels cannot weep at all.
Satan as a Leader
A great leader should have great qualities of character. He should have courage,
resourcefulness and an indomitable will. Above all, the should be a man of action. Milton's Satan
is endowed with all these qualities. It needs mighty courage to revolt against the Almighty, and to
hurl defiance at Him even in captivity. Besides, Satan is not only courageous himself, he can
inspire courage in his followers. They lie dazed and stupefied in the Lake of liquid fire. But the
courageous words of their leader rouse them from their stupor and make them bold and active
once again.
Satan's greatest quality as a leader is his readiness to act under all circumstances. Even Hell
cannot rob him of his power to act. Having fallen down into the bottomless pit, he lies unconscious
for some time in the lake of liquid fire as the result of his great fall. But the moment he regains
consciousness, he decides not to lie any more in that abject position. Finding Beelzebub, his
lieutenant, lying close to him, he persuades him to leave the infernal lake and go with him to the
solid plain beyond its shore. Accordingly, leaders of the fallen angels go to the solid plain, where
Satan exhorts Beelzebub to overcome his despondency, and bravely face the situation in which
they are. He will live in Hell as its ruler rather than be a slave to God in Heaven. It is man's mind
which can turn Heaven into Hell and Hell into Heaven. If they courageously face the situation,
even Hell will not be too uncomfortable for them to live in. These words of his leader infuse
courage in Beelzebub and he regains his lost boldness and self-confidence.

23
As a leader Satan is ready and eager to assume the difficulties, responsibilities and dangerous
of leadership as well as its rights; ready to accept "hazard" as well as "honour". He shows a noble
sense of duty, of self-sacrifice incumbent on him on account of his position as King of Hell, when,
"for the general safety he despised his own", and undertook alone the difficult enterprise which
daunted the courage of the mightiest of his followers.
Satan's Unconquerable and Indomitable Spirit
Satan was originally an Archangel in Heaven occupying a high place in the hierarchy of
angels. He was proud, defiant and of an independent temper of mind. He would not submit to the
authority of God. He rebelled against the Almighty and won over to his side a third part of the
angelic host. He fought against God, and was defeated and hurled down to Hell. The punishment
inflicted upon him was eternal damnation. The punishment was rigorous, indeed, but the rigour
of the punishment was matched by the extent of his pride and the strength of his spirit. It was
after his defeat that Satan's greatness manifested itself. Defeat did not curb the independence of
his spirit.
What thought the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
******
And study of revenge; immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome.
Though he was banished from the bliss of Heaven, he kept up his strength of spirit and
invincible courage, which aroused the admiration of all. He inspired the fallen angels with new
hope and courage, and his leadership roused them from the depth of despair into which they had
fallen. He would undertake the most hazardous task in order to fight God against all odds. No
amount of torture could damp the brave spirit of Satan. Hell was a desolate place, very different
indeed from Heaven, but its dismal surroundings could not break his spirit. In fact he welcomes
Hell, where he may 'reign secure.'
....Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells, hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is it sown place, and itself
Can make a Heaven, of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
He may have been defeated by the superior arms of God, but 'all is not lost.' He would not
under any circumstances submit to the tyranny of the Almighty. This courage and this indomitable
spirit make Satan a unique figure in Paradise Lost.
Satan has many admirable qualities for example his power of endurance, his heroism and his
indomitable refusal to admit defeat. These virtues are expressed in peculiarly Miltonic words of
great eloquence and power. His first speech shows him defying his conqueror and "though in pain"
asserting his invincible resolution. He is undaunted by God's victory and retain his "fit mind" and
high disdain. He finds consolation even in Hell and maintains the morale of his followers.
Satan's Pride
Satan is a study of obdurate pride. Self-exhaltation is the motive of all his conduct. Satan
suffered from a "sense of injured merit". "He thought himself impaired". Pride, out of intense self-

24
desire is the evil from which all other evils arise. "We are eclipsed" Satan says, "we are ordained
to govern, not to serve". Out of this arises his "high disdain from a sense of injured merit" and
from this follows "the study of revenue, immortal hate"; the scorn of repentance and finally its
impossibility. Even in defeat he will never dream of submission. The fierceness of the punishment
inflicted on him is mitigated by the greater fierceness of his pride.
Satan Should be the Villain of the Piece
Satan alone occupies a prominent position in the narrative. According to the strict rules of
dramatic art, Satan should be the villain of the piece. To a certain extent,Paradise Lost is symbolic
of the never-ending, conflict between good and evil in the life of man, and Satan is thus the type
of universal evil and wickedness. In one sense, Satan is the most important character of the poem
because it is from his agency that practically all the action of the narrative arises. The revolt which
Satan stirs up in Heaven leads to the fall of the angels in the first place; the decision which he
comes to, to tempt the newly created human pair, leads to further action in Paradise Lost. Such
being the case, Milton had to necessarily bring Satan prominently before the reader, more
prominently indeed than any other character. So we might say that the theme or narrative which
Milton selected for Paradise Lost depended for its action on the deeds of a wicked character,
rather than on a hero. The problem for Milton was the manner in which he was to present such
an evil character. The sight of pure, and undisguised evil is never pleasant, and the acts of a wicked
person cause feelings of disgust and repulsion to right-minded readers. So Milton would have
risked losing the sympathy and interest of his readers had he presented Satan as an unattractive
study in wickedness. It seems then, that Milton realized this danger, and refrained from
blackening the characters of Satan unduly. Not only so, but he depicts Satan as possessing many
qualities which are good, noble and wholly admirable. It is this point which has made the
character of Satan unique and has aroused so much discussion among critics.
There can be no doubt that Satan is meant to be the villain. He is throughout called names
like "arch-fiend", "arch-enemy", "apostate angel", "the adversary of God and man", "the author of
all ill", "the spirit malign", "the fraudulent imposter foul", etc. His rebellion against God was due
to Pride and his desire to continue the war of Envy, Revenge and love of Evil. He is crafty, - "the
warie fiend"- and his plan to corrupt mankind is one of "covert guile". He is cunning in his appeal
to his followers which has only a "semblance of worth". Satan embodies Evil because he is the
embodiment of disobedience to God. God allows him to work his "dark design" in order to give
further scope, for divine goodness and to bring worse punishment on him.
Milton Expresses himself Through Satan

Milton's inner soul vibrated to those powerful expressions of republican fervour that he puts
on the lips of Satan. In the character of Satan, Milton has expressed his own pride, invisible
temper, love for liberty, defiance of authority and heroic energy.
The strength of the portraiture of Satan is due to the fact that the poet is expressing himself
through Satan. While portraying this character Milton projects himself into Satan and expresses
his own indomitable personality through him. Milton himself was proud, and had stood against
the tyranny of the king, and though his party had been defeated, he remained as courageous and
defiant in the teeth of adversity as Satan. It is because Milton expressed his own feelings through
Satan, that the portraiture of Satan's character is so intense and powerful. Though Milton set out
to justify the ways of God to man, yet, in spite of himself, he endowed Satan with great qualities,
simply because Satan like himself, had opposed the 'tyranny' of the King of Heaven. Hence Blake
remarked: "Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it." Milton became conscious of what
he was doing as the poem proceeded. The character of Satan, with its greatness and grandeur, was

25
militating against his avowed theme. Hence Milton restrained himself and showed the real
character of Satan, the Arch devil. In the later books Satan degenerates into a cunning spy,
imposter, and villain.
Character of Satan
There is the epic necessity that the important epic character should be sublime and that we
should be interested in them but absolute evil is mean, and evokes no pleasure. Satan is, therefore,
made a mixed character, with evil passions in which good still lingers. In the beginning Satan is
selfish but with abrupt touches of unselfishness. He is proud, but his pride is for others as well as
for himself. Though he is full of envy and malice, often he hates these passions in himself. He
destroys but it is with difficulty he overcomes his pity for those he destroys. He brings war into
Heaven, and despises Heaven, yet he loves its beauty. He is God's enemy. Yet he allows God's
justice. He avenges himself, yet revenge is bitter. He ruins beauty but he regrets its loss in himself
and admires it in others. Thus, we find that Satan is a mixed character in which there is good but
evil pre-dominates and eventually the evil master the good.
Exhalation of Satan's Qualities in the Romantic Age
In the Romantic age, Satan has been admired immensely. According to William Blake, "the
reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of devils and
Hell is because he was a true poet and of the devil's party without knowing it." William Hazlitt
narrated the magnificence of Milton's portrayal of Satan. According to him, "the Achilles of Homer
is not more distinct, the Titans were not more vast, Prometheus chained to his rock was not a
more terrific example of suffering and of crime. Whenever the figure of Satan is introduced,
whether he walks or flies, "rising aloft incumbent of the dusty air," it is illustrated with the most
striking and appropriate images: so that we see it always before us, gigantic, irregular, portentous,
uneasy and disturbed but dazzling in its faded splendour, the clouded ruins of a God." Finally
Shelley expressed his great admiration for Milton's portraiture of Satan. As Shelley said: "Milton's
Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God, as one who persevere in some purpose which
he has conceived to be excellent inspite of adversity and torture, to God who in the cold security
of undoubted triumph inflicts the most horrible revenge upon his enemy, not from any mistaken
notion of inducing him to repent of a perseverance in enmity, but with the alleged design of
exasperating him to new torments."
Satan's Greatness in the Twentieth Century

Even in the twentieth century some critics are influenced by this romantic figure. They
continue to consider Satan as the chief figure of Paradise Lost. Abercrombie
remarks: "Paradise Lost exists for one figure, that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles, and
the Odyssey for Odysseys. It is in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise
Lost is centred. His vast, unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern
consciousness". Bagehot says that Milton's "Satan was to him, as to us, the hero of his poem." In
fact, many more critics have suggested that the republican Milton's unconscious sympathy went
to the creation of Satan. Legouis says that Milton has put most of himself, his pride, and his
temperament into Satan. "Devoutly, but mechanically, he paid lip-service to the duty of obedience,
but in his heart he was chanting a hymn to freedom and rebellion." Many other critics think that
Milton has created the very figure of Puritanism in his Satan, thus unconsciously identifying his
consecrated cause with the foul revolt of the devil.

26
Gradual Degradation of Satan's Character

But as the poem proceeds, the character of Satan degenerates. Reaching the Earth, he enters
into a Serpent, and is completely degraded. Pride was the cause of his fall from Heaven-Pride that
had 'raised' him to 'contend with the Mightiest.' Where is that pride, when the Archangel enters
"in at the mouth of a sleeping Serpent" and hides himself in its "mazy folds". He is himself
conscious of his degradation:
Of foul descent that I, who erst contended
With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained.
Into a beast, and, mixed with bestial slime,
This essence to incarnate and imbrute.
That to the height of deity aspired." (Book IX)
From the grand figure that he is in the beginning, he degenerates into a mean and cunning
fellow, trying to tempt Eve by guile. So Satan degenerates from the role of a brave hero to that of
a cunning villain.
The aforesaid view has been formulated by the twentieth century critics who feels that the
character of Satan shows a gradual decline. As C.S. Lewis remarks: "From hero to general, from
general to politician, from politician to secret service agent and thence to a thing that peers in at
the bedroom or bathroom windows, and thence toad, and finally to a snake—such is the progress
of Satan." John Peter is of the opinion that the degradation of Satan is due to the fact that Milton
lost poetic fervour after the two books. As Peter remarks: "These play a very important part in
determining the reader's impressions during the opening books where they are consistently good
and are often used powerfully, but the similes of the succeeding books, though they recover their
potency are usually far less effective."
Conclusion
"Though Satan represents evil, he has a greatness of his own. He is magnificent in his crime.
He is a born leader, and would not shrink from tasks that the perilous voyage through Chaos to
Earth implies. To him weakness is a crime:
Doing or suffering.
The first two books of Paradise Lost depict the greatness and grandeur of Satan. He fills the
whole space with the grandeur of his stature. In fact, it appears that he is the real hero of Paradise
Lost. Like Macbeth, he, too, seems to be tragic character.
In spite of his final degradation, it is Satan's character that gives real epic quality to Paradise
Lost. Without Satan, Paradise Lost would be no more than a theological thesis composed in verse.
Satan's courage and unconquerable spirit, his vaulting ambition, his fortitude and contempt for
suffering, the fierceness of his indomitable passions give to Paradise Lost its permanent value as
a work of poetic art.

27
The Hero of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
Much controversy has clustered round the question as to who is the hero of Paradise
Lost. There are very sensible persons, who advocate the claim of Satan, and others, that of Adam.
One critic suggests God, and another the Messiah (Christ). A French critic (Denis Saurat) puts
forward the strange thesis that Milton himself is he hero of Paradise Lost.
(A) SATAN: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

Satan as A most Powerfully Drawn Character
Let us see some of the points of his character which are definitely indicated. In the beginning,
it is Satan who, first of all the angels, arouses himself up from the lake of fire. He has the power
of recovery in the face of defeat. Not one word, which he utters, expresses despair, when he
discovers the terrible nature of the place to which God has banished them. Immediately his active
mind begins to scheme, and he proceeds to reassemble his shattered forces. We are often told that
adversity reveals the best qualities in a man; adversity certainly reveals the vigorous intellect and
driving personality of Satan. He shows the highest degree of fortitude and "courage never to
submit or yield." His personal example soon communicates itself to the other angels, and they
gather round their great leader. In the plays of Shakespeare, we have often seen that the great
dramatist contrives to create his finest characters by letting us hear what other people think of
them, and say about them, so it is with Milton. All the angels welcome with joy their mighty leader.
It matters not that they have been defeated and expelled from Heaven, because of their share in
his rebellion. They gather round him with absolute confidence such as earthly men feel
instinctively at times when they realize the worth of a great leader. The mighty qualities of Satan's
mind, and the indomitable resolution which animates him, are displayed when he exclaims:
... and thou, profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
There are sentiments which might well be uttered by the most spiritual of characters. The
spirit of self-reliance, of mental courage, which rises independent of environment, is a quality
possessed only by the greatest characters. This might well have been spoken by some saint in exile,
or languishing in dungeons of a cruel tyrant. A few lines later, there blazes a burst of strong, over-
mastering ambition, the expression of a nature the must, be first in all things:
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
It is no ordinary ambition which we see here; there is something colossal in this bold
challenge to the Almighty for supreme power. We have seen instances in the history of the human
race where two great natures clashed, and neither would give way: Caesar and Hannibal,
Wellington and Napoleon, and we have been impressed by the greatness on either side. It may be
a wicked things to defy God, but, in this case, God is far-removed and unreal, and it is the greatness
of the challenge, rather than the wickedness, which is the prominent impression.

28
Beelzebub bears witness to the great worth of Satan as a leader:

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
.... they will soon resume
New courage and revive, though now they lie
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire.
If this was said of the noblest general who ever led mortal armies, he would be acclaimed by
all as a leader of men. The effect here is similar; we must judge Satan according to earthly and
human standards since we have no other. We respect him because of the confidence with which
he inspire the forces. When the downfallen angels reach the shore, their dejected spirits are
cheered, and their look show:
Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief
Not in despair...
Million then makes Satan console them, raise their sinking courage, and dispel their fears.
The poet seems to feel here that he is ennobling the Archfiend unduly, for he reminds the reader
that Satan achieves this by:
high words that bore
Semblance of worth, not substance.
A Great Figure of Epic Dimension
But Milton has endowed Satan with all those qualities which make a hero. In fact, it is the
grandeur of Satan's character that makes Paradise Lost an epic. Milton has imparted something
of himself to Satan, and so Satan arouses our admiration by the strength of his character and
individuality. He assets himself against the autocracy of God, and is able to win over to his side
the third part of the angelic host in Heaven. He is no doubt defeated by the Messaih (Christ) but
his defeat and his expulsion from Heaven cannot curb his indomitable spirit. He would urge
eternal war against God; he remains as bold in spirit and as defiant as he was before his defeat;
and the change of his surroundings cannot in any way dampen his unconquerable spirit. He will
make Heaven of Hell, and undertakes all kind of risks and dangers in order to take revenge on
God. This figure is heroic in every way. He is a perfect leader, and all the fallen angels submit
unquestioningly to his authority. "It is surely the simple fact" says Abercrombie, "that Paradise
Lost exists for one figure that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles and the Odyssey for
Odysseus. It is in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise Lost is
centered; his vast unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern consciousness."
Satan is indeed a great figure of epic dimension. He is a true hero, but he is so only in Books I and
II of Paradise Lost.
Robert Burns strongly upheld Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost, in these words: "give me a
spirit like my favourite hero, Milton's Satan", W. Hazlitt was of the same view, "the interest of the
poem arises from the daring ambition and fierce passions of Satan, and from the account of the
paradisical happiness and the loss of it by our first parents, Satan is the indubitable hero - in fact,
the most heroic subject that ever was chosen for a poem".
Arguments against Satan being the Hero of the Poem
As the poem proceeds, this heroic figure gradually loses its splendour, though he retains his
original greatness even when he comes to the earth and sees the joy; but pride prevails over him,
for he must have his revenge on God who is his eternal enemy.

29
Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

Your change approaches, when all these delights
Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe-
****
Yet no purposed foe
to you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,
Though I unpitied
From now onward, the deterioration of Satan starts. In fact when he enters into a serpent to
tempt Eve, he has turned from a great hero into a despicable spy and cunning trickster. So when
we take the whole of Paradise Lost into consideration, we cannot agree with the view that Satan
is the hero of Paradise Lost.
Admiration and Sympathy of Satan Misunderstood
According to some critics, Satan is the hero of the poem. In the preceding chapter, we have
expressed the view of these critics of the Romantic age and the twentieth century. Now let us
interpret the views of these critics. In fact, Satan is not the hero of the poem. Even Dryden was
misled by the epic current in his day. The Romantics misunderstood Blake. It is a pity that even a
great critic like Tillyard misunderstood him. As Rudrum Alan remarks in his book Milton:
Modern judgements: "It is only in the context of his own highly complex system of thought that
Blake's remarks on Milton's Satan can be properly understood. But of course they have been
abstracted from that context..." Blake never means that Milton identifies himself with Satan.
According to him, poetry is emotional rather than rational. In other words, evil inspires a poet
more than the good; a poet finds it easier to depict evil than good, as stated by Blake. It is in this
sense that Milton is of the Devil's party. So, the Romantics misunderstood Blake. A poet has 'as
much delight in depicting an Iago as an Imogen' (an evil and good character). Milton took pleasure
in the exercise of his power.
Secondly, those who think that Satan is the hero of the poem, confine their criticism to the
first two books. As A. Stopford Brooke remarks: "The interest of the story collect at first round the
character of Satan, but he grows meaner as the poem develops, and his second degradation after
he has destroyed innocence is one of the finest and most consistent motives in the poem. This at
once disposes the view that Milton meant Satan to be the hero of his epic." Thus in the first two
books he is made a heroic figure. Subsequently, his character degenerates.
Thirdly, Milton's identification with Satan is misunderstood. Tillyard says that the character
of Satan expresses something in which Milton believed very strongly. But Tillyard forgets that the
identification of Milton with Satan, is only partial. Milton is also Adam. Milton thought himself a
sincere Christian. Milton has Satan in him and wants to drive him out. "He was of the devil's party
without knowing it; but he was also of God's party, and what is more important, he knew
it." (Denis Saurat Milton: Man, and Thinker). Further Denis Saurat remarks: "And yet Satan is
not the hero of the poem: he is intellectually condemned, in spite of all the poet's and the reader's
sympathy."
We should not be taken in by Satan's impressive speeches. For what indeed does his fine
sounding phrase sense of "injured merit" mean but simply "not fair" which is far from being
a heroic cry. Stylistic reasons enforce superficially the heroism of Satan-his utterances are always
couched in language of unrivalled poetic splendour. But this should not mislead us, for in the end
Satan himself realized his impotence and inner helplessness.
Finally, the splendour of Satan is misunderstood. The magnificence and splendour of Satan
must be exalted in order to indicate the epic greatness of the coming conflict. In other words, in
order to rouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and gratitude

30
for his redemption, Milton has shown the magnificence of Satan's character. George Sampson
remarks: "Those who maintain that Satan the rebel is the real hero of the poem fail to understand
that the adversary of God and Man must be presented in majesty and magnitude if he is to be
worthy of his place in the story that he must have, in fact all the fascination of evil. "We should
not be swept away by the sheer grandeur of Satan's speeches, or by the splendour of his
personality. Heroism exerted in the bad cause, ceases to be virtue. And, therefore, it is not enough
to say that Satan is the hero of the poem because he is brave and bold.
Many of the twentieth century critics do not hold the view of the Romantics i.e. Satan is the
hero of Paradise Lost. John Peter is of the opinion that "the loss of poetic energy or resonance in
the heroic similes applied to Satan shows an important aspect of the deterioration in Milton's
treatment of the Devil". According to David Daiches, the whole poem is the story of Satan's
inevitable degeneration.
(B) MILTON: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"
This theory has been formulated by Denis Saurat, a French critic. He says in his book
Milton: Man and Thinker that Adam is not the fitting counterpart for Satan. According to him,
the hero of the poem is Milton himself. As stated by him: "Though Satan is Milton's own creation,
and he has displayed a greater force of poetry in him than in any other character in Paradise
Lostas he represents a part of his own mind and character, yet it seems that Milton throws himself
personally into the struggle against Satan". Further Saurat feels that Milton has exalted Satan
because he himself wanted to drive out malignant and militant Satan from his own heart. In this
connection, he says: "Milton had Satan in him and wanted to drive him out. He had felt passion,
pride and sensuality. The displeasure he takes in the creation of Satan is the joy of liberating,
purging himself of the evil in himself by concentrating it outside himself into a work of art. A joy
peculiar to the artist……a joy that, perhaps was God's ultimate aim in creating the world, as we
have seen.
The argument is not plausible that Milton himself is the hero. No doubt, Milton's personality
is revealed in Paradise Lost: and he never conceals where his sympathy lies. There is again some
similarity between the position of Satan and that of Milton. Satan had defied the authority of God
the autocrat, just as Milton had defied the autocracy of the King. Hence, Satan is endowed with
all the force and fire of Milton's own spirit. But Milton's object was to justify the ways of God to
man. He therefore, expresses himself here and there to execute his avowed aim. The epic, it must
be remembered, is a piece of objective art. He calls Satan's "infernal serpent" 'Arch-fiend' and uses
abusive epithets to expose Satan's real character. But Milton himself cannot and does not take
part in the action of the poem. The lyrical qualities of Milton's genius inevitably enter
into Paradise Lost. But to say that he is the hero of Paradise Lost, is nothing short of
preposterous.
(C) ADAM: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"
To put forward the claim either of God or of the Messiah (Christ) is absurd, for they do not
take part in the central action of Paradise Lost. However, the whole epic, turns rounds what
Milton indicates even in the first line of the poem 'Man's first disobedience.' Adam disobeyed God,
and by this act of disobedience, he not only lost Paradise but brought about the fall of the whole
human race. No action can be more tremendous in its import and significance than that which
brought the fall of the whole of humanity. And Adam, being responsible for it, is obviously meant
by the poet to fill the role of the hero of the great poem.
Difficulty arises because Adam does not act. He is merely a passive figure, who is acted upon
by others. But it is his fate that engages the attention of God and the Angels in Heaven, and of
Satan and the devils in Hell. His fate again causes a terrible upheaval on the Earth. When Eve

31
plucks the fruit, "Nature sighs that all is lost." Adam may not be a heroic figure in the same sense
as Achilles is. But Paradise Lost is a different kind of epic from Homer's Iliad. Milton himself
says,
... Yet argument
Not less but more heroic than the wrath of stern Achilles.
In creating Adam, Milton attempted a very peculiar task. Adam, the father of mankind is
almost without human experience and so cannot have much personality. Milton has to present a
figure who appeals imaginatively and poetically and this he does. Adam has a natural
magnificence that fits him to be the hero of an epic. However, Adam is not a hero like Achilles and
Ullyses, etc. capable of incredibly heroic deeds. Adam is a hero of a nobler kind.
Adam's role is not that of a warrior but that of a God-fearing man, faced with a temptation
and defeated in the conflict between himself and Satan. In studying the question of the hero
of Paradise Lost, we need not be obsessed with the classical conception of the epic here. Adam is
defeated no doubt but through the Messiah (Christ) he regains the Paradise 'happier far'. Thus
the ultimate victory which is of a spiritual nature goes to Adam. Adam is the real hero of Paradise
Lost.
Conclusion
"One supposed defect in the story of Paradise Lost has been frequently dwelt on, and the fact
is that Satan, and not Adam, is the hero of the epic. We think that only those, who reading of
Milton has been confined to the first two books, can be misled by this nonsensical paradox. In the
first two books Satan is naturally made a heroic figure; he is still an Arch-angel (though fallen)
one of the chief Arch-angels and king over his fellows. "His character has power. His capacity for
evil must be exalted in order to show the epic greatness of the coming conflict and in order to
arouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and gratitude for his
redemption. But we have not to wait for Paradise Regained to see the steady deterioration in
Satan's character. Surely, to take one instance alone there is little of the heroic in Satan when he
takes the form of a toad to whisper in Eve's ear and is stirred up by the spear of Ithuriel. At the
close of the poem Satan's degradation is complete." (Wyatt and Low).
“Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, but he is in no sense the hero of the epic as a whole;
he is only a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with
dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity" Helen Grander.
Although Adam is a passive and not an active agent in the poem and although he suffers more
than he acts, his claim to the title of the hero seems to be better than anybody else's. As Landor
points out, and as everybody at once notices, Adam is the central figure in the poem, round whom
the others act. It is his fall that is the subject matter of the poem. Our interest centres round him;
our sympathy goes to him. He may reasonably be called the hero of 'Paradise Lost'. Adam does
not have a romantic character and obvious bravery of a noble; he is Every man as he recognizes
his own weakness: accepts his responsibility, and faces life with true courage. His battles are
within him, as is fitting for the hero of a great religious epic.

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Satan's Speeches in "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
Satan of Book-I Paradise Lost, is one of the glorious examples of political leadership and
political oratory. His speeches are the key to his character and his art of oratory excels the best of
Roman rhetoric. He is the leader of the rebel-angels in Heaven and the uncrowned monarch of
Hell. By following his lead, the fallen angels are deprived of "happy fields, where joy forever
dwells." Satan has now the task of retaining their loyalty and does so by the sheer magic of his
high-pitched oratory. There is a certain pathetic grandeur of injured merit in them which wins the
hearts of his followers. Around the character of Satan, Milton has thrown a singularity of daring,
a grandeur of sufferance and a ruined splendour, which constitute the very height of poetic
sublimity.
Satan is the first to recover from the stupor into which all the rebel angels fall. Soon he notices
his first lieutenant, Beelzebub, weltering by his side. He finds that his compeer is much changed.
So he makes a cautious approach, for he is not sure whether his friend is in a mood to blame him
or he still loves him.
First Speech. Satan's speeches reveal pure Miltonic lyricism. His opening speech to
Beelzebub is a magnificent set-piece. It reveals the character of Satan - a defiant rebel and a great
leader. He encourages and sympathizes with his followers with bold words and sentiments.
Satan first takes pity on the change in his friend. Then he refers to their friendship of the
hazardous enterprise in heaven and in their present misery. He is ashamed to admit the might of
God. But he will not allow it to change his mind. He has nothing but contempt for God who
insulted his merits. It is a sense of injured merit that makes him wage war against the tyrant of
Heaven. As for the battle, it has been an equal match and the issue uncertain. It is not their want
of merit but God's new and secret weapon that won the war. There is an irony through Satan's
speech which continually reduces his stature even when apparently it seems to be building it up.
Satan's historical of "high disdain" and "sense of injured merit" have overtones of the ludicrous.
It seems weak and childish.
A single victory does not permanently ensure God's victory. For the present, they may have
lost the field, but that does not mean they have lost everything.
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost-the unconquerable will.
And study of revenge, immoral hate,
And courage never to submit or yield.
And what is else not to be overcome?
He, who failed to conquer these things cannot be said to be victor at all. Defeat is complete
only when the spirit and the will too are subjugated. The bow down before God is worse than
defeat. So he is determined to wage eternal war by force or guile.
Satan's question "what though the field be lost?" is "an exposure of himself and his inability
to act in any other way other than what he enumerates."

33
Though the speech is one of high rhetorics there is barrenness; no suggestion of action at all
except to brood on revenge and hate. Revenge will be eternally "studied" and have sustained yet
it is so grandly expressed that we are thrilled by the implied suggestion to wage ceaseless war
against hopeless odds, this appears as admirable.
Second Speech. With his second speech, Satan sweeps off all doubts from his friend's mind.
"To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering." If God attempts to turn evil into good, it must be
the sacred duty of the fallen angels to foil his attempts and turn all good to evil. God has now
withdrawn all his forces and is in a confounded state. They should not let this opportunity slip. It
is imperative that all of them should assemble and consult how they may hereafter most offend
their enemy, best repair their own loss.
The audacity and superb self-confidence of Satan are well brought out in these words. He
seizes the opportunity to mobilize his forces once again, conscious of the crushing defeat that he
and his followers have suffered. Satan is trying to infuse fresh courage into them. His speech
shows a heroic quality.
Third Speech. After winning over Beelzebub and putting new courage in him, Satan asks
him whether they are forced to exchange this mournful gloom for celestial light. Now that they
have become avowed enemies of God, the farther they are from him the better. So he welcome the
dismal horrors of the infernal world. For him Hell is as good a place as Heaven, for his mind
remains unchanged by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
In Hell they are free from servitude. It is "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
"Farthest from him is best" is a statement of heroic defiance and of moral alienation. Once
again the appeal is to the law of nature and God's monarchy is presented to be based on force not
on reason.
The line "Receive thy new Possessor" is characteristic of the Satanic mind and its passion for
over lordship.
Satan's speech is "full of ringing phrases expressed with a deliberate sonority." The brief
elegiac note gives way to rhetorical assertions of self-confidence. Again irony underlies the
rhetoric. The ringing line "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" with its melodramatic
tone scarcely conceals the mixture of pride and spite which it expresses.
Fourth Speech. Taking Beelzebub with him, he addresses other angels, with a resounding
voice. He directly touches their ego by calling them, "Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the Flower of
Heaven." He ask them whether they are sleeping thus on account of physical exhaustion or in
despair. He exhorts them to "wake, arise or be forever fallen."
Initially, Satan sarcastically addresses his fallen angels and then he tries to revive their
detached spirits. His speech is so commanding and fiery that his followers are roused out of their
stupor.
Fifth Speech. Satan addresses the assembled angels. He is filled with pride to have so many
comrades. It is impossible that these vast numbers are vanquished. They are all powerful and still
there is every hope of regaining their native seat. God has conquered them by use of force, but
such success is only a partial success. Hell cannot contain so many valiant spirits for long. Peace
of course, is despaired and therefore ruled out. The only course open to them is war. "War open
or understood." Satan invites all of them to the great council.

34
Satan choked with emotion and tears, begins his speech, like a politician he indulges in
rhetoric. Without distorting facts he turns them to a different light and gives his defeated host a
margin of hope. Throughout, Satan resolves "to wage by force or guile eternal war." Later he places
an alternative before the infernal council "open war or covert guile." But now one finds that the
emphasis is on war not guile. Satan is determined to combat with God to save his own pride. Satan
makes a warlike speech full of contradictions and absurdities when examined closely but
admirable and impressive on the face of it ending with an appeal to continue conflict.
"War then war
Open or understood must be resolv'd
The Theme and Moral Purpose of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
Since all epics of antiquity deal with personalities and events of divine or superhuman
dimensions, it has become a fixed rule that an epic worthy of the name should deal with an action
or story which has universal or even cosmic appeal. The affairs of small people do not interest us
since there is nothing heroes or noble about them at first sight. The Iliad dealt with Gods and
heroes, lovely women and romantic lovers, doughty deeds on the battle-field and heroic
achievements and death.
The Ramayana deals with the heroic virtues of constancy, parental duty, filial love, chivalry,
succouring the oppressed, loyalties and treacheries on a grand scale. In the Mahabharata, we
have the endless complication all springing from the rivalries of brothers for power and
dominion. As the fortunes and misfortunes affect all human beings, all are interested in
following the adventures of such exceptional beings. We see what man is capable of, what man
has to contend with and what man has to suffer as a result of transgressing the rules
of Dharma.From such knowledge we come out chastened and inspired to order our lives more
honorably and nobly.
But the ancient epics dealt with men and events which we know could not have happened as
described. Much of it is pure imagination, much of it is fantastic or incredible and many other
parts are beyond human agencies. They help us to realise that we are surrounded by invisible
powers which can shape us to some extent, and which exert a continuous influence over us for
good and ill. Faith in God and a divine order is thus inculcated, and we do not feel as strangers or
helpless beings in this world. Death is the final end of all mortal men. But before death comes, we
are impelled to do something worthy of our higher natures so that it may remain as an object of
inspiration to all mankind. Thus, epics give us delight, instruction, edification and consolation.
Milton's Subject: Fall of Man
Milton was a profound student of the classics, and from a very early period of his life, he was
seized with the ambition to write an epic poem. But the course of his life was chequered by many
interests, conflicts and crosses which prevented him from taking up the work on which he kept on
brooding. At last he hit upon the subject of the fall of Man as narrated in the Bible as a fit theme
for his epic, and planned and completed his Paradise Lost. The actual story of Adam and Eve, of
their blissful state of innocence in paradise and the manner of their fall from it is very briefly
narrated in the Genesis. Taking it as the kernel of his work, he decided to enrich it in all possible
ways with the resources of his poetical faculties, his wide knowledge, learning and scholarship.

35
Coleridge commenting on the theme of Paradise Lost said: "It represents origin of evil and
the combat of evil and good, it contains matter of deep interest to all mankind, as forming the
basis of all religion and the true occasion of all philosophy whatsoever."
Universal Interest
The fall of man is a subject of universal interest. Unlike other epics of ancient times, he could
treat it in such a way as to ring conviction to the modern mind. But as mythology is a very essential
aspect of all epics, he decided to make use of all his classical lore to embellish and illustrate his
own narrative. As an epic should provide for the free play of all the nova rasas as we call them, he
developed a plot which provided scope for them in ample measure. Biblical history is a part of the
Sematic racial heritage; and the ancient Hebrews had come into contact with the pre-classical
body of knowledge which goes back to a much more ancient past than that of ancient Greece and
Rome. At the same time, according to the Christian religion, all mankind has been cursed as a
result of the disobedience and fall of Man. Also that religion connects it with the coming of Jesus
Christ as the Saviour of mankind from the sin of which Adam and Eve were guilty.
Raleigh remarks: "A prerogative place among the great epics of the world has sometimes been
claimed for Paradise Lost, on the ground that the theme it handles is vaster and of a more
universal human interest than any handled by Milton's predecessor. It concerns itself with the
fortunes not of a city or of an empire but of the whole human race, and with that particular event
in the history of the race which has moulded all its destinies.".
A.C. George states: "We can state the essential theme of Paradise Lost as the sustained
opposition between love and hate, God responds to the destructive challenge of Satan with the
creative expression of love." "Milton has combined two traditional elements - the story of the
challenge and response through an indirect agent. The former theme is the direct physical conflict
of the Celestial Battle, and the latter is Satan's challenge of God-indirectly through God's own
creature man. The second theme arises out of the first."
Another interpretation is that the theme of Paradise Lost is "the Fall of Man" from Paradise
on account of his sin. Here Milton has tried to show that every action of man, however,
insignificant, has its consequences. His principal concern is that man must make the right use of
every moment of life because his actions are irrevocable. Milton's object in this poem was also to
emphasize the role of Christ as the Redeemer of mankind and to justify the ways of God to men.
According to Tillyard, when the passions get the upper-hand chaos ensues, all peace is gone
and man falls from true liberty to moral anarchy. According to F. Kermode,Paradise Lost points
the contrast between the true delight of love and the false delight which leads to sorrow.
The doctrine of Free Will has been insisted on by Milton frequently and emphatically. The
kind of action or state of mind Milton felt desirable was one perfectly controlled by the conscious
will. Any deed, however significant, performed instinctively or without the full significance of the
issue realized, was of little value. Milton has not condemned the element of desire in human
nature but the difference between love that is genuine and passion that is not controlled by reason
has been brought out.
God's Pity on Mankind
As every sin has to be punished so was it the lot of mankind to suffer death although they had
been promised immortality by God. But God himself took pity on mankind after a time, and
resolved to come down in human shape to save men from hell and death. So Christ is represented
as the Son of God, who came on earth and suffered Himself to be crucified, thus taking on himself
the sin of mankind. This is known as the doctrine of vicarious suffering. God as man, suffered
despite being pure and guiltless. By following Christ men were thus giving a chance of regaining

36
their lost Paradise. This is the main topic which Milton has elaborated in his two great epics called
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. The first deals with the entire story of the Universe from
the moment of the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, down to the disobedience of Adam
tempted by Satan.
Two Groups of Angels
To explain how Satan came to be an evil spirit, we have another mythological story of how
there was formerly great war between one group of angels devoted to God and another group of
angels led by Lucifer who wished to overthrow God so that he himself might become the most
supreme of spirits, in the end, Lucifer was defeated and hurled down by God with all his hosts
into a bottomless pit there to suffer for ever. But Lucifer, thereafter called Satan rankled in his
defeat and planned to seek revenge against the Almighty. On hearing that God had created Man
to take the place of the fallen angels, he decided to tempt him and wean him away from God. He
found an opportunity to do so, since God put Adam and Eve in Paradise and gave him the lordship
of all creation with one exception alone. This was that they should not taste of the fruit of the tree
of knowledge which grew in Eden.
Satan seized the opening, and after recognising his shattered hosts and placing them in
suitable dwellings in Hell, came out, and taking the form of a serpent, enteredEden and caused
the fall of both Adam and Eve by persuading Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. With knowledge,
Adam and Eve lost their innocence, and God cursed them not only with the loss of their immorality
and happiness but also drove them out of Eden to wander over the earth and earn their bread by
the sweat of their brow.
Various Episodes
Into this main Biblical story, Milton has woven many episodes, drawn from the entire range
of ancient lore to give his poem both substance, bulk and shape and impressive majesty and
sublimity.
Vastness of the Theme
Critics have admired Milton's courage in dealing with the universal subject. The scene of
action is the universal space; time is represented by eternity. The characters are God and His
creation. The epic deals with the fortunes of the whole human race and not of a particular country
and nation.
The Problem of Evil: The Conflict between Good and Evil
The problem of evil is a very old subject. Philosophers have given different views regarding
the origin of the evil. Some regarded it as something external. Others regarded it as something
eternal. For Satan, evil is the disobedience of the order of God. It is the will of the Man asserting
himself. In fact, Satan brought freedom to Man. He gave consciousness of personality to Man.
Man began to act with free choice and judgement. Now this freedom meant facing the
consequences of one's choice. Adam and Eve have, therefore, to leave paradise because they
followed their own free will. Milton condemned the act of Man. He did not appreciate man's free
will and judgement because he was a very strict Puritan. His stress was on the results of the evil
which led man to his ruin.
Some critics feel that there are two themes which are quite balanced, namely, the Fall of
Angels and Fall of Man. The first half deals with Satan's efforts to do something against God. The
second half is the drama of Adam and Eve.

37
But this cannot be accepted. Milton clearly said that his story dealt with the Fall of Man.
Satan's story is subsidiary to the main story of Adam and Eve.
Milton's Failure to Justify the Ways of God to Man
Some critics believe that the poet instead justifies the ways of Satan to men, he has not
justified the ways of god on the poetic level. Milton has tried to do so through arguments which
are unconvincing.
Moreover, the punishment given to Adam and Eve is out of proportion to their sin of
disobedience. Hanford points out that "the justification of divine ways lies in the representation
of Adam as a free agent and in the revelation of the working of God's Grace which allows to him
and his descendants the opportunity for a new exercise of moral choice and of consequent
salvation even after the Fall... The poet has gone out of his way again and again to insist on the
fact of Adam's freedom…..Neither personally nor as a part of the system did the idea greatly move
or interest him."
Poetic Justice
The theme of the epic is the justification of "God's ways to Man. "Milton justified the
punishment of Adam and Eve for the crime they committed. They are expelled from Paradise.
However, Milton is not a pessimist. He believe in spiritual development fromHope to Faith. God
through His Goodness redeems man from sin. His son namely Christ offers his own sacrifice for
the sake of Adam and Eve. At the end of the Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve feel repentant. They
are punished in Heaven by God through the angel named Michael.
David Daiches states: "Milton's heart was not fully in this sort of justification. Whatever he
might have consciously thought." However, he adds that the true justification lies in the way in
that virtue, can only be achieved by struggle, that the Fall was inevitable because a passive and
ignorant virtue, with the challenge of an imperfect world, cannot release the true potentialities of
human greatness.
Conclusion
Milton's Puritanism and his great faith in the Bible made him choose his subject which was
of interest to all men. His great achievement lies in making such a serious subject which is
agreeable and acceptable to all. In fact, his sublimity (greatness and grandeur) can only be
maintained at high level on a very lofty subject,
Grand Style of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
"The name of Milton", says Raleigh, "is become the mark, not of a biography nor of a theme,
but of a style - the most distinguished in our poetry." In all that he has written he has impressed
his indomitable personality and irrepressible originality. John Milton is not only in every line
of Paradise Lost but in every line of poetry that he has written. As Macaulay has said: "There is
not a square inch of his poetry from first to last of which one could not confidently say." "This is
Milton and no one else." His accent and speech alike in Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost are
his own and in marked contrast to any other English poet.

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Essentials of Miltonic Style

Since style is the expression of personality, we have to find the peculiar quality of Milton's
style in his personality and character. In the first place, Milton's mind was "nourished upon the
best thoughts and finest words of all ages", and that is the language, says Pattison, of one "who
lives in the companionship of the great and the wise of the past." Secondly, Milton was a man of
lofty character, whose "soul was like a star that dwelt apart, and who in all that is known about
him, his life, his character, and his power of poetry, shows something for which the only fit words
is Sublime." Thirdly, Milton was a supreme artist. "Poetry", says Bailey, "has been by far our
greatest artistic achievement, and he (Milton) is by far our greatest poetic artist. Tennyson truly
called him "God gifted organ-voice of England." "To live with Milton," says Bailey, "is necessarily
to learn that the art of poetry is no triviality, no mere amusement, but a high and grave thing, a
thing of the choicest discipline of phrase, the finest craftsmanship of structure, the most nobly
ordered music of sound. So, in Milton's poetic style we inevitably find the imprint of a cultured
mind, a lofty soul and an artistic conscience. "In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm
and diction, he (Milton) is as admirable as Virgil or Dante, and in this respect, he is unique
amongst us. No one else in English literature possess the like distinction.... Shakespeare is divinely
strong, rich and attractive; but sureness, of perfect style Shakespeare himself does not possess.
Milton from one end of Paradise Lost to the other is in his diction and rhythm constantly a great
artist in the great style." (Mathew Arnold). "The study of his verse is one that never exhausts itself,
so that the appreciation of it has been called the last reward of consummate scholarship." Above
all, there is a certain loftiness about the style of Milton, which is found alike in his Ode to
Nativity and in Paradise Lost, and so Bailey says that it is precisely 'majesty' which is the unique
and essential Miltonic quality." Milton achieves this loftiness as much by words as by the sonority,
dignity and weight of the words themselves.
Artistic Perfection
In reply to the observation that Shakespeare never blotted a line, Ben Jonson said, 'would he
had blotted a thousand': No one has ever uttered such a wish with regard to Milton's poetry.
Milton as a poetic artist is never careless or slipshod. There is hardly a line in his poetic work
which is unpoetical - hardly a word which is superfluous. All the words used by him are
deliberately chosen for fulfilling these functions: the exact expression of thought, their power for
suggestion, and the musical effects for the verse. And this artistic perfection characterises his
poetry from his first important poem Ode to Nativity to his last one, Samson Agonistes. Milton
has written all types of poetry - lyric, epic and dramatic - and his style in each reaches the high
water-mark of poetic art.
According to Dr. Pearce, Milton's grand style originates from the formalities of classical
prose. "Prosaic virtues of clarity, order, strict definition, working from line to line, adjusting clause
to clause, word to word, are the real source of that classic "finish" a clear hardness of texture which
everywhere distinguishes the Miltonic line from any other.”
Grand style of "Paradise Lost"
The greatest work of Milton is Paradise Lost, and when we speak of the style of Milton, we
usually think of the majestic style of this great epic. When Wordsworth wrote: "Thou hadst a voice
whose sound was like the sea, "he had in his mind the grand style of Paradise Lost. When
Tennyson spoke of Milton as being the "God-gifted organ-voice of England," he was no doubt
referring to the majestic blank verse of Paradise Lost.

39
Miltonic style of "Paradise Lost"

The style of the epic is always great. On the whole, it is greatest in the whole range of English
poetry. Fullness of sound, weight of march, compactness of finish, fitness of words to things,
fitness of pauses to thought, a strong grasp of the main idea while other ideas play around it,
equality of power over vast spaces of imagination, sustained splendour when he soars.
With plume so strong, so equal and so soft, majesty in the conduct of thought, and a music in
the majesty which fills it with solemn beauty belong one and all to the style; and it gains its highest
influence on us, and fulfills the ultimate need of a grand style in being the easy and necessary
expression of the very character and nature of man. It reveals Milton, as much, sometimes more
than his thought." (Stopford A. Brooke).
Milton's style Paradise Lost is rich and full of splendour; it is replete with numerous
deliberate devices that heighten dignity and govern imaginative and emotional response. Milton's
style is not totally artificial. Inspite of the numerous passages that are thickly inlaid with allusions
and references, inspite of the elevated and heightened character of its style, the basic structure
has an element of plainness. "Plain familiar words, in their natural order, form the bedrock of his
style."
Style in Conformity with Theme
The theme of Paradise Lost is stupendous, "The horizon of Paradise Lost is not narrower
than all space; its chronology not shorter than eternity; the globe of our earth becomes a mere
spot in the physical universe, and that universe itself a drop suspended in the infinite empyrean"
(Pattison). Its characters are God and His creatures, and it concerns itself with the fortunes of the
whole human race. Such a great theme required a great style for adequate presentation.
The style of Paradise Lost fully sees to the height of the theme. It is the solitary instance of
sustained grandeur in English poetry (though Professor Saintsbury has instances of grand style
in Shakespeare). It rises to a lofty place by virtue of the poet's imaginative power, passionate
emotion and moral earnestness. Everything in Paradise Lost is conceived in a mighty way. When
the poet describes Satan, he calls up the picture of the huge Leviathan, whom, "the pilot of some
night-foundered skiff" deemed "some island". The shield of Satan is
Like the moon, whose orb,
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top Fesole
The fallen angels floating on the lake of Hell
Lay entranced
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks:
In Vallombrosa
When they spring upon the wing, they look like a cloud of locusts:
As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day
Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind.
………………………………
So numberless were those bad angels seen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell.

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The solemn and sonorous quality of the verse-music brings out in an abundant measure the
grandeur of the style in Paradise Lost. There is a cunning variety in the rhythm of his verses,
secured by a skilful variation of his pauses, a freedom of movement and an apt use of allusion with
the right type of long and short syllables.
The Poet’s Imagination
The poet's imagination does not submit to any limitation of space and time; the whole history
of the human race and the geography of the entire globe are brought within its compass. When
the poet seeks to convey the idea of the vastness of the multitude of the fallen angels his
imagination goes back to the past, and passes over the entire continent of Europe:
A multitude like which the populous North
Poured never from her frozen loins to pass
Rhene or the Danaw when her barbarous sons
Came like a deluge on the South and spread
Beneath Gibraltor the Lybian sands.
Satan's throne in Pandemonium calls up the vision of the whole of "gorgeous East."
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Onnus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbatic pearl and gold
Satan exalted sat.
"No one," says Raleigh, "has known so well how to portray in a few strokes effects of multitude
and vastness." The warrior host of Hell is thus described:
He spoke; and to confirm his words, outflow
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell.
The ruin and prostration of the rebel angels is made vivid in two lines:
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
with scattered arms and ensigns.
In his descriptions, Milton studies "large decorum and majesty." He is never tempted into
detail, and never loses the whole in the part. This is the description of chaos, and as the king of
Glory, from the verge of his heavenly domain beholds it:
On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss,
Outrageous as a sea, dark wasteful wild
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
There is no minute detail to interfere with the view of the whole.
Milton often uses abstract terms for concrete realities, and by so doing he achieves a
wonderful majesty. He "describes the concrete, the specific, the individual, using general and
abstract terms for the sake of the dignity and scope that they lend." The wind instrument blown
by the heralds in Hell is called "the sounding alchemy." Death is called "the grisly terror."

41
Milton's avoidance of familiar realistic details was necessitated by his lofty theme, which
precluded everything having a mean or vulgar association. He deliberately creates an effect of
vagueness where concrete details would be out of place. This vagueness is created by such phrases
as "the vast abrupt", "the palpable obscure", "the void immense", the "wasteful deep", "where by
the use of an adjective in place of a noun, the danger of a definite and inadequate conception is
avoided." (This practice of Milton, necessary in his great epic, was abused by the poets in the
eighteenth century, and led to artificial poetic diction).
A minor device which Milton again uses effectively is to add the second adjective to an already
modified noun. He speaks of the "upright heart and pure", "a sad task and hard," Here Milton is
following the common usage in the Italian poetry of Dante and Petrarch.
Suggestive and Compact
"Of all English styles," says Raleigh, "Milton's is best entitled to the name of classic." In
Milton's style we have the compactness, force and reserve and the unity of emotional impression,
which are the distinctive characteristics of the true classical style. Milton was a conscientious
artist; he weighed every word he used for its meaning, weight and sound. "He taxes every line to
its fullest capacity, and wring the last drop of value from each word. " "His poetry," says Macaulay,
"acts like an incantation". Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. There
would seem at first sight to be no more in his words than in other words. But they are words of
enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced than the past is present and the distant near.
Change the structure of the sentence, substitute a synonym for another and the whole effect is
destroyed. "Milton is often not satisfied with one meaning from a word, but will make it do double
duty. Words derived from Latin served this double purpose. To the ordinary reader they convey
one meaning and to the scholar they suggest another. This gives a suggestive power to Milton's
language. "The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the extreme remoteness of
the associations by which it acts on the reader. It effect is produced, not so much by what it
expresses, as by what it suggests, not so much by the ideas which it directly conveys by other ideas
which are connected with them. He electrifies the mind through conductors... The works of Milton
cannot be comprehend or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader cooperates with that of the writer.
He does not paint a finished picture, or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches and leaves
other to fill up the outline. He strikes the key-note and expects his hearers to make out the
melody." (Macaulay).
Allusiveness
An essential quality of Milton's poetic style is its allusiveness. He, no doubt pressed to the
service of his poetry all that he observed in life and nature; but his vision was often coloured by
his knowledge. The whole treasury of poetry, ancient and modern, and the whole storehouse of
learning were at his command; and he seemed to assume that they were also at the command of
his readers and so he loaded every rift of his verse with myth and legend, historical, literary, and
scientific fact. Classical and Biblical allusions are most abundant, and are woven into the very
texture of his language. Hence Pattison remarks: "The appreciation of Milton is the last reward of
consummate scholarship. "His scholarly habit of mind is illustrated in the comparison of the army
of Satan to various military assemblage mentioned, in legend and history at the close of Book I
of Paradise Lost
………...for never since created man
Met such embodied force, as named with these

42
Epic Similes
A striking feature of Milton's style in Paradise Lost is his use of epic similes. These go far
beyond the limits of comparison, and are expanded to draw complete pictures. Satan's huge bulk
is compared to the huge Leviathan, who may be mistaken for an island:
Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff.
Milton uses these expanded similes to ennoble his narrative rather than merely to illustrate
it.
By all these devices and many more, "he attained to a finished style of perhaps a more
consistent and unflagging elevationthan is to be found elsewhere in literature... No poet, since
Milton's day has recaptured the solemnity and beauty of the large utterance of Gabriel or Belial or
Satan" (Raleigh). In the epic similes the use of alliteration produces strange musical effects.
Did Milton "Corrupt our Language"?
Dr. Johnson called attention to the peculiarity of Miltonic diction saying that it is so far
removed from common use that an unlearned reader when he first opens the book, finds himself
surprised by a new language "Our language". Addison had said before, "sunk under him." Milton's
is a personal style, which T.S. Eliot points out, is "not based upon common speech or common
prose, or direct communication of meaning. It violates the accepted rules of English grammar and
syntax, so much so that Dr. Johnson said that he "wrote no language". Milton had a preference
for the unusual and recondite in vocabulary and construction, which led him to archaism, on the
one hand, and to the substitution of foreign idiom particularly Latin, for English idiom, on the
other. We have frequent uses of ablative absolute with preposition, irregular pronouns, ellipses,
constructions changed by changes of thought, interchange of parts of speech, transposition and
inventions and unusual compound epithets similar to those in Homer. We also find sentences
with gnarled and involved structure, inversions of the natural order of words and phrases and
grammatical superfluities. These devices impart a classical tone of Milton's style but at the same
time they are out-landish and inconsistent with the normal use of English language.
In general, Milton's style may be described as almost uniquely literary and intellectual. But,
fraught as it is with learning and bookish phrase, and elaborate as it is in construction and alien
in vocabulary, it achieves uniform effect of dignity and becomes a means for expressing the
elevated and intensely passionate personality of its author.
Modern literary critics like Ezra Pound, Herbert Read, Middleton Murry, F.R. Leavis and
above all T.S. Eliot have condemned Milton's style for the following reasons:
(i) Apart from its intrinsic difficulties, it is harmful in its extrinsic effects.
(ii) Modern critics point out the artificiality of the inflated and Latinised diction, idiom and
syntactical structure of Milton's style.
(iii) The fabrication of heavy, inflexible and unnantural speech rhythms.
(iv) The reliance on pompous and meaningless sound.
(v) The baneful influence of his verse, strangled the metaphysical style.
However, there are many critics who defend Milton against these charges. C.S. Lewis
maintains that the essential requirement of an epic style is continuity. Milton produces this
stylistic continuity and in order to do this the idiom and rhythm of normal speech have to be

43
altered. Also that a ritualistic and incantatory effect is inevitable in the best of epic verse.
Moreover, Milton chose blank verse as the medium of his expression, one hitherto unused in the
epic field.
According to Prof. Bush, Milton's style is ideally suited to the sustained narrative of the epic
action. An epic style is narrative, didactic, rhetorical and continuously elevated and directly
exemplary. It cannot become colloquial, witty or intimate without ceasing to be epic. It cannot
have flexible rhythms nor can it modulate the tones without causing disharmony.
All the characteristics of Milton's style may be found in English literature before Milton, but
in Milton they become habitual features of style. Spenser, for instance, uses archaisms much more
persistently than Milton. The use of the Latinisms was common enough in English prose in the
seventeenth century. But no other poet before Milton has resorted to Latinised diction as a means
of removing his speech from the sphere of daily life, and he, therefore, employed style,
corresponding to the dignity of his subject. And this style, which has been called 'grand style', was
something personal to Milton, with his classical training and vast intellectual equipment. This
style was quite suitable for Milton, dealing with a subject 'unattempted in prose and rhyme', but
when the pseudo-classical poets of the eighteenth century employed the devices of Miltonic style,
the result was the artificial poetic diction, which was vehemently condemned by Wordsworth.
Mathew Arnold remarked: "Milton, of all our English race, is by his diction and rhythm the
one artist of the highest rank in the great style whom we have; this I take as requiring no
discussion this I take as certain."
Blending of Renaissance and Reformation in "Paradise

Lost" Book-I
Introduction
Milton's mind was shaped and moulded by the influence of the Renaissance and the
Reformation. On the one hand, he drank deep of classical poetry and philosophy and inherited all
the culture and humanism of the Renaissance, and on the other, he had a deeply religious
temperament, and was a profound student of the Bible and the literature of the scripture. Thus at
the back of Milton's mind there were the best fruits of classical scholarship and Biblical learning.
He was a lover of art and music, and possessed what may be called an all-round culture of the
mind.
Besides, he was full of moral and religious earnestness, and possessed all the piety and devotion
of a true Christian. He was however, free from the intensely narrow outlook of a fierce Purian.
He combined in himself the humanism of the Renaissance with the spiritual fervour of
Puritanism. These two influences moulded all his poetic work. Dr. Johnson complained that his
Lycideas was an inconsistent mixture of pagan and Christian sentiments. The two elements were
no doubt mixed up, but the blending was on the whole harmonious in Lycidas as it was
in Paradise Lost. The great epic, as it stands, could not have been written if the poet had not
been equally influenced by Hellenism and Hebrasim.
Puritan Element in Milton
The very theme of Paradise Lost shows the Puritan or Hebraic element in Milton. The fact
that he chose the Fall of Man as the theme of his great epic shows the Puritan in him. Wars and
adventurous deeds did not interest the Puritan poet.

44
Not sedulous by nature to indite"

War!, hitherto the only argument
Heroic deemed... (Book IX-27-29)
The theme is the most heroic of all great English poems. He based his great work on the story
of the Fall of Man, as given in the Bible. To him this story was not fictitious or legendary, but
literally and historically true. And in telling the story of "Man's first disobedience" he set out to
justify the ways of God to man. Whether he succeeded in his aim or not, the fact remains that his
ultimate design was to show how man fell through disobedience, and how he could regain the lost
Paradise through the grace of God. It was indeed his Puritan character that led him to this theme,
but it gave full scope for the expression of his stupendous genius. Though he has introduced wars
and adventurous deeds into the body of the epic, according to the classical tradition, the central
theme of the poem is disobedience to God's command and the consequent Fall of Man. The
conflict in the epic is not external; it is a spiritual conflict 'Man's first disobedience.' The theme of
the epic, thus, is religious; it is based on the Bible. "Milton's contemporaries had the Bible in their
heads and in their hearts, the modern reader must be at least prepared to have it in his
hand."(Rajan).
Stopford A. Brooke observes: "The form is the epic form of the Greeks and Romans... The
filling up of the form is partly invented and partly derived from Scripture. The character and the
greater part of the action are invented; but the part derived from the Scripture has a theological
system attached to it... This scheme of theology so far as it intrudes, lessens the interest of the
poem... but it does not destroy it. And it is not its presence but its presence in an argumentative
form which is alien to art.. The scheme in itself, is abstract and logical and as such repugnant to
art. One thing which has grandeur... and which broods over all these parts of the poems is the
conception deepest in Puritanism and the source of its power - the overshadowing idea of
sovereignty of God." Milton's Biblical and classical education combined their influence to make
him think of a poet as something more than a versifier, as one whose work was to be justified by
the lesson which the poem inculcated."
According to Grierson in Paradise Lost, Milton's object is not only to "assert Eternal
Providence and justify the ways of God to men," but much more. For the poem contains profound
observations on religion, morality, politics, government, war and peace and the relationship
between man and woman, arts, sciences, explorations and on practically all the important aspects
of life. All are sanctified by 'whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or
grave." "Paradise Lost" based upon classical model
"Yet if the body of the epic is the encyclopaedia and hexametric tradition and its stiffening
sinews, the Bible, the shaping spirit is surely that of the classics" (Rajan). The division of the epic
into twelve books, the relieving similes, the councils, the heroic catalogues and the heavenly
messengers, are only some of the technical devices that show Milton's indebtedness to the classics.
The form of the epic and treatment of the religious theme are entirely in classical tradition.
Milton had declared that he would write an epic in the style of Homer, and every element in the
form of Paradise Lost is in the classical style. We have in Paradise Lost all the ingredients of the
classical epic-invocation to the Muse, plunging into the very middle of the action, description of
war, gradual development of action leading up to the climax - viz, plucking the fruit of the
forbidden trees, resulting in the Fall of Man, and then the resolution of the conflict ending in
Man's loss of Paradise. Thus the plan and design of Paradise Lost follows meticulously the
classical models of homer and Virgil.
In telling the story of the Fall of Man, Milton fully expresses the spirit of the Renaissance.
One of the fundamental attributes of Milton's character was his love of freedom and spirit of
independence. In the story of Adam there was the conflict between pre-destination and free will.

45
Without entering into theological controversy we may say that Milton was all for freedom, and
pointed out how Adam plucked the fruit out of his free will (induced no doubt by Eve), though he
had been commanded by God not to do so. And as a result of disobedience he fell under the wrath
of Gold. "The moral thesis of Genesis is submission to the Almighty, which makes out
disobedience to be sinful. But Milton, who wished to emphasize this moral, had an independent
spirit and had lived independently. He had acclaimed and advocated the rebellion against the
prelates and even the king, and celebrated the glories of regicide. In spite of himself, he was in
deep sympathy with Satan, the great rebel of Heaven and the enemy of God. The pride and
indomitable courage of the rebel angel rekindled the emotion of the intensest hours of his life.
Devoutly but mechanically he paid lip service to the duty of obedience, but in his heart he was
chanting a hymn to freedom and rebellion." (Legouis). This spirit of rebellion is embodied in the
character of Satan, and it is in Satan that Milton put most of himself, his pride and temperament.
In Paradise Lost we have a combination which is absolutely unique in the literature of the
time; a poem which has all the deep spiritual fervour of Puritanism, decorated and diversified by
every ornament and beauty which could possibly be borrowed from classical literature and
mythology. The reader will feel a sense of confusion arise at times from the strange mixture of
Christian and pagan ideas. It is essentially the Hell of the ancient Greeks and Romans which
Milton describes where the river of Lathe, Cocytus and Styx flow, and it is the Greek Fury, named
Medusa who guards the fort. The dreadful figures of Sin and Death are modelled on ancient
classical monsters, while Chaos is surrounded by the classical figure of Ades, Orcus and
Demogorgon. This makes us wonder what Milton really did believe in, but the fact is that the
Christian Bible does not supply a clear picture of Hell and is not very definite as regards the
geography or population of the lower region. On the other hand, the classical conception was
clear-cut, vivid and pictorial and hence Milton did not hesitate to draw boldly from it so that the
nakedness and deficiencies of the Puritan conception would be well hidden under gaudy pagan
robes.
Impact of Classical Scholarship in
the Style of "Paradise Lost"
In the style of Paradise Lost again, we find the unmistakable impress of classical scholarship.
His use of similes, "his use of history and geography, his knowledge of the ancient and modern
literature, his love of art and music, his culture and refinement-all point to the influence of the
Renaissance and Hellenism on his receptive mind. There is no poetic work so stupendous in its
scope, so sublime in its style and moral outlook, that can be compared with Milton's Paradise
Lost. Truly did Dryden write:
Three poets in three distant ages born Greece, Italy and England did adorn;
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed.
The second in majesty; in both the last.
"A typical Renaissance figure Milton was impregnated with the classics but he equally drew
his inspiration from the Bible and from Hebrew lore. His epic shows his familiarity with the
literature, history and the lore of medieval and Renaissance Europe. He understood the technique
of music, architecture, engineering, soldiering, astronomy and uses illustration from all of these
to add majesty and variety to his work.
One of the most significant features of the use he makes of his erudition in the manner in
which he adapts classical lore to his Christian purpose and mingles reference to the classicals with
the use of the Bible and Herbrew mythology, i.e.,

46
(1) He is inspired by a 'Muse' (classical) but the Muse is 'heavenly', the one which inspired
Moses: he combines his appeal to the Muse for help with connected appeal to the
New Testament of Holy spirit.
(2) His Hell is the Gehenna of the Jews but at the same time the Hades of the Greeks.
(3) His devils will be the Gods of Paganism (Palestinian, Egyptian, Greek), and in the
remarkable 'naming' section he offers us a full display of his learning in the various
mythologies.
(4) God-like Zeus - uses thunder and is the Thunderer.
(5) Sin and Death are allegorical figures from Milton's Christian imagination, but the
description of Sin's birth is adapted from the classical accounts of the birth of Pallas
Athene, while the revolting description of Sin herself is modelled on the account given of
Scylla by Ovid and Virgil.
(6) The description of the position in space of the Earth's Universe-hanging by a golden
chain from Heaven - is taken from Homer's story of the golden chain of Zeus, etc.
Conclusion
Paradise Lost is great by reason of its vast imaginative range, and its deep moral earnestness.
It was the influence of the Renaissance, with spirit of humanism and classicism, that gave to the
poem its epic form and its imaginative grandeur; while its subject-matter and its moral
earnestness are due to the influence of the Reformation with its spirit of Hebraism.
Elements of Sublimity in "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
Sublimity is the only word that can truly characterise Milton's poetry. The constitutional
sublimity of Paradise Lost is the grandest feature of the poem. Here Immensity communes with
Infinity. It overwhelms us by the vastness of its conception. It transcends our imagination and
experience. The subject-matter of this superhuman drama is the fate of man. The time is Eternity,
the space is Infinity, and the actors are God, the Angels and the primitive parents of mankind. The
poetry of Milton has the roaring of the ocean in it. Other poets have given us more beauty, more
philosophy, and more romance but none has given us such sublime things as Milton.
Sublimity is the most distinguishing characteristic of Milton's poetry. Sublimity is the

capacity to enlarge the imagination of the reader. Milton has surpassed both the ancient and
modern poets in this respect. As John Dennis puts it "Where he has excelled all other poets, is in
what he has expressed, which is the surest, and noblest mark the most transporting effect of
sublimity."
Sublime Theme
The sublimity of Paradise Lost is constituted both by its theme and poetic style. The great
epic deals with cosmic theme. It presents the fall of the rebel angels, the creation of man and the
earth, man's disobedience of God's command and his consequent expulsion from earthy Paradise.
It is a great theme, and perhaps no other epic of the world, whether ancient or modern has dealt

47
with a theme equally great. Discussing the vast scope of Paradise Lost, Mr. F.E. Hutchinson says:
"It ranges over all time and space and even beyond them both. It depicts Heaven and Earth and
chaos, the imagined utterances of superhuman beings, events, before the emergence of man upon
earth, the history of man from the creation and by prophecy, to the end of time, and his eternal
destiny... Not all the mountain of theological speculation in the Christian centuries built upon a
single chapter of Genesis is comparable with Milton's structure, heaven-high and hell-deep."
In Paradise Lost, Milton has brought a fine fusion of sublime thought and sublime
expression; which has unobstrusively elevated the subject-matter of the poem. One finds lines of
pure poetry which holds one spell bound by their loveliness. Dr. Johnson remarked on Milton's
sublime theme and style." Milton considered creation in its whole extent, and his descriptions are
therefore learned. He had accustomed his imagination to unrestrained indulgence, and his
conceptions, therefore, were extensive. The charcteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. He
sometimes descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occasionally invest himself
with grace; but his natural part is gigantic loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required; but
it is his peculiar power to astonish".
Extra-Ordinary Characters
The characters of Milton's epic are no ordinary beings. They are God and His faithful angels,
Satan and his followers and Adam and Eve. Human mind reels to think of the great number of
angels who are actors in the vast drama of man's origin. Satan's followers form only a portion of
the population of Heaven. But even they are countless, at least so far as human reckoning is
concerned. The muster of devil in Hell surpasses all gatherings of men in human history.
In Book-I of Paradise Lost, we only come across Satan and the fallen angels. Milton has
thrown around Satan a singularity of daring, a grandeur of sufferance and a ruined splendour
which constitute the very height of poetic sublimity. The fallen angels are thus and otherwise made
lofty and indefinable in person and power, thought and feeling, movement and demeanour. "Their
deliberations are a ceremonial, their diversions a spectacle or adventure, their solace the pleasing
sorcery of philosophy or a sublime concord of harp and voice" (Elmer Edgar Stoll).
Man's Creation against the Background of Entire Space
This great story of man's creation and fall is presented against the background of entire space,
and of regions which transcend space, The scenes of Paradise Lost lie in Heaven. Hell and Earth.
Satan, while searching for the Earth traverses almost the entire space. Heaven, Hell and Earth
combined, form a space of action which is as vast as Creation itself.
Sublime Poetic Style
The next factor which contributes to the sublimity of Milton's epic is the grandeur of his verse.
In Paradise Lost Milton's blank verse reaches its perfection. He makes his first serious attempt
with blank verse in Comus. In it he shows a tendency to fall back on the single-moulded line of
Marlowe, accurately constructed in itself and correctly accumulated but not jointed, and
continued and twined into a contrasted pattern of various but homogeneous design. "Yet even
here the power of his own genius for verse, and his matchless daring in experiment, introduced
variety. And when, some twenty years after, he perhaps began and some thirty years after
definitely set to work on and completed Paradise Lost, he had become an absolute master of the
blank verse line, single and combined." Milton's stately blank verse in Paradise Lost is in full
accord with the grandeur of his epic's theme. Both the form and the subject-matter of the poem
combine to make it a great epic. Dryden ascribed loftiness of mind to Homer, and "mygesty" to
Virgil, and a combination of the two to Milton. The story goes that when Paradise Lost was
published, the Earl of Dorset sent copy of it to Dryden, who in a short time returned it with the

48
comment: "This man cuts us all out and the Ancients too. In sublimity of thought and majesty of
expression both sustained at almost superhuman pitch, Milton has no superior, and no rival
except Dante. "His subject may attract to repel: his temper may be repellent and can hardly be
very attractive though it may have its admirers. But the magnificence of his poetical command of
the language in which he writes has only to be perceived in order to carry all before it.
Milton's greatness lies in expressing even the inexpressible in the most convincing and the
most impressive terms. "Nature," as Dr. Johnson says "had bestowed upon him the power of
displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy and the
aggravating the dreadful. "The chief characteristics of the Miltonic sublime style are the avoidance
of the uncommon place both in word and phrase and a preference for the common (e.g. archaism
or Latinism) in each, full play of imagination, suggestiveness, conciseness, loftiness of tone, and
free use of the author's learning. Its total effect is that of a mighty utterance, issuing forth from
the lips of a (as Tennyson put it) "mighty- mouthed inventor of harmonies."
Autobiographical Element in "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction
Paradise Lost is an epic, and an epic is a work of objective art. As such, there is hardly any
scope for the poet to express himself in an epic poem. But Milton was a self-centred individual
and so, in spite of the fact that he was writing an epic, his personality expressed itself all through
the poem. In fact, he revealed himself in all his works, whether he was writing an ode or an elegy
or an epic, or a masque or a drama.Paradise Lost is Milton's greatest work, and as Coleridge
rightly points out: "John Milton is in every line of Paradise Lost. "The contrast between Milton
and Shakespeare is most striking in this respect, but Shakespeare, as a dramatist, was compelled
to remain absolutely impersonal in his plays.
The whole poem is coloured by the personality of Milton. "Milton is in truth the only living
being who exists in his own works"–Legouis. "He projects himself, his feelings, knowledge and
aspiration into the characters of his epic, both the primitive human creatures and the superhuman
beings, whether celestial or infernal."
Self-revelation in "Paradise Lost"
When we turn to a great epic poem like Paradise Lost, however, we demand that the
treatment should be just as impersonal as that of the drama. Yet, even here, we find that the whole
poem is coloured by the personality of Milton; we see Milton, the Puritan, Milton, the classical
scholar, Milton, the hater of autocratic government and kingship, Milton, the despiser of women.
Throughout the poem some passages stand out among the remaining ones not because they
particularly aid the story but because they form part of the spiritual autobiography of the poet. It
is unlikely that they crept in unconsciously, for their anticipations occur in his earlier utterances
in prose or verse. His tirades against the corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church, his poor
opinion of women, his condemnation of the rosy path of dalliance with particular reference to
courtly revelries, and his poignant references to his blindness and solitude.
Milton, the Champion of Popular Liberty
Milton was never a man of half-views or luke-warm loyalties; he was a great lover or a great
hater. From the very beginning we see that he was particularly independent in character, and

49
could not fit himself into the discipline of an old established University. Whatever savoured to
him of oppression in civil life or in religion was to his dislike. In his own way he was as determined
a rebel against constituted authority and as ardent an apostle of liberty as Byron or Shelley. This,
unconsciously, he puts into the mouth of Satan, who incongruous though it may appear, reflects
a great deal of the ideals and aspirations of Milton. It is in the passage where Satan speaks of the
joy of independence, and of the hatred which he bears to the tyranny of Heaven's Ruler, that he
reaches the most commanding heights of noble eloquence. The reason for this is obvious, for
Milton was the great champion of popular liberty in his own day, and gave up the best years of his
life, as well as his eyesight, to the cause of England's fight against oppression. Hence, Milton
cannot help imparting to Satan some of his own sentiments and putting him in the position of the
champion of liberty against autocratic rulers. The very idea of kingship had become hateful to
Milton.
Thus, Satan is a projection of Milton's own self. The greatest character of Paradise Lost, is a
projection of Milton's own self. Satan embodies Milton's courage, love of freedom, republicanism
and hatred of tyranny. Just as Milton opposed the autocracy of King Charles I and became a stern
republican, so also Satan defied the authority of God and rebelled against Him. Again, the defeat
of the republican's cause, with which Milton identified himself did not and could not curb his
spirit so also the defeat of Satan could not damp his unconquerable spirit of defiance. It seems
Milton himself speaks when Satan says:
What though the field be lost
All is not lost; the unconquerable will
And courage never to submit or yield.
… … …. …..
The wonderful eloquence of the council in Hell is an echo from a period of passionate
parliamentary life. It cannot be denied that "the debate in Hell would have been lacking in power
and verisimilitude if the poet had not lived through the period of the long parliament." Moreover,
the war in heaven is the civil war of England, characterized by bitterness of feeling and language
peculiar to internal broils.
Milton's Self in Adam
Another part of Milton's self is exhibited in Adam, who is pious, God-fearing and grave, but
susceptible to feminine charm. Through Adam, Milton expresses his feelings towards woman.
Adam expresses a bitter cry wrung from Milton by the unforgotten miseries of his first marriage.
The scene of reconciliation between Adam and Eve is reminiscent of a similar scene between
Milton and his first wife.
Style Bears Stamp of Milton's Mind
The style of Paradise Lost bears upon it the unmistakable stamp of Milton's mind. The blank
verse of Paradise Lost is something unique in English language. It is the verse of a great poet and
a great musical artist. On the one hand, it soars high into the lofty region of imagination and on
the other, it possesses a grand music, not to be met with elsewhere in English poetry. His
achievements in constructing his new blank verse are unique indeed. He made his verse perfectly
suited to his lofty subject-matter. There is no where anything loose or slovenly in his verse. Milton
is the greatest and the most conscientious artist in English poetry, every word, every syllable, is
weighed in the scales of his artistic judgement and carries maximum weight of meaning and
music. Macaulay rightly pointed out that the words used by Milton not only had a weight of
meaning as they stood but suggested something more to the mind of a scholar.

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The Biblical and classical allusions which abound in Paradise Lost indicate the scholarship
and learning of Milton. The style of Milton, unique in itself, has all the stamp of Milton's
personality. The word "Miltonic" has acquired a special significance, and is now synonymous with
"sublime". It is not only the theme of the poem that lifts the reader to a lofty moral plane, but its
style also reaches the highest watermark of grand style in English poetry. Milton's constant use of
Latinism in his construction and phraseology is not merely a device to impart grandeur to his
style, but it is a necessary mode of his self-expression. Though such Latinisms are alien to the
genius of English language, they are a part of Milton's intellectual equipment, and come naturally
to a man, whose mind was nourished on the classics as Milton's was.
Unconscious symbolism in "Paradise Lost"

The Cavaliers and High Church party were described as Philistines, Moabites, and Hitties,
who were indulging in persecution of God's chosen people. Milton unconsciously adopts some of
this attitude of Paradise Lost. He gives a list of all the heathen gods, and the tribes who
worshipped them, and identifies the angels who fell from heaven with these gods. This leads him
into a detailed account of many of the episodes in the history of the Israelites, and one cannot help
feeling that Milton is continually thinking of his own party when he talks about God's chosen
people, and of his opponents in politics, church, and the ideal worshippers.
The whole of Paradise Lost is full of autobiographical passages. "His high seriousness, his
proud and resolute will, his grave sadness at the folly of mankind are interwoven in the whole of
his story". We hear Milton's voice in Satan's cry:
Doing or suffering.
And when Adam cries-
Solitude sometimes is best society,
it seems as if the blind Milton, who, worn out by twenty years of contending voices longs for the
relief of silent and lonely thought.
Conclusion
Both the theme and the style of Paradise Lost are expressions of Milton's personality, his
thought, his learning, and his moral, political and religious outlook. The theme of 'Paradise Lost'
- The Fall of Man - is based on the Bible, and it gives an opportunity to the poet to express his
religious sentiment. The figure of Satan is partly an embodiment of Milton's own spirit of freedom,
republicanism and stern determination and courage in the teeth of adversity. Satan becomes so
heroic and interesting because he posseses in the beginning all the emotional power and sympathy
of the poet.
Apart from the revelation of Milton through the characters of Satan and Adam, there are
occasional references in Paradise Lost to Milton's blindness. Milton had become totally blind
when he wrote Paradise Lost and had fallen upon evil days. The lines describing his misfortune
are full of pathos, because they come from the very heart of Milton. Thus the poem is full of
passages that recall the life of the poet. The most pathetic and perhaps the most universally
admired passages are those where Milton speaks in his own person.
Though it is very difficult to depict the 'personal' in epic. Milton has managed to reflect his
personality in his epic, specially in the character of Satan. And in doing so he has made Satan,
almost a hero. But the nature of the work has enabled him to introduce the personal element
without letting his work degenerate into subjectiveness.

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What epic conventions does Milton follow in writing of

his 'Paradise Lost'? Elucidate. (P.U 2008)
“Epic” is the name given to narrative poetry which deals, in dignified and elevated style,
with some important action, usually heroic. (An epic is a narrative poem, of considerable length,
of exalted style, celebrating heroic adventures, mythical or historical). The great examples of
classical epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, which are unmatched in any other
language.
In Latin, the Aenied by the ancient poet, Virgil, is almost equally famous. The Iliad, a poem in
twenty-four books, has as its central theme the wrath of Achilles. The Odyssey, also a poem in
twenty-four books, deals with the adventures of Odysseus. Aeneid is a poem in twelve books: it
is a national epic, designed to celebrate the origin and growth of the Roman empire, the ground-
work of the poem being the legends connected with Aeneas.
Paradise Lost can properly be classed among epic poems. It is undoubtedly one of the highest
efforts of poetical genius and, in one great characteristic, majesty and sublimity, it is fully equal
to any known epic poem, ancient or modern. It has the Graeco-Roman form of the epic which
follows ancient models. Its aspect, its divisions, and its style are those of the Iliad or the Aeneid.
It depicts a unique event, which is the fall of man. The subject is derived from the Old Testament
and it is astonishing how, from the few hints given in the scripture, Milton was able to raise so
complete and regular a structure. The subject is one for which Milton alone was fitted and, in the
conduct of it, he has shown a stretch both of imagination and invention, which is perfectly
wonderful. Besides, the nature of this theme is such as to give the poem a universal character.
Following the classical precedent of Homer and Virgil, Milton indicates the theme of his poem
at the very outset:
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden,…..
The subject thus is the transgression committed by Adam and Eve in eating the fruit of the
forbidden tree and their subsequent expulsion from Paradise. Curiously enough, Milton makes
no mention in his opening statement of Satan’s first disobedience, of the generation of Sin and
Death, or of Hell’s infernal plot, all of which occupy the first three Books.
The characters in a classical or traditional epic are generally portrayed as men of heroic
proportions, because only such characters can stir our imagination and rouse our sympathies. Not
only the hero, but also his associates, are expected to show heroic powers and capacities. In Book
I Satan is undoubtedly cast in a heroic mould. His vast Leviathan-like dimensions, his huge shield
and spear, his supreme self-confidence and the courage never to yield or submit, his unwavering
resolve, his sympathy for his fallen comrades are all heroic qualities. (That does not, of course,
entitle him to be called the hero of Paradise Lost or even of Book I).
Then there are the epic or Homeric similes of which we have quite a number in Book I. Milton
follows the practice of Homer, Virgil, Statius, Lucan, Spenser, Tasso, and others in introducing
similes of this kind, and even borrows in some cases similes already employed by his epic
predecessors. Where he is original in employing a simile, the materials of his comparison may be
derived from a simple observation of Nature, from myth and legend, from history, from travel,

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etc. Superficially the essence of the long-tailed or epic simile is that it develops a comparison at
such a length that it seems to become ultimately almost independent of its point of departure. If
this impression of an independent, self-contained picture were not given, the device would be
pointless. At the same time, at the heart or centre of the simile there must be some point of exact
resemblance to the first term of the comparison. The first epic simile employed by Milton in Book
I is the comparison of Satan’s huge bulk with the sea-beast, Leviathan. This comparison,
elaborated in seven lines, while dominantly concerned with size, produces also other impressions
such as trickery, the falseness of appearances, the lack of caution on the part of man when close
to danger, all of which are associated with Satan and will be amplified later in Paradise Lost.
(Subsequently Eve is deceived by the Serpent, even as a sailor might be deceived by Leviathan).
The use of epic similes and invocations has been objected to by some critics on the grounds
of strict relevance. But, in reply to this, it may be pointed out that though the invocations and
some of the similes have a very limited relevance, none of them seems undesirable or unwanted.
Dr. Johnson regarded the invocations as superfluities but he also said: “Superfluities so beautiful
who would take away?” The same defence can be put forward in the case of similes. Almost all of
these similes are so rich and so highly imaginative that one cannot accept the criticism sometimes
made of them, namely that, though a traditional part of the epic, they are part of a poor tradition.
Finally, Milton followed the epic convention of writing his poem in a style that is truly
elevated. In speaking of the style of Paradise Lost, it is difficult to use temperate language.
Paradise Lost is a “divine” epic. Accordingly Milton strove for the untrammelled expression of the
imaginative development of his inspiration, and therefore rejected “the troublesome and modern
bondage of riming”. And Milton used blank verse in a manner that lent distinction to this form of
writing. “No one,” says a critic, “has ever attuned our language to such mighty harmonies
as Milton.” The chief characteristic of Paradise Lost may be summed up in the word “sublimity”.
The poet’s imagination is lofty, and his style grand, majestic, and sonorous. The meaning of the
words, the syntax, the division of sentences, and the use of ablative absolute, constantly remind
the scholarly reader of classical authors. The periodic style and the unrhymed line with its beauty
dependent only on its cadence and its inversions, have a severe solemnity, an unbending energy.
As examples of Milton’s grand style, one may refer to the following passages in Book I: (1) the
opening sentence which is an example of a “suspended” passage;
(2) the first sentence of Satan’s first speech to Beelzebub, also an example of “suspension”; (3)
Satan’s speech on surveying the infernal regions; and (4) the description of Satan’s shield and
spear.
Dryden, in spite of his sense of Milton’s greatness, declared that Paradise Lost was no “true epic”.
He said that the poem did not have war as its chief subject and was therefore not heroic enough,
that it ended unhappily while a true epic had a happy ending, and that, unlike the traditional epics,
it had only two human characters, the others being “heavenly machines”. Addison made a suitable
reply to these objections but even he did not claim that Milton’s poem was wholly regular. In fact
Addison pointed out some defects in the poem. The fable, according to him, is defective, being
that of tragedy rather than of epic. Some of the incidents have not “probability enough for an epic
poem.” The digressions and the allusions of heathen fables in a Christian poem “sin against the
canon of unity”. To other critics even these reservations were unacceptable. They said that Milton
was not to be judged by the neo-classical code. He had invented a new type of poem, the divine
epic, superior to anything in antiquity.

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"Milton used and recreated, in strongly functional ways

the standard conventions of the epic." Discuss and
illustrate from Paradise Lost Book-I.
A Christian Epic: In Paradise Lost Milton has created a Christian epic on classical lines. As an
epic, it involves the basic conventions of the classical epic. But these conventions and devices are
given new meaning by Milton within the scope of Christian theology.
As such the supernatural machinery, the roll-call and council of leaders, the plunge into the
middle of the subject, and the unfolding of the future events are epic devices not just used
by Milton; these devices are recreated in a functional way - to give point or illustrate and
elaborate the Christian theme. The revolt of the angels, thus, has echoes of the wars of giants and
the Titans of classical mythology. The entirety of action and vastness of scope demanded by
classical epic convention is fulfilled by Paradise Lost - it encompasses the universe as conceived by
Christian theology. Its action "contrived in Hell, executed upon Earth, and punished in Heaven."
How epic convention are adapted: Milton begins with the classical convention of invocation
to the Muse. But the appeal, though classical in form, is really addressed to the Holy Spirit for divine
inspiration. Milton's Muse does not dwell on Mount Olympus. The significance of the epic convention
here lies in Milton's choice of the power to be addressed. Indeed, he uses the classical poetic device
to speak for the superiority of the Heavenly.
Muse, for she will inspire him to poetic heights greater than the Aonian Mount which represents
classical poetry. Milton's Muse inspired Moses on Sinai and on Oreb; thus, Milton associates himself
with Moses as a shepherd-prophet-poet. Furthermore, the invocation in Milton's case is not mere
form: it is the expression of an actual feeling in Milton that he was divinely inspired in his task of
justifying the ways of God to men. Milton goes beyond invoking the Heavenly Muse; he emphasises
the creative aspect of his Muse. After the invocation comes the statement of the epic's subject in true
classical style.
Subtle use of similes: A prominent convention of the classical epic is the use of similes,
especially the elaborate and extended type. There is no dearth of similes - simple and "long tailed"
in Paradise Lost Book I. But the similes convey more than mere comparison; they reinforce Milton's
religious intention. The first epic simile which compares Satan's huge bulk with "Leviathan" goes into
seven lines. On the superficial level, it conveys the sense of great size; but it conveys also the
impression of trickery, falseness of appearance, the lack of caution on the part of man when close to
danger. These impression are associated with Satan-they will be elaborated later in the epic when
Eve is deceived by the serpent just as the unwary sailor may be deceived by Leviathan.
A series of similes are employed by Milton to indicate the huge number of Satan's followers. The
fallen angels lie "thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa". The term" autumnal
leaves conveys the diminished glory of the angels. The simile produces the effect of the confusion in
which they lie. Next, they are compared to masses of seaweed floating on the Red Sea; again the simile
conveys the sense of confusion. When they are compared to the locusts called up by Moses, not
merely is their vast numbers suggested, but also the evil and destruction associated with locusts. The
comparison with the barbarians who decended upon and destroyed the ancient Roman civilization
reinforces the image of evil. The simile of the sun in eclipse once again suggests evil, for eclipses were
considered to portend disaster.
Milton borrows some similes from classical sources and adapts them to his own use. Homer and
Virgil often used comparisons of trees to indicate the stature or the fall of herties. Milton uses the

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striking similes of forest oaks or mountains pines struck by lightning to convey the withered glory of
the fallen angels. Another borrowed simile is that of the swarm of bees in spring time. Milton adapts
it specially to suit the situation of the fallen angels. It not only suggests the rustling murmur of a large
crowd, but also their having come to discuss "state affairs". It is to be noticed that the simile
emphasizes not the industry of the fallen angels, but rather the "mass-insect" quality.
The long roll-call of the devils is another use of an epic convention. But Milton associates the
devils with pagan deities at once suggesting something hateful to the Puritan reader. The description
of Pandemonium as the golden "straw-built citadel" shows the impermanence of the gold from which
Pandemonium has been built. By the end of Book-I, the fallen angels have been reduced to being
compared with dwarfs and pygmies and faeryelves-all associated with evil and wickedness.
Speeches of Satan are also modelled on epic conventions. But they have a hollow sound of
vainglory.
Conclusion: In Paradise Lost familiar features of the epic such as war, perilous journeys,
marvellous buildings, similes and allusions are to be found in abundance. But these are so
transformed that their significance and even their aesthetic appeal are new as C.M. Bowra remarks.
The similes are often taken from the Orient, the Near and far East. As B.A. Wright points out, "for
Milton and his contemporaries the East was the home of depotism, the scene of wordly pride, and
ambition, of barbaric luxury, cruelty and lust, of idolatry and dark-superstition." Thus the epic
conventions used by Milton often have ironic undertones. He has adapted them to his own purpose.
"In writing Paradise Lost, Milton was of the Devil's party

without knowing it." Comment on the view, keeping in
mind the first Book of the poem.
It was William Blake who observed that Milton belonged to the Devil's party
without knowing it. The remark implies that Milton unconsciously glorified Satan,
especially in Book-I of Paradise Lost. This point of view is typical of the Romantic
spirit, and it makes Satan the real hero of Paradise Lost. The Romantics admired
indomitable courage and love of freedom, both of which Satan shows in plenty of
Book-I of Paradise Lost. However, one cannot admire these qualities as good in
themselves, ignoring the moral values connected with them in the context of the
poem.
Satan certainly possesses heroic qualities in Paradise Lost, but, if Milton

glorified him, it is done consciously. But knowingly or unknowingly, Milton is never
on the side of the Devil. Satan was required to be made of heroic dimensions to make
him a fitting adversary of God and to impress on the reader the dangerous potential
of evil. Furthermore, if Satan had been of less than ordinary stature, the deception of
the Mother of Mankind would lose its effectiveness. Above all, Milton was writing a
special kind of epic - an epic of cosmic proportions which required its characters to be
impressive.

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Satan cannot, however, be regarded as the "hero" of the poem merely because he
is cast in the heroic mould. The courage, the determination, the philosophical
statements, the love of freedom, all these qualities lose their value when the intention
behind them becomes clear - and it is clear not merely in Milton's commentaries but
in Satan's very speeches. One should not be deceived by the dazzling flourishes of
Satan's rhetoric. Milton's presentation of Satan is in no way at variance with his
commentary. Satan comes out in all his vain egotism, falsehood and evil. His courage
and indomitable will are directed towards evil -"our labour must be to pervert that
end and out of good still to find means of evil." Satan is the negation of good. He is
the perversion of an angelic nature. While this perversion is increasingly evident in
the later Books of Paradise Lost, it is also very much there in Book-I. He intends the
war against God to be conducted by guile, anticipating the sly and sneaky manner in
which he enters the Garden of Eden to harm two beings who have done him no harm.
The grandeur that Milton bestows on Satan is the fulfillment of an artistic
requirement. But a villain is a villain however powerful he is portrayed. Even from
Book-I of Paradise Lost Satan appears as the father of lies, an arch-fiend, an apostate
angel, an archangel ruined. He would have been a tragic hero if he had opposed forces
of evil, but ironically he is himself the author of evil. The great qualities of Satan are
made futile because of his inner corruption. As B.A. Wright points out, Satan is the
enemy of God and man. He must be seen as a towering genius, but we cannot forget
that his genius is Satanic. "All his virtue are in fact corrupted by his situation and by
the uses to which he puts his power." When we read Satan's speeches and understand
their implication, we cannot endorse the opinion that Milton belonged to the Devil's
party, knowingly or unknowingly. We do not feel that the poet's commentaries are at
variance with the presentation of Satan. We realize that if Milton has "glorified"
Satan it is to make all the more poignant the idea that mere appearance is not enough
and that one should not be deceived by the dazzle in which evil clothes itself.
The Rise of Puritanism in the Age of Milton

The Importance of the Age
The Age of Milton, the age in which the great poet matured and created, covers roughly the
first seventy years or so of the 17th century. Thus in a way Milton is the connecting link between
the glorious age of Queen Elizabeth, the Puritan age which followed, and the Restoration Age. It
was an age of disillusionment, of increasing gloom and pessimism, and this melancholy and gloom
of the age colours the literature of the period. In order to appreciate the spirit of Milton’s works it
is essential to form an idea of his age.
Puritanism: Its Nature

It was during this period that Puritanism emerged as the great controlling, moral and social
force. Let us here first consider what we exactly mean by Puritanism and then proceed to examine
the political, social and religious causes that gave rise to it, and its impact on the literature of the
period.

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In the broadest sense Puritanism may be regarded as the renaissance of the moral sense of
man. The Grecio-Roman renaissance of 15th and 16th centuries was largely pagan and sensuous.
It did not touch the moral nature of man, it did nothing for his religious, political and social
emancipation. The Puritan movement, on the other hand, was the greatest movement for moral
and political reform. Its aims were (1) religious liberty i.e., that men should be free to worship
according to their conscience, and (2) they should enjoy full civil liberty. The Puritans wanted to
make men honest and to make them free. They insisted on the purity of life.
In matters of religion the Puritans were fanatics. They were extremists. There had been
Puritans even during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They did not accept the Anglican Church,
which was essentially a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism. They considered its
creeds and public worship as too much like Popery. They advocated Church reform. Moreover,
they had very strict view about life and conduct. They laid down very austere ideals of life. They
were against common pleasures, even innocent ones, like drama, considered singing and dancing
as immoral, and hence in the beginning the term‘Puritan’ was a term of contempt applied to such
extremists. We find frequent satirical references to them in the plays of Shakespeare. The general
tendency of the Puritan was antisocial. “Beauty in his eyes was a snare and pleasure a sin; the only
mode of social intercourse which he approved was a sermon.” As Macaulay puts it, he hated bear-
baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectator. The
Puritans thus stood for (1) Church reform, (2) for the reform of social life according to their
austere ideals, (3) for the ideal of liberty, both religious and political—man should be free to
worship according to his own conscience unhampered by the state.
Causes of Its Rise:
(a) Political
The wise, moderate policies of Queen Elizabeth had appealed to all sections of society and
Puritanism could not make much headway. But conditions changed with the coming of James I
to the throne; the wise Elizabethan compromise soon broke down. A number of causes led to
widespread discontent and the emergence of the Puritans as a strong national force. First,there
was the theory of the divine right of kings, the theory that the king could do no wrong. James I
had exalted ideals of kingship and aimed at despotic powers, but he was not fitted to play the role
of flawless divinity. He was ill-mannered, grotesque, and tactless in appearance, and soon made
the English Court the laughing stock of Europe. This divine right theory was not palatable to the
English people, it smacked of tyranny and shocked the innate English love of independence.
Puritans regarded it as a direct attack upon their personal and political liberty.
(b) Immorality and Corruption
Secondly, the immorality and profligacy of the king and his courtiers also fed the flames of
discontent. The corruption in high places did much to alienate the sympathies of the common
man, and greatly strengthened the moral and social influence of the Puritans, who despised the
Court, “as a place of infamy, alien to all good morals”.Immorality of the king and the Court is a
frequent object of satire in the contemporary literature.
(c) Economic
Thirdly, James and his ministers were extravagant, they were constantly in debt and
constantly in need of money. When James approached the Parliament for money, it demanded
more rights and privileges for itself—that it should control religion and finance, and even give
advice on foreign policy. James then tried to raise money by granting trade monopolies to his
favourites. This raised the hostility of the traders, merchants and manufacturers. It was an
encroachment on their rights, and economic virtues of thrift, sobriety and economic living

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appealed to this middle-class element. Thus emerged a union of interests against James I. This
makes the Jacobean Age, a period of stress and strain giving rise to a sense of frustration, and
disillusionment.
(d) Internal Dissensions
The absence of foreign wars also did much to foster internal dissensions. After the defeat of
the Spanish Armada, there was no longer any danger of a foreign attack. A foreign war has the
great merit of diverting the attention of the people. Now freed from the fears of foreign war, more
and more people turned to the discussion of domestic politics. Criticism of the policies of the King
and of the immorality and artificiality of his court was widespread. Thus was fostered the critical
and satirical temper which is reflected in the plays of Ben Jonson. Social evils were rampant, and
satirical references to the follies of the age are frequent in the literature of the period. The rift
between the king and his people widened. The court became more luxurious and extravagant, the
people were more and more alienated, the appeal of Puritanism increased, and it became a
significant force in national life.
(e) Tactlessness of Charles I
James I was sufficiently clever and died just sufficiently soon, and thus in his reign there was
no open conflict between the king and his people. But he left behind him serious problems for his
son Charles I (1625). Charles was handsome, cultured and graceful, just such a king as was likely
to win the heart of his people. However, he was tactless and did not attach much importance to
public sentiments. He surrounded himself with evil counsellors— and with their help tried to
enforce the divine right theory of kings. His absolutism roused the apprehensions of the people.
In politics he was entirely unscrupulous. Moreover, he had a Catholic queen and was himself
suspected of having Catholic leanings. His policies both religious and political, both in Scotland
and Ireland, were complete and abject failures. The treasury was already bankrupt and he and his
courtiers were not only profligates but also highly extravagant. In dire need of funds, he appealed
to the Parliament which demanded even greater privileges for itself. No compromise was possible
between the despotic Charles and the Parliament consisting mainly of elements hostile to the
King. The stress and strains in national life increased resulting in the Civil War between the King
and the Parliament which broke out in 1641.
Frustration and Disillusionment—Loss of Faith
Mrs. Una-Fermor refers to the age of Milton as an age of uncertainty, misgiving,
despondency, anxiety, frustration, pessimism and inner gloom, and in all these respects in sharp
contrast to the glorious and exuberant age of Elizabeth when the nation marched from
achievement to achievement with zest and confidence. She lists a number of political and social
causes for this mood of misgiving and apprehension which overtook the nation during this period.
The personal unpopularity of the king, James I, uncouth and awkward, who made the English
court the laughing stock of all Europe, the lowering of standards of national morality and conduct,
loss of national dignity, slackness of discipline, plots and intrigues both political and religious,
increasing fear of French and Papal interventions, all contributed to the atmosphere of
uncertainty and misgiving, and this in its turn bred pessimism and frustration. Further, there was
a clash of ideals and philosophies; the old world, the medieval world, with its scholastic learning
and metaphysics was breaking down under the impact of new philosophy. Another cause was the
influence of Machiavelli whose work The Prince enjoyed wide popularity. His materialistic
doctrines along with his Satanic philosophy—that the world order is not moral, but essentially
immoral—caused much bewilderment and confusion, and loss of faith in existing values and
ideals. All this finds expression in the literatures of the day, more specially its Drama.

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London: The Centre of National Life

In the end, a word may be added regarding the prominence of London during the age and its
influence on the literature of the period. It was the centre of the English court and so the abode of
the fashionable and cultured upper classes. As the court patronised art and learning, the city was
also the haunt of the men of letters of the age. Practically, all the prominent writers of the day
made London their home. Shakespeare, Donne, Ben Jonson, Milton—to name only the greatest—
were all Londoners. They would meet in taverns, discuss literature or current politics, and
frequently come to blows. Tavern brawls were frequent, and even leading personalities were
involved in them. The setting of Jonson’s Comedies is London, and London fashions, follies and
frivolities are frequent objects of his satire.
Literary Trends
The atmosphere of conflict, stress and strain, which enveloped the nation even before the
death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, had an adverse effect on literature. The decline from the high
Elizabethan standard is apparent in several ways, (a) The output, especially of poetry, is much
smaller, and the fashion is toward shorter poems, especially the lyric. The poetry of the period is
largely lyrical, and Donne and Ben Jonson are the two most outstanding and original lyricists of
the age. Milton who links up the Puritan age with the Restoration is a class by himself,(b) There
is a marked decay in the exalted poetical fervour of the previous age. In the new poetry there is
more of intellectual play than of passion and profundity. And especially in prose, there is a
matured melancholy that one is apt to associate with advancing years, (c) There is a marked
increase in prose activity, and prose is an almost invariable accompaniment of a decline in poetry.
In an age which, by comparison with the Elizabethan age, produced relatively few great
writers, Milton stands as the one man who may claim a place among the very greatest. His prose
is among the finest controversial writing in the language, and his poetic achievement has generally
been considered to be second only to that of Shakespeare.
Besides Milton, there are the Metaphysicals and the Caroline lyricists. The term Metaphysical
was first used by Dr. Johnson, who applied it to Cowley and Donne. It denotes the work of a group
of poets who came directly or indirectly under Donne’s influence. Donne’s poetry is a poetry of
revolt, revolt against Elizabethan tradition. Usually lyrical in nature, his work shows a surprising
blend of passion and thought; his poems are full of learned imagery and striking conceits, and, at
their best, reveal great psychological insight and subtlety of thought. To this school belong such
great poets as Crashaw, George Herbert, Vaughan, and Marvell.
While most of the Metaphysical poets were of a religious and mystical cast, the Cavalier
lyricists best represented by Herrick, Lovelace, and Suckling, deal with the theme of love. They
followed Ben Jonson in their classical restraint and concise lucidity. Their work is simple and
graceful in structure and finely polished in style.
The prose output during the age is copious and excellent in kind. There is a notable advance
in the sermon; pamphlets are abundant; and history, politics, philosophy, and miscellaneous
kinds are well represented. Milton’s Areopagetica is an immortal monument of English prose. In
addition, there is a remarkable advance in prose style and the dramatists contribute a great deal
to this advance. Jonson uses prose in his comedies. The controversies and conflicts of the day,
both political and religious, result in the rise of satire and pamphleteering, and this in turn
contributes to the advance of prose.
Many things combined to cause the decay of drama at this time. Chief among these was the
strong opposition of the Puritans. In temper, the age was not dramatic. The actual dramatic work

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of the period is small and unimportant and characterised by immorality, obscenity,

sensationalism, violence, and a free exploitation of unnatural themes, such as incest. However,
Milton’s Samson Agonistes occupies a unique place in the history of English drama. It is the only
successful classical Tragedy in the English language.
Milton’s Style: Its Grandeur and Loftiness

Abundance of Allusions and References: Difficulty
The first characteristic of Milton’s poetry that meets the eye, is its extremely difficult nature,
and this difficulty largely lies in his style. An appreciation of Milton, said Mark Pattison, “is the
last reward of consummate scholarship”. He is a poet not for the masses, but for the learned few.
A whole treasury of allusions and references to classical myth, history and literature, to Biblical
mythology, and contemporary literatures, lies scattered all over his poetry, even his early poetry.
For example, in order to describe the vastness of Satan’s troops, he brings in the names of the
mightiest armies known to history and legend. As Hanford points out, “The whole treasury of
poetry and the whole storehouse of learning are at his command. He assumes that they are also
at the command of his reader and accordingly he loads every rift of his verse with the ore of
myth and legend, and with historical, literary, and scientific fact. Of no other English style is
erudition so integral a part. Classical and Biblical allusion is, of course, the most abundant,
constituting a kind of current coin of expression wherewith to convey a meaning rich in poetic
and cultural suggestion.”
Extreme Terseness and Condensation
This difficulty of Milton’s poetry is further heightened by the extreme condensation and
terseness of his style. Raleigh calls Milton’s lines “packed lines” and writes, “The packed line
introduced by Milton is of a greater density and conciseness than anything to be found in English
literature before it. It is our nearest native counterpart to the force and reserve of the high
Virgilian diction.” He packs his meaning into the fewest possible words and studies economy in
every trifle. A reader of Milton must be always upon duty; he is surrounded with sense; it rises in
every line, every word is to the purpose. There are no lazy intervals; all has been considered, and
demands and merits observation. Even in the best writers you sometimes find words and
sentences which hang on so loosely, you may blow them off. Milton’s are all substance and weight;
fewer would not have served his turn, and more would have been superfluous. He expresses
himself so concisely, employs words so sparingly, that whoever will possess his ideas must dig for
them, and often-times pretty far below the surface.” Connectives and conjunctives are often
missing, and all superfluous graces are usually discarded and the poet continues to move forward
giving the reader no rest. Each word is of value; there is no mortar between the stones, each is
held in place by the weight of the others, and helps to uphold the building. He can enclose vast
concepts within little space. Thus in the following from Book II, the whole dreariness of the fallen
angel’s march to their retreats after the conference is expressed in the last line which is just a
catalogue without any cement :
Through many a dark and dreary vale
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
O’er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp.
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death.
And in Book I the mightiest army one can imagine is rendered in less than six lines:

60
All in a moment through the gloom were seen

Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
With orient colours waving; with them rose
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array of depth immeasurable.
Latinisms; Loftiness and Sublimity
Milton’s genius for terseness and condensation accounts for many of the peculiarities of his
diction. His use of words in their original Latin sense, Latin constructions, and inversions is not
pedantry or vulgar show of knowledge. Through his Latinisms the poet achieves conciseness as
well as that elevation and remoteness, that distancing from the speech of everyday life, that
grandeur and sublimity, which are the key-notes of an epic. He was writing an epic in which the
characters are God, His Son, the angels, both good and bad. Naturally, he had to use words which
would be suitable for such super-human characters, and the order in which these words are used
must also be different from their order in the speech of ordinary mortals. That is why he uses old
English words in their original Latin sense. Thus the quaint expression ‘sounding alchemy” is used
for ‘trumpets of brass’, ‘Landskip’ for ‘landscape’, ‘highth’ for ‘height’, and ‘strucken’ for ‘striken’,
‘sublime’ is constantly used by him in the Latin sense of ‘aloft’ or ‘in the air’, ‘sovran’ is used
instead of ‘sovereignty’, and ‘author’ is used in the Latin sense of ‘informant’. Many of his
Elisions and contractions also result from his passion for conciseness.
Inverted Constructions:
(a) Impart Brevity
Similarly the construction of his sentences is not the normal familiar construction of ordinary
speech. His construction aims at maximum of condensation and loftiness. In his sentences, says
Raleigh, “You cannot guess the adjective from the substantive, nor the end of the phrase from its
beginning. He is much given to inverting the natural English order of epithet and noun, that he
may gain a greater emphasis for the epithet.” For instance he places a noun between its two
qualifying adjectives, though the English idiom requires both to be placed before the noun:‘the
upright heart and pure’, ‘the dismal situation waste and wild’, ‘ever burning sulphur
unconsumed’. Sometimes he prefers the Latin idiom to English, as in never, since created Man
Met such embodied force,
Here, as in Latin, the past participle ‘created’ and the noun ‘Man’, both combined, mean an
event—the creation of man, and the preposition ‘since’ governs the event.
(b) Impart Force and Effectiveness

Inversion often forces our attention on a specific point which the poet wishes to stress. Take
for example the following opening lines of Book I:
Of man’s first disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death, into the world, and all our woe
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heavenly Muse
Normally the words “sing Heavenly Muse” should open the poem. But Milton brings the
object just in the forefront, and stresses in one breath “man’s first disobedience”, “the Fruit”, the

61
“Forbidden Tree”, ‘‘mortal taste”, and these are central to the poem. Thus by inverting the normal
order, he is able to focus our attention on the theme, and raise before our imagination the
dramatic and historical dimensions of his cosmic stage.
He inverts the normal word-order to make his communication snore effective and to focus
our attention exactly where he wishes. “The violation of the normal English, which have upset
some purists” says Daiches, “are carefully and systematically employed in order to achieve
different kind of emotional pitch, to effect continuity and integration in the weaving of epic design,
and above all to sustain the poem as a poem and to keep it from disintegrating into isolated
fragments of high rhetoric.”
Catalogues of Proper Names
The long catalogues of proper names which we come across so frequently in Paradise
Lost also enable him to achieve terseness, to dilate the imagination of his readers by opening out
large vistas before their mind’s eyes, as well as to surprise and delight them by their music and
melody.Milton was a conscious artist who chases his words both with reference to their sense
and their sound. Indeed, many of the proper names are chosen for their sonorous music. On a
small scale we have “Busiris and his Memphian chivalry”, “Vallombrosa where the Etrurian
shades”. On a bigger scale we have those famous lines in Book I:
Begirt with British and Armoric Knights,
And all who since, baptized or infidel,
Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond.
and so on, till the catalogue of musical names ends with Fortarabbia. By all these means, “he
attained to a finished style of perhaps a more consistent and unflagging elevation than is to be
found elsewhere in literature”—(Raleigh). This cataloguing is not a cheap ‘rhetorical device, or
display of erudition as has been objected, to by some critics, it is integral to Milton’s epic-purpose.
Suggestiveness
Closely allied to condensation, is suggestiveness, another important characteristic of Milton’s
style. Milton suggests much more than he actually states or describes. His poetry must be read
imaginatively. The poet was dealing with events and situations prior to known history, even prior
to creation itself. He was dealing with characters supernatural who lie beyond the pale of human
experience, and so can only be comprehended imaginatively. Even the human characters, Adam
and Eve, are quite different from any known human being. Thus the very subject of Milton made
it unavoidable that he should suggest much more than he actually states, that he should constantly
evoke and bring into play the imagination of his readers. Thus the vastness of Satan’s figure, the
immensity of his shield and spear, is conveyed through a few deft strokes. For example, the very
fact that a “horrid vale” is formed in the Lake of Fire when Satan comes out of it, is sufficient to
give us an idea of his huge bulk. Writes Rose Macaulay in this connection, “the most
unimaginative man must understand Homer. Homer gives him no choice, and requires from him
no exertion ; but takes the whole upon himself, and sets the images in so clear a light, that it is
impossible to be blind to them. The works of Milton cannot be comprehended or enjoyed, unless
the mind of the reader co-operate, with that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture, or
play for a mere passive listener. He sketches and leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes the
keynote and expects his hearers to make out the melody.”
Epic-Similes
The use of Homeric or epic-similes helps the poet a great deal to secure the co-operation of
his readers. Richard-Garnett considers Milton’s epic-similes more arresting, more grand and
more numerous, at least in Book I, than they are even in Homer. Such similes impart variety,

62
grandeur and expressiveness to the poet’s style. They serve to introduce that human interest into
his epic in which a number of critics, following Dr. Johnson, have found it lacking. Milton’s similes
are elaborate and learned. The army of the fallen angels lying dazed in a stupor in Book I is
illustrated by three or four different similes drawn from natural history, and from the scriptures.
The re-assembled forces of these spirits are again illustrated with five similes drawn from
scripture and history. As Professor Raleigh writes: “From Herodotus to Olaus Magnus and
onward to the latest discoveries in geography, and astronomy, the researches of Galileo and the
description given by contemporary travellers of China and the Chinese, or of the North American
Indians, Milton compels the authors he had read, both ancient and modern, to contribute to the
gracing of his work.”
Verbal Music
A word may now be said about Milton’s verbal-music. As already pointed out above, he
chooses words both with reference to their sound and their sense. Many of the proper nouns used
by him have a grand sonorous music. Many of his Latinisms as,“resounding alchemy”, are also
accounted for by his fondness for sound affects. The music both of polysyllabic Latin words and
of monosyllables is fully exploited. The music in the following lines arises from skilful balancing
of vowel sounds:
…… chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds,
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.
use of alliteration, assonance (correspondence in sound) onomatopoeia (sound-echoing
sense), repetition, etc., are some other devices used by Milton to impart music and, melody to his
diction.
Some Faults
Milton’s style has been criticised on a number of counts, and some of his faults may now be
noted. First, his style is heavily overloaded with his learning and is far beyond the reach of the
average reader.Secondly, he avoids the commonplace and often uses a roundabout way of
expression or circumlocution. Dr. Johnson, therefore, criticised his style as, “perverse and
pedantic”. Thirdly, his frequent Latinisms and inverted constructions have exposed him to the
charge of corrupting the English language, and writing, “as if he were writing a foreign
language.” Fourthly, his use of high sounding words and phrases and his long cataloguing of
proper names have been condemned as theoretical by no less a critic than T.S. Eliot. Fifthly, often
he is guilty of using mixed metaphors which result in obscurity, and needless perplexity and
confusion for the readers. And lastly, there is his fondness for ‘puns’ and word-play. Thus we
have, “At one slight bound high overkapt all bound”, and “Beseeching or besieging”,etc.
Conclusion: Milton’s Grand Style
However, such faults are only minor flaws in the chastity, the sonority and girded majesty of
Milton’s diction. Milton remains in the final analysis the great master of the great or grand style
which arises when a noble nature poetically gifted treats with severity or simplicity a noble subject.
In the noblest tradition of the epic, big thoughts are uttered by him in a big way. As Dr. Johnson
rightly pointed out, “His natural port is gigantic loftiness”. For want of a better word his style has
been called ‘Miltonic’, a thing apart in English literature. Loftiness of thought and majesty of
expression combine to make Milton’s style ‘sublime’ in the real sense of the word.

63
Milton as a Writer of Sonnets— His Contribution

The Sonnet: Its Form and Nature
The word “Sonnet” is derived from the Greek word ‘Sonneto’, meaning, “a sound”. It is a short
lyric of fourteen lines and the Italian poet Petrarch was the first to use this form of the lyric to
express his love for his beloved Laura, and its use “became the mark of Petrarchan love-poetry
all over Europe in the 16th century”. Petrarch had divided his sonnets into two parts,
the octave of eight lines and the sestet of six lines, with a pause or ceasura after the eighth
line. Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first to write sonnets in England. It is the Petrarchan form of
the sonnet that Wyatt follows. His use of this measure is often rigid and awkward, and he entirely
fails to capture the warm, sensuous colour and delicate music of the Italian poet.
The English Sonnet upto Milton

His great contemporary Earl of Surrey also wrote sonnets in which he expressed his entirely
imaginative love for Geraldine or Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald. The elegiac note is natural to him,
but his lover’s plaints and sighs mingle with exquisite nature-passages. His sonnets have great
artistic merits. Though he follows the Petrarchan convention of courtly love, he does not follow
the Petrarchan model of the sonnet. He divides his sonnets into three quatrains, with a couplet at
the end, and thus he is the first to use that form of the sonnet which came to be called
Shakespearean from the great dramatist’s use of it.
However, the technical peculiarity of the sonnet was not realised in the earlier years of
Elizabeth’s reign. The word “sonnet” was used indifferently for any short lyric. The sonnet proper
remained forgotten and neglected till the publication in 1591 of Sidney’s sonnet-sequence
called Astrophel and Stella. They express Sidney’s passion for Penelope, who was by that time the
wife of Lord Rich. The publication of Astrophel and Stella at once caught the imagination of the
people and gave rise to the vogue of the sonnet. Everybody tried his hand at it, mostly to express
his love for some imagined mistress. This accounts for the artificiality of most of the Elizabethan
sonnets. Sonnets were written merely because it was the fashion to write sonnets, and not because
the poets had some really felt passion to express. They merely echo the sighs and love-pangs of
Petrarch and the Petrarchans.
However, sincerity is also the key-note of Spenser’s Amoretti (an Italian name), a collection
of about 88 sonnets. They express Spensers’s love and courtship of Elizabeth Boyle, the lady who
became his wife shortly afterwards. It is in these sonnets alone that Spenser expresses his genuine
feeling without recourse to allegory.
“In the first ranks of the works of the English Renaissance, Spenser’s sonnets come
between those of Sidney and Shakespeare, from which they are different inform as
in sentiment”—(Legouis).
While the Sonnets of Sidney and Spenser form the very core of their poetic work,
Shakespeare’s sonnets were written in moments snatched from work for the theatre. His 154
sonnets were first published in 1609, and as Wordsworth has put it, it was with this key that the
poet unlocked his heart. It is in the sonnets alone that the poet directly expresses his feeling.
Besides their sincerity of tone, they have literary qualities of the highest order. They touch per-
fection in their phraseology, in their perfect blending of sense and sound, and in their
versification. Shakespeare’s sonnet-sequence is, “the casket which encloses the most precious
pearls of Elizabethan lyricism, some of them unsurpassed by any lyricist.” He divides his sonnets
into three stanzas of four lines each followed by a concluding couplet.

64
Milton’s Sonnets: Occasional and Personal

In the post-Elizabethan era there is no great writer of sonnets till we come to Milton. As F. T.
Prince points out, “the English passion for sonneteering died out in the early 17th century”,
and Milton’s sonneteering represents practically afresh start. His was an individual undertaking
unique in the Mid-seventeenth century. By his use of it Milton not only revived the sonnet form,
but he also considerably enlarged and widened its scope. It may also be added here that all
Milton’s sonnets are occasional and personal, on different topics, and so cannot be arranged in
sequences like the Elizabethan sonnets. As Tillyard points out, “Even the most apparently
generalized of them, that To The Nightingale, refers to the spring of a particular year. He laments
that in earlier years it has been the ill-omened cuckoo he heard first, and begs the nightingale this
year to favour him with early song. The rest are most obviously occasional, when the Assault Was
Intended to the City or On His Blindness : or personal,To Mr. H. Lawes, On His Airs or To Mr.
Lawrence. Rossetti called the sonnet “a moment’s monument”, and that phrase suits Milton’s
sonnets very well; they treat of a present theme, and yet in their firmness and dignity they are
monumental.”
Two Periods of Milton’s English Sonnets
Milton’s English sonnets number twenty-three in all. Six of these belong to the period
of Milton’s youth and immaturity, though even in them the hand of the master is visible. The rest
were written during 1645—1658, the period in which Milton was largely busy in prose-writing.
These later English sonnets are the most immediately personal of all Milton’s utterances,
representing emotional moments in his later life, experiences, which find no adequate expression
in his prose-writing in the publication of which he was during these years primarily engaged. We
may believe also that they were, like the Psalms, prompted in part by a conscious desire in Milton
to exercise himself in verse in preparation for the epic poem which he still intended—(Henford).
Their Form
Volumes have been written in discussion of Milton’s sonnets, but their definitive treatment
has been the work of the late Mr. J. S. Smart, who has cleared away much error regarding their
relation to literary tradition and has explained many obscure details of their meaning. He points
out that Milton characteristically makes use of the form at a time when its vogue has already
passed. His formal model is not the English sonnet, with its tendency to close with a couplet, but
the Italian original which, on the whole, avoided such an ending. On the whole, Milton’s sonnets
strike a new note of lofty dignity conformable to his epic personality and justifying Wordsworth’s
description:
In his hands
The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
Soul-animating strains—alas, too few !
Themes of Milton’s Sonnets
The sonnets are divisible into several groups on the basis of their themes. First, there is the
group in which he touches on great public events and personalities: the sonnets to Cromwell,
Vane, and Fairfax, and the one on the Late Massacre in Piedmont. Secondly, there is the group
in which he expresses a more personal emotion— the sonnet On, His Being Arrived at the Age of
Twenty-three, the two poems on His Blindness, and the one written in memory of his second
wife—combine a poignant pathos with an earnest ethical and religious idealism. Thirdly, the
addresses to Lawes, Skinner, Edward (not Henry) Lawrence, Lady Margaret Ley, and the
unidentified virtuous young Lady of Sonnet IX, also the elegy for Mrs. Katharine Thomson, are
pitched in lower key, but they are beautifully expressive of a genial friendliness and a warm glow

65
of human sympathy quite at variance with the common impression of Milton as a harsh and
austere Puritan. The two sonnets on the reception of his divorce pamphlets and the sonnet On the
New Forces of Conscience under the Long Parliament are a revelation of the poet’s capacity for
scathing denunciation. It may be noticed here that Milton has not a single sonnet on the love-
theme, the conventional theme of the sonnet.
Their Workmanship
The whole group of sonnets is a perfect record of Milton’s unique personality in all its varying
moods. The workmanship throughout is finished to the last degree and each poem, even the least
of them, is a memorable and impressive work. Samuel Johnson’s disparagement of the sonnets—
(“of the best it can only be said that they are not bad”)—is one of the strangest literary judgments
on record. The history of their influence tells a very different story. It was Milton rather than the
Elizabethans who set the style of the English sonnet at its revival toward the end of the eighteenth
century. The importance of Milton’s sonnets as the chief inspiring; force and model of those of
Wordsworth is well known.
Milton’s Contribution
It is clear from the above account that Milton widened consider-ably the scope of the
sonnet. Previously the sonnet sang only of love and friendship, but Milton uses the form to express
his deeply felt emotions on contemporary politics, religion, public figures of importance,
womanhood, relationship of husband and wife, and such-personal matters as his
blindness. Similarly, he introduces far reaching innovations in its technique. Following the
Petrarchan tradition, he divides his sonnets into two parts—an ‘Octave’ of eight lines and a ‘Sestet’
of six lines. In the Petrarchan model, Octave and Sestet each has its own set of rhymes, which hold
it together ; but each is also sub-divided, the octave into two quatrains, the sestet into
two tercets (group of three lines). In the octave the usual arrangement of rhymes is abba
abba (thoughabab abab and abab baba also occur). In the sestet two or three rhyme sounds are
allowed, and their arrangement varies more widely than in the octave. The sentences fit into the
divisions of the stanza, so that there is a pause at the end of each quatrain and tercet, and a more
marked pause between octave and sestet.
But Milton, while accepting Petrarch as the master of the form, adopted the stylistic
innovations made by Petrarch’s Renaissance followers, Bembo, Delia Casa and Tasso. So his
sentence structure became more complex, and the rhythm was slowed down, the syntax tended
to overflow the two main and the two subsidiary divisions of the poem. Milton’s use of this new
style in the Sonnets foreshadows the methods of his later blank verse, where we also find ‘the
sense variously drawn out from one verse into another.’ The technical changes he takes over from
the Renaissance Italians make what is necessarily a short poem into one that seems weighty and
sustained ; pauses within the lines are added to those suggested by the rhymes, which are partly
submerged by the flow of the sense. The sonnet becomes a single verse paragraph flowing through
a sound-pattern made up of the four divisions marked by the rhymes.
Style and Diction
Milton’s style is heavy with meaning, but in spite of its weight and grandeur, often moves with
almost headlong rapidity, without a full stop from beginning to end of the fourteen lines, and
pausing within the lines more often than at the ends. The peculiar blending of the sublime and
the familiar which he achieves is unique in the history of the English sonnet.

The Living Milton: Paradise Lost

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1

The Living Milton

(B) Milton's Works

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The Age of Milton and Its Influence on His Life and

Influence of the Spirit of the Renaissance

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Age of Bitter Controversies and Influence on Milton

Development of Milton's Mind and Art

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Milton's Concept of Poetry

Alas what boots it with incessant care

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Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song.

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Characteristics of Milton's Poetry: Merits and Demerits

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5. Milton's Love of Beauty

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Introduction to "Paradise Lost"

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“Paradise Lost" Book-I: A Critical Appreciation

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"Paradise Lost": A Classical Epic

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Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

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(vi) Speeches of Elaborate Length in "Paradise Lost"

(viii) Grand Style of "Paradise Lost"

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The Portrait of Satan

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Milton Expresses himself Through Satan

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Satan's Greatness in the Twentieth Century

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Gradual Degradation of Satan's Character

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The Hero of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

(A) SATAN: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

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Beelzebub bears witness to the great worth of Satan as a leader:

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Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

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Satan's Speeches in "Paradise Lost" Book-I

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The Theme and Moral Purpose of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

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