Critical Analysis Of Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is the creative epic poem and the passionate expression of Milton’s religious and political vision, the culmination of his young literary ambition as a 17th century English poet. Milton inherited from his English predecessors a sense of moral function of poetry and an obligation to move human beings to virtue and reason. Values expressed by Sir Philip Sidney, Spencer and Jonson. Milton believes that a true poet ought to produce a best and powerful poem in order to convince his readers to adopt a scheme of life and to instruct them in a highly pleasant and delightful style. If Milton embraced the moral function of literature introduced by Sidney, Spencer and Johnson, he gave it a more religious emphasise. For Milton, all human

Paradise Lost was most likely composed few years before its first publication in 1664, a period of a great political problems and transitions during which the republican poet opposed strongly the restoration and tried by his literary works to prevent it. Yet, the terrifying end has come and the revolution, which had promised to establish a purified nation, saw its end with the restoration of the monarchy and the coronation of Charles II. The restoration returned not only the king but the Anglican Church too which provoked a large wave of puritan and catholic persecutions and prohibited all sort of religious meetings for worship. In addition to that, all the puritan ministers and activists were either killed or imprisoned including John Milton, who has been arrested and imprisoned. Thanks to some friends Milton gets released and during the following dark and difficult days, he devotes himself for the accomplishment of Paradise

To begin his mission, Milton devoted his first book of Paradise Lost to introduce Satan along with his falling angels in Hell attempting to plan a revenge on God. So, Satan is the central figure of book 1, a figure that Milton presents with plenty of epithets and with a magnificent energy and a personal pride. To what extent did Paradise Lost present Satan as a moral agent? Given the politics of the English revolution and restoration, how precisely should we interpret Satan’s language and policy in Hell? Did the spiritual poem reveal the 17th century religious beliefs or Milton’s ones? How is Milton’s God represented in book 1? Paradise Lost is a very dense epic poem. Some readers may not understand it and find it complex or sometimes contradictory in its representations and dimensions. In this essay I will try to find answers and some interpretations to its complexity through a focus on its literary aspects and both theological and political