Paradise Lost
...for a more heroic
theme, which is apparent throughout his entire work. He dabbles in religion, gender, sin, death,
and the fall of man. Paradise Lost also explores stories from the bible, using many of the same
characters. Milton gives his readers great insight into the war between good and evil, and the
hierarchy of the characters of Paradise Lost.
Stemming from the epic standpoint, it makes sense that Milton's characters are God, the
Son, good and evil angels, and Sin and Death. Paradise Lost provoked mixed reactions in the
three centuries since it was published. Most of the controversy surrounds two specific issues: it's
style and content. Mainly the issues surrounded it's religious context, and political overtones.
Those types of themes are difficult to separate in an epic(Bush 141).
Milton took a bold approach using blank verse in his heroic poem. He came up with a
unique style of expressie rhythm. Milton's verbal texture, similar to his epic orchestration, has a
wide range of flexibility. He defends his epic style in the short preface of Paradise Lost
(Hunter 142).
Milton discusses the plans for human beings, which is for Adam's descendants to be
saved from the corrupt world after they have accepted Christ's love, and what he did for the
future beings. The remade descendants of Adam are to witness that God's grace need not give
evidence for the abolition of natural man(Bloom 3).
Richard Baxter believes "the corrupt nature of man is more prone to question the truth of
God's word, then to see and confess their own ignorance and incapacity." This gives an idea of
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the faith and reason Milton revisits in his epic(Fish 241).
It is important to emphasize Milton's views on the high office of the poet-priest. That
kind of traditional conception...
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