Illustrate the characteristics of Milton’s epic poems

through textual analysis (open choice).

“Paradise Lost” by John Milton

Widely considered among the five greatest poets in English language, John Milton is the last
great liberal intelligence of the English Renaissance, as the values he advocated in his work are:
tolerance, freedom and self-determination, the same that Shakespeare had expressed in his time.
“Paradise Lost” (1667) remains the most impressive literary work. Though at first Milton
seems to have been tempted by the Arthurian legends as the fit subject for a national British epic,
he then decided on the theme of the Fall, because the latter went beyond national confines,
allowing the poet to analyse the whole question of freedom, free will and individual choice.
“Paradise Lost” opens with Satan on the surface of a boiling lake of lava in Hell, he has just
fallen from Heaven and wakes up to find himself in a seriously horrible place. He finds his first
lieutenant (his right-hand man), and together they get off the lava lake and go to a nearby plain,
where they rally the fallen angels. They have a meeting and decide to destroy Adam and Eve
(God’s children and precious science experiment) in order to spite God. Satan volunteers for the
job and leaves Hell to go look for Adam and Eve.
Paradise Lost is about Adam and Eve’s loss of Paradise, their eating of the Forbidden Fruit has
often been called the “Fall”, so it’s no surprise that images of falling occur throughout the poem.
The first characters we meet - Satan and his legions – are newly fallen, both morally (they
disobeyed God and attempted to overthrow him) and literally. Satan’s first words to his legions
are: “Awake, arise, or be forever fallen.” To be fallen, in this poem, is to have sinned, or to have
disobeyed God.
We never actually see Milton’s God, the only real thing Milton says about him is that he’s
really bright, or that he’s like a giant light, hidden away somewhere. One of the ways in which
Milton indicates a particular character’s virtue is by how “bright” they are. So, for example,
Satan refers to the “bright confines” of Heaven, and Milton notes that “God is light/ And never
but in unapproached light/ Dwelt”. Other references to God’s “glorious brightness” are scattered
throughout the poem.
The idea of the “one man” is very important in Paradise Lost. It represents Milton’s idea of the
difference that one can make – whether literally or symbolically. The poster child for the “one
man” is Jesus Christ, the son of God. At the very beginning of the poem, Milton notes that the
damage caused by Adam and Eve’s disobedience can only be remedied by “one greater man”
(Jesus) who will “restore us” and “regain the blissful seat.” In Book 3, we actually see Jesus-he’s
not called that yet because he has yet to become mortal and assumed that name, he’s just the
Son-volunteer to become mortal and die for man’s sins.
Paradise Lost is about the loss of...well, Paradise. So it’s no surprise that images of paradises
abound. First and foremost, we have the Garden of Eden. Milton makes it abundantly clear in
Book 4 (our first view of paradise) that this is the best paradise of them all. He mentions a
number of famous artistic and literary paradises, only to say that the Garden of Eden is much
better than them all. In addition to Adam and Eve’s Paradise, there’s Heaven. It’s really bright
there, and it doesn’t even really get dark.