1. John Milton

2. Milton Born in London Dec 9, 1608 3 stages of his life:
1. a period of long study
2. involvement in doctrinal and political controversy
3. solitary disillusionment following restoration of English monarchy
Educated at St. Paul’s and Cambridge

3. Milton Prepared for ministry, but did not take orders
Lived reclusively at father’s estate, studying intensely and trying to perfect himself morally to make himself suitable to write the epic.
Strongly believed in popular liberty
17 year old wife left him after 6 weeks of marriage.

4. Paradise Lost Began writing after banishment from court.
Epic poem depicting Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden.
Casts Satan as an almost heroic, Aeneis-like character.
Says that Paradise Lost is a superior epic because it deals with historical origins instead of cultural fictions.

5. Paradise Lost Written in unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse)
“intended every sentence and verse line of his poem to be challenging.”
Milton’s attempt to solve the “conflict between the seductions of the classics and the imperatives of Christianity.”
Uses classical material for physically sensuous and psychologically disruptive elements of the poem.

6. Paradise Lost
Deals with concept that morality must be tested in order to be significant.
Uses the epic to portray his ideas about liberty, knowledge, doubt, sexuality, and marriage

7. Chronology of events in Christian history
War in heaven
Creation of universe
Adam & Eve in Paradise
Temptation and fall of man
Aftermath of fall

8. Milton’s order Books 1-2: Poem begins after Satan’s fall
Book 3: Council in heaven
Book 4: Adam & Eve in Garden of Eden
Book 5-6: Angel Raphael tells of war
Book 7: Raphael tells of creation
Book 8: Adam recounts his creation
Book 9: Temptation & Fall
Book 10: Aftermath of fall on earth & in hell
Book 11-12: Michael reveals future to Adam