PARADISE LOST

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Introduction

Paradise Lost is a narrative poem of John Milton (1608-1674), published in 1667. It is considered a classic of English literature and has given rise to a literary topic widespread in the literature. It almost exceeds 10,000 verses which are written without rhyme. The poem is an epic about the biblical theme of the fall of Adam and Eve. This is essentially the problem of evil and suffering in the sense of answering the question of why the God Almighty decided to do when He could easily avoided them. Milton responds through a psychological description of the main protagonists of the poem: God, Adam and Eve and the devil, whose attitudes eventually reveal the hidden message of hope after the loss of original paradise. In the poem, heaven and hell represent states of mind rather than physical spaces.

Analysis

The play begins in hell (described by reference to permanent dissatisfaction and desperation of its inhabitants), where Satan (defined by suffering) decides to take revenge on God, indirectly, i.e. through the newly created living beings in a state of permanent happiness. The story is divided into 12 books, compared with 24 of the Homeric poems of the Iliad, and of the Odyssey. The book is longer than the ninth, with 1189 lines, while the shorter, the seventh, consists of 640 verses. Each book is preceded by a summary, entitled The Argument. The poem, following the epic tradition, begins in medias res ("in the midst of things"), and then the background being exposed in books V-VI.

The work of Milton tells two stories: that of Satan and Adam and Eve. That of Satan (or Lucifer) pays homage to the ancient epics of argument warlike. It begins in medias res, after Lucifer and the other rebellious angels were defeated and thrown into ...