Working through the tradition of a Christian humanism, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, intending to expose the ways of Satan & to "justify the ways of God to men." At the center of the conflict between human love & spiritual duty lies Milton's primary concern with freedom & choice; the freedom to obey God's prohibition on eating the apple & the choice of disobedience made for love. In the fall of man Adam discovered his full humanity. But man's fall is the sequel to another & more stupendous tragedy, the fall of the angels. By lifting his argument to that degree, Milton raises the problem of evil in a more intractable form. Milton holds that God created all things out of Himself, including evil. There was evil in Heaven before Satan rebelled: Pride, Lust, Wrath, & Avarice were there. At the glorification of the son these forces erupted & were cast
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forth. But God suffered them to escape from Hell & infect the Earth. And then the tragedy was re-enacted, but with a difference-"Man shall find grace." But he must lay hold of it by an act of free will. The freedom of the will is the keystone of Milton's creed. His poem attempts to convince us that the unquestionable truth of Biblical revelation means that an all-knowing God just allows Adam & Eve to be tempted &, of their free will, to choose sin & its inevitable punishment. And, thereby, it paves the way for the voluntary sacrifice of Christ which showed the mercy of God in bringing good out of evil.
6. 应用Selected Reading
Analyze Satan, the hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost.
Milton's Paradise Lost is a long epic of which the theme is the "Fall of Man" with its prime cause-Satan. In Heaven, Satan led a rebellion against God. Defeated, he & his angels were cast into Hell, However, Satan refused to accept his failure, vowing that "all was not lost" & that he would seek revenge for his down fall. In order to achieve his ambition, Satan managed to tempt Adam & Eve, the first human beings created by God, to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge against God's instruction. Satan is the real hero of the poem. Like a conquered & banished giant, he remains obeyed & admired by those who follow him down to hell. He is firmer than the rest of the fallen angels. It is he, who, passing through the guarded gates of hell & boundless chaos, amid so many dangers, & overcoming so many obstacles, makes man revolt against God. Though defeated, he prevails, since he was won from God the third part of his angels, & almost all the sons of Adam. Though wounded, he triumphs, for the thunder which overwhelmed him left heart still unvanquished.
John Milton/约翰 弥尔顿作者简介
约翰 弥尔顿（John Milton，1608-1674），诗人。弥尔顿的一生和创作大约可分为三个时期：他16岁时入剑桥大学，并开始用拉丁文和英文写诗；1638-39年间，他前往欧洲旅行，并同当时被囚禁的伽利略见过面。这一时期的主要作品是一些短诗，比较优秀的有《利西达斯》（Lycidas, 1637）等。1639年，英国革命即将爆发，他返回英国。随后的20多年中，他积极投身英国革命，发表了大量的散文和政论文，为英国革命和共和政府奔走呼吁，其中比较著名的有《为英国人民声辩》（Areopagitica, 1650）等。1652年时他双目逐渐失明。1660年王政复辟，弥尔顿被捕入狱，但很快被释放，从此开始了他第三时期的创作，先后完成了最著名的以圣经故事为题材的三部长篇诗作《失乐园》（Paradise Lost, 1667）、《复乐园》（Paradise Regained, 1671）和《力士参孙》（Samson Agonistes, 1671）。评论家认为，弥尔顿的作品同时体现了欧洲两股最重要的文学传统：以荷马和维吉尔史诗为代表的古希腊罗马文学和文艺复兴文学，特别是他的最后一部作品《力士参孙》，描写了主人公在失明后思想、精神上的升华，则在一定程度上映照了弥尔顿自己的一生。
Three major poetical works:
Paradise lost , Paradise Regained, Samson Agonists
The freedom of the will is the keytone of Milton.s creed.
Paradise Lost
The epic is the masterpiece of John Milton
The story is drawn from the Old Testament of the Bible, which tells how Satan, after being defeated in his rebel against God, temps Adam and Eve to eat the apples for the Forbidden Tree, and causes the Fall of Man.
Satan, in the image of a rebel , still determines to fight back against God when he and his followers are cast into the Hell. The features of the character include his boldness, unbending
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ambition and his unconquerable will. The poem, as in other writing, is full of biblical and classical allusion, and is in a Latinized style with one sentence running perhaps across several lines. But, the majesty of expression suits well the sublimity of the poet’s thought.
A. 创作
Milton’s literary achievements can be divided into three groups:
a. The early works:
Milton appears as the inheritor of all that was best in Elizabethan literature. Lycidas is a typical example.
b. The middle works:
His powerful pamphlets written during this period make him the greatest prose writer of his age. Areopagitica is probably his most memorable prose work.