John Milton
Modern criticism of Paradise Lost has taken
many different views of Milton’s idea in the poem. One problem is that Paradise
Lost is almost militantly Christian in an age that now seeks out diverse
viewpoints and admires the man who stands forth against the accepted view.
Milton’s religious views reflect the time in which he lived and the church to
which he belonged. He was not always completely orthodox in his ideas, but he
was devout. His purpose or theme in Paradise Lost is relatively easy to see, if
not to accept.
Milton begins Paradise Lost by saying
that he will sing , “Of Man’s First Disobedience” (I,1)so that he can “assert
Eternal Providence,/ And justify the ways of God to men” (I,25-26). The purpose
or theme of Paradise Lost then is religious and has three parts:
1)
Disobedience
2)
Eternal Providence
3)
Justification
Of God to
men.Frequently, discussion of Paradise Lost center on the latter of these three
to the exclusion of the first two. And, just as frequently, readers and those
casually acquainted with Paradise Lost misunderstand what Milton means by the word justify, assuming that Milton is
rather arrogantly asserting that God’s action and motives seem so arbitrary
that they require vindication and explanation.
However, Milton’s
idea of justification is not as arrogant as many readers think, Milton does not
use the word justification in its modern sense of proving that an action is or was proper. Such a reading of justify
would mean that Milton is taking it upon himself to explain the propriety of God’s actions – a
presumptuous undertaking when one is dealing with any deity. Rather, Milton
uses justify in the sense of showing the justice that underlies an action.
Milton wishes to show that the fall, death, and salvation are all acts of a
just God. To understand the theme of Paradise Lost then, a reader does not have
to accept Milton’s ideas as a vindication of God’s actions ; rather the reader
needs to understand the idea of justice that lies behind the actions.
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