Paradise Lost is an astonishing journey of the imagination, exploring the depths of Hell, the heights of Heaven, and the intricacies of the human heart. What's more, it challenges us to think: for besides being a magnificent poet, Milton was also one of history's great advocates of democracy, free speech, and religious toleration, whose ideas remain powerfully relevant today.
The century in which Milton lived saw a deep and abiding change in the way Britain was governed: the decisive rejection of royal absolutism and state control over religion, and the establishment of such modern ideas as parliamentary sovereignty, religious toleration and free speech. But Milton himself, though an ardent supporter of these changes, did not live to see their final victory. Instead, his last years were spent under a restored monarchy, after the revolutionary nation to which he had committed his life failed to establish a viable self-government, and instead chose (in his eyes) to crawl back willingly into the embrace of the regal tyranny it had so recently and heroically shaken off.
How to explain this apparently voluntary defeat? And how to inspire a nation once more with ideals from which they appeared to have turned away? One thing remained: to return to his youthful calling as a poet, and at last to complete the great didactic poem he had long imagined ― addressing it now not only to his contemporaries but to posterity, and instilling in it all that life and study had taught him about freedom and tyranny, and about the choice we make between the two in every generation.
Milton roots his definition and defence of true political freedom in a larger moral and theological vision addressing the very nature of humanity and the purpose of human life. To understand his works and thought we will need to consider his innovative and critical take on some central ideas of the Western philosophical tradition, as well as his sense of humanity’s dilemma and potential dignity as a rational and passionate creature.
All the works by Milton to be discussed may be found in the Oxford edition of Milton’s works specified on the reading list. Please bring a copy of this edition with you to every class, including the first. In addition, you are strongly advised to give Paradise Lost a first reading before the course starts.
Learning outcomes
- To identify some of the qualities that make Paradise Lost one of the greatest poems in English;
- To understand how Paradise Lost challenges us to think for ourselves about the story it tells and the issues it addresses;
- To gain an understanding of Milton’s place in the history of moral, political and religious thought.
