Question- Assess (Evaluate) Milton's 'Paradise Lost' as a classical epic.

Or
Comment on 'Paradise Lost' as a classical epic.
Or
Bring out those features in Book I of the 'Paradise Lost' which entitle it to be called an epic.
Or
Bring out the epic qualities of 'Paradise Lost'.
Or
Analyse classical and Christian elements in 'Paradise Lost'.
Or
Discuss in detail Milton's 'Paradise Lost' as a classical epic.
Or
Discuss Milton's handling of the blank verse in 'Paradise Lost'.
Or
'Milton was on the Devil's side without knowing it.' Elaborate the statement.
Or
Comment on the statement 'Inspite of himself he (Milton) was in deep sympathy with Satan, the great rebel of Heaven and the enemy of God.'
Or
'Satan is Milton himself.' Justify it.
Or
Give a critical assessment of Milton's Paradise Lost.

Answer -

Milton wanted his great epic 'Paradise Lost' to be written by him on classical models. In seventeenth century Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Aristotle were considered the masters of epic poetry. Milton studied all of them. However two great epics Homer's Illiad and Virgil's Aencid proved to be very close to Milton's conception of his epic and he did not hesitate to conceive and execute his idea of the epic in accordance with the design of these two. For a correct estimation of Paradise Lost it is necessary to study the features of an epic and then assess how for Milton has been successful in following the traditional prescription.

Definition and Characteristic of an Epic: According to Aristotle an epic is a narrative poem imitating a serious action as subject or theme. The epic must have an entire action having a beginning, a middle and an end. The chracters are high and mighty varying in their nature. As regards how of the epic and other important characters they should possess dignity. According to classicists the theme is serious exalted and universal in an epic.

Paradise Lost as a Classical Epic: 'Paradise Lost' has all the common features of the epic of Homer and Virgil. It is based on Christian theology but its framework is classical. It is an objective poem having the unity of theme and treatment. Some of epic features of Paradise Lost are stated below:

1. Traditional Invocation : The poem begins with an invocation to Muse following the convention of the epic poets:

"Sing heavenly Muse that on the secret Top
Of Oreb or of Sinai dids to inspire
The Shepherd.... what is in me dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support."

2. Serious and Exalted Subject: So far as the theme of Paradise Lost is concerned is the Fall of Man. According to Addison Milton's subject is, "The noblest that could have entered into the thoughts of man." While Homer's epics are typically Greek Poems, the theme of Paradise Lost is some thing universal. It is related to first disobedience of Man, Fall of Man and the Fall of the Angles and Man's Redemption through Christ.

3. Grand Action: According to traditional conventions of epic the action in the epic should be entire and wholesome having a begining, a middle and an end. The fall of Man, the Fall of Angles, Man's redemption through Christ, Satan's fight with sin and death are the main episodes in Paradise Lost. Milton summarises the theme and the story of the epic in the opening lines of Paradise Lost:

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woes
with loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat"

4. Characterisation : The characters in an epic are necessarily larger than life. Milton in Paradise Lost' has painted characters in giganatic proportion by giving them super-human heights. Their immensity and their remoteness from common experience make them archetypal. The reader is filled with awe and admiration. As regards characters of Adam and Eve they are set apart from the ordinary humanity. The characters in Paradise Lost are multiple and multivaried. An epic must have a hero with great qualities. Adam is the hero of the epic. He is not a warrior or a conqueror but a noble figure of man.

5. Style and Language: According to Mark Pattison "the style of John Milton is the natural expression of a soul, exquisitely nourished upon the best thought and finest words of all ages.... It is the language of the great and wisemen of the past."

Paradise Lost is written in great style. Loftiness and sublimity are colouring every page of Paradise Lost, which is divided into twelve books like any other epic. Arnold remarks, "In the sure and flawless perfection of this rythum and diction he is as admirable as Virgil and Dante and in this respect he is unique amongst us. No one else in English Literature and art possesses the like diction... Milton from one end of Paradise Lost to the other is in his diction and rhythum coastantly a great artist in the great style."

6. Limitations: Some shortcomings of Paradise Lost as an epic are:

1. Introduction of allegorical form like sin and death.
2. Allusion to heather mytholigical fables. Milton has made use of fictions of Pagan mythology, thus blending the real with the unreal and so destroying crediblity.
3. Milton projects himself, his feelings, knowledge and aspirations into the characters of the epic. He sometimes makes a useless display of learning.
4. Milton's love of digressions, ellipses, inversions, Latinisim etc. makes his sentences often unguarded in structure and their meaning often obscure.

The view of Shelley or Blake that Milton has done is just the opposite of what he set out to do, and that he has unconsciously vidicated the rebellion of Satan or passion against God or reason cannot be accepted. Satan was 'exalted', but in a literal not a spiritual way. His exalation is associated with his pride. Blake speaking of 'Paradise Lost' said that 'Milton was of the Devil's party without knowing it.'

It has been said that Milton was of the devil's party without knowing it. But Saurat says that "he was also of the God's party and, what is more important,he knew it." That is why he looks evil in the face, sees its force and then judges, condemns and rejects it. Milton is not a mere chronicler, but a bold crusader against evil. He is not satisfied until it is completely vanquished foul', 'infernal', 'impious', 'vain', 'horrid', 'baleful', 'obdurato', these are the adjectives he uses in describing Satan in the first book, and each of these is a personal insult of Milton of Satan, his enemy. Milton is obviously rejoicing at Satan's disaster, when he speaks of the fall of the rebel angels:

With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition.

Milton comes openly to the front of the stage in person and claims his part among the actors. In the first book he prays for help to the Heaven of Muse, in the third, he invokes the Holy Light and in the sevent and with he prays to the Holy muse and claims divine inspiration.

...Prev | Next...