John Milton (1608-1674) is a religious person and a god fearing man. He is also a great writer who wrote in a grand style. As a god fearing man, Milton writes his Paradise Lost, on the basis of religion, Bible and as a great writer he advances his writing in a classical manner. The theme of Paradise Lost is Biblical as it shows the wrongdoing of Adam and Eve by the influence of Satan and the Justice of God for sinners. Milton writes Paradise Lost in such a style which holds classical flavor. So, Milton shows Biblical theme in classical mood.
We can also say that Million’s mind is shaped and molded by the influence of the Renaissance and the Reformation. On the one hand, he drank deep of classical poetry and philosophy and is inherited all the culture and humanism of the Renaissance and on the other, he has a deeply religious temperament, and is a profound student of the Bible and the literature of the scripture. Thus at the back of Million’s mind there are the best fruits of classical scholarship and Biblical learning. He is a lover of art and music, and possesses what may be called an all-round culture of the mind.
Besides, he is full of moral and religious earnestness, and possesses all the piety and devotion of a true Christian. He is however, free from the intensely narrow outlook of a fierce Puritan. He combines in himself the humanism of the Renaissance with the spiritual fervor of Puritanism. These two influences mould all his poetic work. Dry. Johnson complained that his Lucidly is an inconsistent mixture of pagan and Christian sentiments. The two elements are no doubt mixed up, but the blending is on the whole harmonious in Lucidly as it is in Paradise Lost.
The great epic, as it stands, cannot have been written if the poet has not been equally influenced by Hellenize and Hebraic. The very theme of Paradise Lost shows the Biblical element in Milton. The fact that he chose the Fall of Man as the theme of his great epic shows the fear of God in him: “Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater man” Paradise Lost: Book-I (01-04) The theme is the most heroic of all great English poems.
He based his great work n the story of the Fall of Man, as given in the Bible. To him this story was not fictitious or legendary, but literally and historically true. And in telling the story of “Man’s first disobedience” he set out to Justify the ways of God to man. Whether he succeeded in his aim or not, the fact remains that his ultimate design was to show how man fell through disobedience, and how he could regain the lost Paradise through the grace of God. It was indeed his Puritan character that led him to this theme, but it gave full scope for the expression of his stupendous genius.
Though he as introduced wars and adventurous deeds into the body of the epic, according to the classical tradition, the central theme of the poem is disobedience to God’s a spiritual conflict ‘Man’s first disobedience. ‘ The theme of the epic, thus, is religious; it is based on the Bible. “Million’s contemporaries had the Bible in their heads and in their hearts, the modern reader must be at least prepared to have it in his hand. ” Though the theme of the poem is Biblical, it starts with an invocation to the muse which shows classical trend.
Traditionally an epic starts with an ‘invocation to the use’. In the beginning of an epic, the poet prays to God/ Goddess for the power of writing. Commonly, classical writers used to start their invocation by praying to nine Muse for inspiration to write poetry. Those Muse were Greek God/ Goddess who used to live on the top of Mount Helicon. But Milton breaks the tradition of praying to Greek God/ Goddess. He makes a difference in the prayer. His Muse is divine or heavenly Muse not classical. So, in the ‘invocation to Muse’ Milton follows the poetic tradition but with a slight variation.
He chooses a Christian theme for his poem and Hereford addresses his prayer to a Christian spirit. For this, in Paradise Lost his invocation is to the Heavenly Muse that inspired Moses on the hidden top of Horse or Sinai- and it was Moses who taught first the Israelites how first the Heaven or Earth were created out of chaos. This reveals that Milton is a God fearing man and he justifies the ways of God to man. As prophets are inspired by God, he thinks, he also inspired by God, by Christian spirit.
So, in the ‘invocation to the Muse’ Milton also shows Biblical theme in classical mood. Stafford A. Brooke observes: “The form is he epic form of the Greeks and Romans… The filling up of the form is partly invented and partly derived from Scripture. The character and the greater part of the action are invented; but the part derived from the Scripture has a theological system attached to it… This scheme of theology so far as it intrudes, lessens the interest of the poem… But it does not destroy it.
And it is not its presence but its presence in an argumentative form which is alien to art. The scheme in itself is abstract and logical and as such repugnant to art. One thing which has grandeur… And which broods ever all these parts of the poems is the conception deepest in Puritanism and the source of its power – the overshadowing idea of sovereignty of God. ” Million’s Biblical and classical education combined their influence to make him think of a poet as something more than a versifier, as one whose work was to be Justified by the lesson which the poem inculcated. According to Grievers in Paradise Lost, Million’s object is not only to “assert Eternal Providence and Justify the ways of God to men,” but much more. For the poem contains profound observations on religion, morality, politics, overspent, war and peace and the relationship between man and woman, arts, sciences, explorations and on practically all the important aspects of life. All are sanctified by Whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave. ” “Paradise Lost” based upon classical model. Diet if the body of the epic is the encyclopedia and hexameters tradition and its stiffening sinews, the Bible, the shaping spirit is surely that of the classics”. The division of the epic into twelve books, the relieving similes, the councils, the heroic catalogues and the heavenly singers, are only some of the technical devices that show Million’s indebtedness to the classics. The form of the epic and treatment of the religious theme are entirely in classical tradition.
Milton had declared that he would write an epic in the style of have in Paradise Lost all the ingredients of the classical epic-invocation to the Muse, plunging into the very middle of the action, description of war, gradual development of action leading up to the climax – biz, plucking the fruit of the forbidden trees, resulting in the Fall of Man, and then the resolution of the conflict ending in Man’s ass of Paradise. Thus the plan and design of Paradise Lost follows meticulously the classical models of homer and Virgil. In telling the story of the Fall of Man, Milton fully expresses the spirit of the Renaissance.
One of the fundamental attributes of Million’s character was his love of freedom and spirit of independence. In the story of Adam there was the conflict between pre-destination and free will. Without entering into theological controversy we may say that Milton was all for freedom, and pointed out how Adam plucked the fruit out of his free will (induced no doubt by Eve), though he ad been commanded by God not to do so. And as a result of disobedience he fell under the wrath of Gold. “The moral thesis of Genesis is submission to the Almighty, which makes out disobedience to be sinful.
But Milton, who wished to emphasize this moral, had an independent spirit and had lived independently. He had acclaimed and advocated the rebellion against the prelates and even the king, and celebrated the glories of regicide. In spite of himself, he was in deep sympathy with Satan, the great rebel of Heaven and the enemy of God. The pride and indomitable courage of he rebel angel rekindled the emotion of the in tensest hours of his life. Devoutly but mechanically he paid lip service to the duty of obedience, but in his heart he was chanting a hymn to freedom and rebellion. (Eulogies). This spirit of rebellion is embodied in the character of Satan, and it is in Satan that Milton put most of himself, his pride and temperament. In Paradise Lost we have a combination which is absolutely unique in the literature of the time; a poem which has all the deep spiritual fervor of Puritanism, decorated and diversified by every ornament and tatty which could possibly be borrowed from classical literature and mythology. The reader will feel a sense of confusion arise at times from the strange mixture of Christian and pagan ideas.
It is essentially the Hell of the ancient Greeks and Romans which Milton describes where the river of Lathe, Coitus and Styx flow, and it is the Greek Fury, named Medusa who guards the fort. The dreadful figures of Sin and Death are modeled on ancient classical monsters, while Chaos is surrounded by the classical figure of Adds, Arcos and Demonology. This makes us wonder what Milton ally did believe in, but the fact is that the Christian Bible does not supply a clear picture of Hell and is not very definite as regards the geography or population of the lower region.
On the other hand, the classical conception was clear-cut, vivid and pictorial and hence Milton did not hesitate to draw boldly from it so that the nakedness and deficiencies of the Puritan conception would be well hidden under gaudy pagan robes. In the style of Paradise Lost again, we find the unmistakable impress of classical scholarship. His use of similes, “his use of history and geography, his knowledge of he ancient and modern literature, his love of art and music, his culture and refinement-all point to the influence of the Renaissance and Hellenize on his receptive mind.
There is no poetic work so stupendous in its scope, so sublime in its Dryden write: “Three poets in three distant ages born Greece, Italy and England did adorn; The first in loftiness of thought surpassed. The second in majesty; in both the last. ” In the description of hell, Milton says: “A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flam’s; yet from those flames rankness visible Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulfur unconsumed. Paradise Lost: Book-I (61-69) No light, but rather “A typical Renaissance figure Milton was impregnated with the classics but he equally drew his inspiration from the Bible and from Hebrew lore. His epic shows his familiarity with the literature, history and the lore of medieval and Renaissance Europe. He understood the technique of music, architecture, engineering, soldiering, astronomy and uses illustration from all of these to add majesty and variety to his work.
One of the most significant features of the use he makes of his erudition in the manner in which he adapts classical lore to his Christian purpose and mingles reference to the classical with the use of the Bible and Herbert mythology, I. E. , (1)He is inspired by a ‘Muse’ (classical) but the Muse is ‘heavenly, the one which inspired Moses: he combines his appeal to the Muse for help with connected appeal to the New Testament of Holy spirit. (2)His Hell is the Genera of the Jews but at the same time the Hades of the Greeks. 3)His devils will be the Gods of Paganism (Palestinian, Egyptian, Greek), and in the remarkable ‘naming’ section he offers us a full display of his learning in the various mythologies. (4)God-like Zeus – uses thunder and is the Thundered. (5)Sin and Death are allegorical figures from Million’s Christian imagination, but the description of Sin’s birth is adapted from the classical accounts of the birth of Palls Athena, while the revolting description of Sin herself is modeled on the count given of Scylla by Ovid and Virgil. 6)The description of the position in space of the Earth’s Universe-hanging by a golden chain from Heaven – is from Homer’s story of the golden chain of Zeus, etc. Taken Paradise Lost is great by reason of its vast imaginative range, and its deep moral classicism, which gave to the poem its epic form and its imaginative grandeur; while its subject-matter and its moral earnestness are due to the influence of the Reformation with its spirit of Hebraic. So, Milton puts Biblical theme in classical mood.
