Milton

It was a time of turmoil, confusion and frustration. The people were without a leader, they had no direction. The Parliament had rebelled against King Charles I. England blamed God and did not understand why God would put the country in such a state of misery. The people turned to one of the greatest writers of their time, John Milton, for answers. In 1667 John Milton published his magnum opus: Paradise Lost. It is the greatest long poem in the English literature. It was recognised as an extraordinary achievement shortly after it appeared. In this work I would like to discuss how did Milton manage to create an epic, complex,
Odysseus – like character from Satan, who was the one-sided Evil in the Bible.

      „He was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it”   said William Blake (1790) about Milton, after reading Paradise Lost. Why did he say such a thing then? First of all, it is important to know that Blake was an atheist, so this is by no means an insult. Secondary, he stated this, because Milton’s Satan was some kind of hero, he wasn’t pure wickedness, like they used to portrait him, he had charisma, strong will, ambition, pride, and even doubt in himself at some point. Attributes, which describe extraordinary people such as Odysseus or Aeneas. Obviously this is something very different, than they usually pictured Lucifer.

      The original date, when they first published Paradise Lost was 1667. Religion was a completely distinct thing, than it is nowadays. Its rules, and the so called dogmas were part of the everyday life, surrounded everything, and even though it wasn’t as strict and cruel as it was in the golden age of the Inquisition, it was still very hard to oppose it, or even try to say something slightly else than it considered to be true. This is a very important fact in understanding, why it is such a pioneer act, to actually give a bit likeable personality to the Antichrist, when all the priests and catholic writers did was the...