Milton's Paradise Lost

by Leland Ryken

Overview

We’ve all heard about the classics and assume they’re great. Some of us have even read them on our own. But for those of us who remain a bit intimidated or simply want to get more out of our reading, Crossway’s Christian Guides to the Classics are here to help.

In these short guidebooks, popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken takes you through some of the greatest literature in history while answering your questions along the way.

Each book:

• Includes an introduction to the author and work
• Explains the cultural context
• Incorporates published criticism
• Contains discussion questions at the end of each unit of the text
• Defines key literary terms
• Lists resources for further study
• Evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview

This particular guide opens up the paramount epic in the English language, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and showcases Milton’s understanding of crime and punishment in the events of creation, paradisal perfection, the fall, and redemption.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433526237
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	02/28/2013
Series:	Christian Guides to the Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	504 KB

About the Author

Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for nearly 50 years. He has authored or edited over fifty books, including The Word of God in English and A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible. He is a frequent speaker at the Evangelical Theological Society's annual meetings and served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Book 1

Plot Summary

Milton launches his epic venture with an exalted opening invocation in which he (1) prays to God for assistance, and (2) announces his epic subject (the fall of humankind into sin), along with the interpretive slant that he will take toward this story material (to assert God's providence in human affairs despite the presence of evil in the world). The main action in Book 1 is Satan and his fallen legion rousing themselves from the burning lake after having fallen from Heaven for nine days and nights after their unsuccessful rebellion against God. This central action begins with an exchange of speeches between Satan (the first to revive after the physical fall into Hell) and Beelzebub.

After this dramatic exchange, Satan calls to his followers to move from the burning lake to land. Just as Homer has a roll call of warriors who participated in the Trojan War, Milton gives us a roll call of the fallen angels who exited the burning lake and came to attention before their commander Satan. Satan appears at his very grandest in the entire story as he addresses his followers. The fallen angels respond by hurling defiance against God and by building the demonic city of Pandemonium.

This brief plot summary might convey the impression that not much happens in Book 1. But this is untrue. An epic places no premium on keeping us in suspense about what is going to happen (in fact, epic poets usually let us know beforehand what is going to happen). We need to concentrate on how the poet tells his story. Milton pulls out all the stops in the first book of Paradise Lost.

Book 1 is the best-known book of Paradise Lost. Therein lies a problem: just as many readers are familiar with Dante's Inferno but know nothing about his portrayal of heaven, the only part of Paradise Lost that many readers know is the portrayal of Satan and hell. This is a lopsided view of Milton's epic. Milton's skill in portraying Satan and hell is magnificent, and we should relish that triumph of the imagination. But we need to be aware from the outset that the strategy of all good storytellers is to begin a story at the opposite point from where it will end.

The Opening Invocation (lines 1–26)

The first thing we need to grasp about Milton's epic is that virtually everything in it is bigger and better than it had been in previous epics. Homer and Virgil gave a nod to the muses, but their invocations are over nearly as soon as they begin. By contrast, Milton pours so much into his opening invocation (the first of four in Paradise Lost) that it takes on a life of its own.

Milton follows all the rules of the epic genre in this invocation. Epics begin with ritual, and so does Paradise Lost. An epic poet begins by announcing his epic theme or subject; Milton declares that he will tell the story of the fall of the human race through disobedience (lines 1–3). Within the broadly stated epic subject, the epic poet then hints at how he will treat his story material; Milton lets us know that in his story Christ will restore what Adam and Eve lost (lines 4–5) and that he will show how, despite the fact of evil and suffering in the world, God is not to blame for that suffering and in fact is exerting a benevolent providence over events on earth (lines 24–26). An epic poet also signals his dependence on supernatural beings (the "muses") to guide him in the task of composition; Milton amplifies this into a threefold prayer to (1) the God who inspired Moses to write primeval history (lines 6–10), (2) the God of the temple on Mount Zion (lines 10–16), and (3) God the Spirit who created the world (lines 17–23).

But even though Milton's opening lines unfold as an epic is supposed to unfold, other things are going on that make Milton's story the opposite of a conventional epic. Traditional epic is a success story; Milton's story is a story of human failure ("of man's first disobedience"). Second, the frame of reference in the Western epic tradition is that of classical mythology, and the classical epic poets accordingly invoke a pagan muse; Milton loads his threefold prayer with references to the Christian God. Third, traditional epic focuses on a conquering hero; Milton's epic protagonist is the archetypal sinner.

Also revolutionary is the theological purpose that Milton sets forth at the end of the invocation. The story of the fall being Milton's subject, his interpretive slant toward that story material is to "justify the ways of God to men." The technical name for this is theodicy — the attempt to reconcile the goodness and omnipotence of God with the fact of evil and suffering in the world. The Old Testament book of Job is a theodicy; Paradise Lost is like the book of Job in its greatness of literary form and its theological substance.

Milton's grand style, fully evident from the opening line, is worthy of attention and enjoyment all by itself. Primary epic (as scholars call it) was oral in nature, and the whole occasion of nobles listening to a poet chant his story in the great hall of a palace helped to create an atmosphere of grandeur. Secondary epic, read by an individual reader in solitude, requires an even grander style to compensate for the informality of the occasion. Now the style itself, claimed C. S. Lewis, must do what the whole occasion helped Homer to do. Lewis speaks of "the true epic exhilaration" that Milton's style produces, and he claims that the opening lines of Paradise Lost give him a physical sensation that "some great thing is now about to begin."

In this invocation Milton claims that he will "soar above the Aonian mount," by which he means that he will surpass what the epic poets in the classical tradition had done. In other words, the classical epic tradition is not only a model to be emulated but a rival to be surpassed and ultimately refuted. The opening phrase —"Of man's first disobedience"— already announces a revolution: Milton will not write about a victory but about a defeat.

For Reflection or Discussion

The function of the opening invocation is to provide a preview of things that will characterize the poem to follow. The opening invocation gives us the equivalent of a series of billboards along an interstate. The best way to approach Milton's opening invocation is to treat it as an entry into Paradise Lost. We can proceed sequentially and piecemeal through the invocation, spinning out a series of generalizations about things we now know about the poem that is to follow. For example, it is obvious that Milton will give us a biblical and Christian version of what epic poets in the classical tradition gave us. If we look carefully, we can identify a dozen or more things that we know about the poem to follow (e.g., it will be a partly tragic epic; it will not, however, be an ultimately depressing story; it will be loaded with biblical allusions).

Milton's Satan: First Acquaintance (lines 27–375)

The quickness with which Milton moves from his invocation to the plot is breathtaking: he asks two epic questions (lines 27–33) and answers them by identifying Satan as the correct answer, and by that simple maneuver propels us into the action. That action consists of our getting to know Satan as a leading player in the story.

The key to understanding Milton's strategy is the framework known as hidden and apparent plots. An apparent plot is the foreground action that we cannot help but see. In Book 1 of Paradise Lost, the apparent plot can be summarized under the formula heroic energy, purpose, and impressiveness. Satan appears to be a grand figure. He is eloquent and talks big. As readers we can easily be misled into thinking that he is a grand and even sympathetic figure.

The hidden plot in Book 1 can be summarized under the formula heroic evil and futility. This is not a story of grandeur but of Satan's evil nature and actions and his ultimate defeat. We need to read more closely and at a more interpretive level to decipher this hidden story. But Milton manages the story in such a way that he becomes our ally against any possible misreading of his story. He includes many devices of disclosure — interpretive clues — in his story. These clues are embedded in the text and are easy to find if we orient ourselves in that direction.

Chief among the devices of disclosure is the presence of the epic narrator. The narrator is not the same as the storyteller. The storyteller is the source of everything that is in the story. The epic narrator is the presence of the storyteller — a persona — within the text, guiding our responses, making assessments, and calling our attention to certain things. For example, Satan's first speech (lines 84–124) sounds impressive, but the narrator follows it up with two lines of commentary (125–26) that tell us that Satan is actually in pain and despair. The epic narrator is our travel guide through the poem. We need to accept him as our ally.

The narrator is not the only device of disclosure by which Milton undermines the apparent grandeur of Satan. If we look closely at the text, we see many evidences of Satan's heroic evil and the futility of his battle against God. C. S. Lewis speaks of how Satan is always sawing off the branch on which he is sitting. The more formal term in use today is to say that Satan deconstructs the very claims that he himself makes. For example, after using big terms such as mutual league, united thoughts, and glorious enterprise to describe the war in Heaven, Satan admits that he and his followers have ended up in misery and ruin. Again, when Beelzebub replies to Satan's first, boastful speech, he takes a much more defeatist attitude toward the plight of the fallen angels (lines 128–55).

It is crucial that we see that Milton first alerts us at length to the hidden plot of demonic evil and the futility of Satan's attack on God. In lines 33–83, if we take time to highlight every detail that adds to the picture of heroic evil and futility, there is scarcely a line that is not highlighted. The practice among secular readers (known in Milton circles as "the Satanists," meaning that they admire Milton's Satan) is to act as though this passage — this introduction to the hidden plot — does not even exist.

The prevailing style in Book 1 is part of the case that Milton builds against Satan. Milton loads Book 1 with allusions to classical mythology, and also with exalted epic similes that link characters and events in the story to phenomena in history and nature. This is part of building up Satan as a heroic figure in the classical mode. But Milton disapproves of the military hero of classical mythology and epic. Milton's mythological allusions and epic similes, far from exalting Satan and his followers, are actually part of the disparagement of them that Milton builds into his poem. The mythological allusions and extended epic similes cluster in contexts of evil in Paradise Lost, leading scholars to speak of the demonic or infernal style in Paradise Lost. Nonetheless, we need to unpack the meanings of Milton's allusions and similes in order to understand his characterization of Satan, and also to relish Milton's skill in composing them.

It is not necessary to deny everything that secular readers claim about Milton's Satan; all that is required is that we do not mistake partial truth for the whole truth. At one level, Milton's Satan is grand; that does not make him good or sympathetic. A literary critic named Stanley Fish claims that Milton uses the technique of the guilty reader. This means that he carefully contrives to get readers to be swayed by Satan and then inserts data into the text that gets them to see that these responses are shoddy and evil. We are "surprised by sin" (a phrase in Paradise Lost and the title of Fish's book) as we read, confronted with evidence of our own fallen condition. In fact, with these wrong responses we reenact the fall ourselves.

A good organizing strategy that will unify our experience of Book 1 is to complete the formula "images of ..." — images of defeat, of evil, of pain, of confusion, of irrevocable loss, and so forth. Having completed the list, it will be evident that we do not admire these things in real life, so we should not admire them in regard to Satan and the fallen demons.

Another good organizing strategy for Book 1 is to ponder what things make up the Satanic predicament. For example, Satan (claims a scholar) is "the quintessential loser." Much of Satan's predicament can be phrased in psychological terms; for example, he represents the aspiring mind forced to confront its own crushing failure.

The first thing that we just naturally do as we read Book 1 is to look at Satan and Hell. We are whisked away to a world of the imagination that is highly captivating to our attention. Having looked at Satan and Hell, we then need to look through them to life as we know it. In Book 1, Milton portrays more than a spiritual region known as Hell; he also gives us metaphors of the human condition as we know it day by day.

Milton's epic similes are more complex than those of any other poet. They need to be pondered individually, by themselves. This is actually great fun. For example, in lines 196–98 the fallen demons are compared to the Titans and giants of classical mythology who rebelled against Jove (the chief deity) and were punished by being cast into the volcanic region of Italy known in mythology as Tartarus (an obvious parallel to the Christian hell). Just on the basis of this simile, we know five things about the fallen demons: they are huge, they are repulsive ("of monstrous size"), they are rebels against God, they are defeated, and they are being punished.

For Reflection or Discussion

The first half of Book 1 is a balancing act that takes our breath away when we see the skill with which Milton manages it. Milton juxtaposes apparent and hidden plots — Satan's seeming greatness and his actual evil and ultimate weakness. This is the grand design that we can trace in this part of the poem. What specific details build Satan up in our imaginations and perhaps momentarily sway our emotions? What details undercut that apparent grandeur and produce dramatic irony on an epic scale?

Roll Call of Demons (lines 376–521)

Milton and his original readers knew both the Bible and classical mythology better than most people today know them. As a result, they relished the excursion into the history of Old Testament idols represented by this passage. Readers today are free to decide how much attention they wish to give to this passage. Even if we are unfamiliar with the specific gods that Milton names, we can read the passage to get a general impression of the repulsive evil represented by the fallen demons.

A very important principle underlies Milton's portrayal of Satan and the fallen angels (and equally of Dante's portrayal of Hell in the Inferno), namely, that as human history unfolded, the fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven became the pagan deities and idols of Old Testament history and classical mythology.

For Reflection or Discussion

What is the function of the roll call of demons in the overall design of Book 1? What feelings are evoked as we progress through the passage? How does the passage fit into the pattern of apparent vs. hidden plots?

Satan's Speech to His Demonic Army (lines 522–669)

Whereas the roll call of demons is one of the flats and shallows in the poem, the description of Satan and his rousing speech to his followers is one of the high points of Paradise Lost. First Milton evokes a picture of the tremendous stature of Satan as a fallen angel (lines 522–621). There can be no doubt that Milton creates an impressive Satan in this passage. Nonetheless, we can credit Satan with being impressive at this early point in the epic without falling into the fallacy of thinking that he is sympathetic or ultimately grand.

After the tremendous buildup represented by the description of Satan, Milton presents his speech to Satan's followers. It, too, is grand and impressive-sounding, filled with boasting and buzz words that might mislead us if we did not subject them to analysis. The effect of the speech is to rouse the demons to a frenzy of defiance hurled against God and Heaven (lines 663–69).

The list of reasons why Milton created an initially impressive Satan is long. (1) Evil is the perversion of goodness, so naturally the leader of all evil forces must have possessed qualities that in their original form were great. (2) In the world as we know it, Satan is powerful and alluring [1 John 5:19 claims that "the whole world is in the power of the evil one"]. (3) Milton's design is to trace the self-destruction of evil, so he first shows Satan at his height and then traces his degeneration. (4) Stories require conflict; as epic hero, God requires an antagonist worthy of him. (5) It is also part of storytelling that a story begins with things in one position and concludes with them in the opposite position. (6) The initially impressive Satan is part of Milton's technique of the guilty reader.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Milton's Paradise Lost"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Leland Ryken.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

The Nature and Function of Literature,
Why the Classics Matter,
How to Read a Story,
Paradise Lost: The Book at a Glance,
The Author and His Faith,
Paradise Lost as Epic and Anti-Epic,
Preliminary Considerations,
PARADISE LOST,
Book 1,
Book 2,
Book 3,
Book 4,
Book 5,
Book 6,
Book 7,
Book 8,
Book 9,
Book 10,
Book 11,
Book 12,
Leading Topics in Paradise Lost: The Big Ideas in the Poem,
Further Resources,
Glossary of Literary Terms Used in This Book,

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Ryken is a warm and welcoming guide to the classics of Western literature. The books in this series distill complex works into engaging and relevant commentaries, and help twenty-first-century readers understand what the classics are, how to read them, and why they continue to matter.”
—Andrew Logemann, Chair, Department of English, Gordon College

“Students, teachers, homeschoolers, general readers, and even seasoned literature professors like me will find these Christian guides to classic works of literature invaluable. They demonstrate just what is so great about these ‘great books’ and illuminate their meanings in light of Christian truth. Reading these books along with the masterpieces they accompany is a literary education in itself, and there can be few better tutors and reading companions than Leland Ryken, a master Christian scholar and teacher.”
—Gene Edward Veith Jr., Professor of Literature Emeritus, Patrick Henry College

“The Classics are peaks I’ve always wanted to climb, but never had the chutzpah to tackle. I often find myself, as a result, admiring these beauties from afar, wondering if I’ll ever dare an ascent and one day enjoy their views. That’s why I’m delighted to see the release of Crossway’s Christian Guides to the Classics. Now, I’ve got a boost to my confidence, a feasible course in front of me, and a world-class guide to assist along the way. In fact, Dr. Leland Ryken could scale these peaks in his sleep, having, for decades now, guided hundreds of students to a greater appreciation for the Classics. Lee combines scholarly acumen and Christian faith with uncluttered thinking and crystal-clear style in a way that virtually guarantees no one will get tangled-up in woods or wander off trail. The Classics are now within reach! I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about this series!”
—Todd Wilson, Senior Pastor, Calvary Memorial Church, Oak Park, Illinois; author, Real Christian and The Pastor Theologian

“In an age when many elite universities have moved away from the classics, this series will help re-focus students and teachers on the essential works of the canon. More importantly, it will help present the classics from the perspective of the Judeo-Christian worldview upon which the university was built. These guides offer exactly the kind of resources needed to empower high school and college students (whether in public, private, classical-Christian, or home schools) to connect with the Great Books and to ask the kinds of questions that we all must ask if we are to understand our full status as creatures made in the image of God who have fallen but who can be redeemed.”
—Louis Markos, Professor of English and Scholar in Residence, Houston Baptist University; author, From Achilles to Christ and Literature: A Student’s Guide

“It is hard to imagine a better guide than Leland Ryken to help readers navigate the classics. In an age in desperate need of recovering the permanent things, I am thankful that Crossway and Ryken have teamed up to produce excellent guides to help Christians take up and read the books which have shaped the western intellectual tradition.”
—Bradley G. Green, Associate Professor of Christian Thought and Tradition, Union University; writer-in-residence, Tyndale House, Cambridge

“The Christian Guides to the Classics series by Leland Ryken will be a helpful addition to the library of anyone interested in a deeper understanding of classic literature. I can’t help but think that these guides will give us more pleasure and satisfaction from our reading than we would otherwise have. And best of all, we will be better equipped to successfully engage with the ideas and worldviews we come across in our reading. That’s a goal worth pursuing.”
—Jonathan Lewis, Editor, Home School Enrichment, Inc.