UGC NET ENGLISH — RENAISSANCE & 17TH CENTURY · EPIC POETRY
John Milton — Paradise Lost
Epic Conventions · Satan as Hero · The Fall · Blank Verse · Council in Hell · Theodicy
John Milton (1608–1674) wrote Paradise Lost — the greatest epic in the English language — while completely blind, dictating it in the mornings after composing it in his head overnight. The poem retells the Fall of Man from Genesis and asks: why did God permit it?
Life & Career
Milton spent decades as a political pamphleteer before turning to the epic poem he had planned since his twenties. Blindness, defeat, and the Restoration all mark the poem.
1608Born 9 December in Cheapside, London. His father is a prosperous scrivener (legal document writer) and amateur musician — Milton inherits both a love of music and the financial security to pursue scholarship.
1625Enters Christ's College, Cambridge. He is initially unpopular — his refinement earns him the nickname 'The Lady of Christ's.' He clashes with his tutor and is briefly suspended. He will later write bitterly about Cambridge's scholastic curriculum.
1629Graduates BA and writes 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity' — his first major English poem, written on Christmas Day at age 21. It announces his ambition to be England's great epic poet.
1632Graduates MA. Instead of entering the Church (the expected career path for a Cambridge graduate), he retires to his father's home at Horton in Buckinghamshire for six years of private study — reading everything in Greek, Latin, Italian, and Hebrew.
1634Comus — a masque performed at Ludlow Castle — is his first major public success. It dramatises the virtue of chastity against temptation. His gift for dramatic verse and allegory is already fully formed.
1637Writes 'Lycidas' — an elegy for his Cambridge friend Edward King, drowned at sea. It is one of the greatest elegies in English, blending pastoral tradition with fierce criticism of the corrupt clergy. Milton uses it to announce his own poetic vocation.
1638–39Grand Tour of Italy — visits Florence, Rome, Naples. He meets Galileo, then under house arrest, who appears later in Paradise Lost (Book I) as 'the Tuscan artist.' The Italian humanists receive him as an equal. He returns when civil war threatens England.
1641–42Throws himself into the pamphlet wars of the English Civil War — writing against bishops and for church reform. He abandons his poetic ambitions temporarily, telling himself he is using his left hand (prose) while saving his right (poetry) for later.
1643Marries Mary Powell, aged 17, from a Royalist family. She leaves him within weeks and returns to her family. He responds by writing pamphlets arguing for divorce on grounds of incompatibility — scandalous positions that make him notorious.
1644Publishes Areopagitica — his great defence of freedom of the press against parliamentary censorship. It becomes one of the foundational texts of liberal political thought.
1649The execution of King Charles I. Milton immediately publishes The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates defending the right of the people to remove and execute a tyrant. Oliver Cromwell appoints him Secretary for Foreign Tongues — the propaganda minister of the new republic.
1651–52Loses his sight completely. He had been going blind since the mid-1640s. He continues to work, dictating to secretaries and his daughters. He will compose Paradise Lost entirely in his head, dictating it in the mornings.
1660The Restoration of Charles II. Milton — who had served Cromwell and defended the regicide — is briefly imprisoned and in danger of execution. Friends (possibly including Andrew Marvell) help secure his release. He retires into private life.
1667Paradise Lost published in ten books — later revised to twelve (1674). Milton is paid £5 for the copyright. The poem is recognised immediately as a major work, though its full critical stature develops over the following century.
1671Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes published together. Paradise Regained covers the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Samson Agonistes is a closet drama modelling the blind Samson on Milton's own situation — blind, defeated, but capable of one final act.
1674Dies 8 November, probably of gout. Buried at St Giles Cripplegate, London. The revised 12-book Paradise Lost is published in the same year — the final form in which the poem is now read.
Key Thinkers in Context
The sources Milton inherits and the critics who shaped how we read him.
Homer
Author of the Iliad and Odyssey — the foundational epics Milton consciously inherits and rivals. From Homer he takes: the in medias res opening, the invocation of the Muse, the catalogue of warriors (Milton transforms this into the catalogue of fallen angels in Book I), and the epic simile. Milton begins in Hell (like the Odyssey begins mid-voyage) rather than at the Creation.
Virgil
Author of the Aeneid — the Latin epic that models how a national epic serves a political vision. From Virgil, Milton takes the descent to the underworld (Books I–II parallel Aeneid Book VI), the wounded but determined hero, and the weight of destiny. But Milton inverts Virgil's imperialism: his 'paradise' is internal and spiritual, not territorial.
Dante
Author of the Divine Comedy — the great Christian epic of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Milton's Hell in Books I–II owes much to Dante's Inferno: the geography of Hell, the political and theological complexity of the damned, Satan's grandeur. But where Dante descends to Hell as a pilgrim guided by Virgil, Milton makes Satan himself the traveller and agent.
William Blake
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793), Blake famously wrote: 'The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it.' Blake's reading — that Satan is the real hero of Paradise Lost, and that Milton unconsciously sympathised with rebellious energy over divine authority — launched two centuries of Romantic Satanism.
C.S. Lewis
In A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942), Lewis directly attacks the Romantic reading. He argues that Satan is not a hero but a study in self-deception and degradation: Satan's grand speeches reveal pride, not grandeur; his 'heroism' shrinks with each book until he is reduced to a serpent. Lewis insists Milton means exactly what he says — Satan is evil; God is good; the Fall is a catastrophe, not a liberation.
Major Works
Milton wrote across poetry, drama, and prose — much of it driven by his political and religious convictions.
| Work | Date | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Comus (A Masque) | 1634/1637 | Masque performed at Ludlow Castle; virtue vs. temptation; first major success |
| Lycidas | 1637 | Pastoral elegy for Edward King; attacks corrupt clergy; announces poetic vocation |
| Areopagitica | 1644 | Prose; defence of freedom of the press against censorship; foundational liberal text |
| Paradise Lost | 1667 (10 bks) / 1674 (12 bks) | Greatest English epic; the Fall of Man; Satan, Adam and Eve; blank verse |
| Paradise Regained | 1671 | Brief epic; temptation of Christ in the wilderness; Christ resists where Adam fell |
| Samson Agonistes | 1671 | Closet drama; blind Samson; modelled on Greek tragedy; Milton's own situation allegorised |
| De Doctrina Christiana | posth. 1825 | Prose theological treatise; reveals Milton's heterodox views (anti-Trinitarian) |
Key Concepts — Analogy First
Six concepts most frequently tested in UGC NET Paper II. Each starts with a real-world analogy before the academic definition.
Concept 1
Epic Conventions — How Milton Uses the Rules
Analogy First
Imagine you want to write the greatest novel ever written. You know the genre has rules — a certain length, certain character types, certain structural expectations. You follow those rules not because you have no choice, but because mastering the rules is how you prove your greatness. And then — within those rules — you do something no one has done before. That is exactly Milton's relationship to the epic tradition.
Definition
An epic is a long narrative poem dealing with heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. The classical epic has specific conventions that Milton both inherits and adapts: (1) invocation of the Muse; (2) in medias res opening (beginning in the middle of the action); (3) epic similes; (4) catalogues; (5) descent to the underworld (katabasis); (6) statement of theme at the opening; (7) supernatural machinery (gods intervening in human affairs).
Explanation
Milton uses every convention but transforms each one. The invocation calls on the Holy Spirit ('Heavenly Muse') rather than the classical Muses — a Christianisation. The in medias res opening drops us straight into Hell after the rebel angels have already fallen. The catalogue (Book I) lists not Greek warriors but fallen angels with their pagan names. The katabasis is reversed — Satan rises from Hell to Earth rather than a hero descending. Epic similes compare Satan to natural and historical phenomena in ways that simultaneously glorify and undercut him.
Examples
- ▸'Of Man's first disobedience...' — the statement of theme in the opening lines, following Virgil's 'Arma virumque cano'
- ▸The catalogue of fallen angels (Book I) — Moloch, Chemos, Baal, Dagon, Belial — parallel to Homer's catalogue of ships
- ▸Satan compared to Leviathan, to a fleet of ships, to the sun in eclipse — epic similes that evoke grandeur while hinting at darkness
Exam Tip
In medias res = beginning in the middle of the action (Paradise Lost opens in Hell, after the War in Heaven). The invocation 'Sing, Heavenly Muse' is addressed to Urania (the Muse of Astronomy / the Holy Spirit) — not to the classical Muse Calliope. Milton explicitly says he is 'above' the Helicon of classical tradition.
Concept 2
Satan as Hero — The Romantic Reading and Its Problems
Analogy First
Imagine a villain in a film who gets all the best lines, the most dramatic scenes, and the most screen time. Audiences start to root for him. The director — if you ask — will insist the film is a moral tale about the dangers of pride. But the villain is so compelling that the message gets lost. This is the problem Milton faces with Satan — and it has divided readers for 350 years.
Definition
The 'Romantic reading' of Satan — associated with Blake, Shelley, and Byron — holds that Satan is the true hero of Paradise Lost: a figure of energy, rebellion, and magnificent defiance who embodies the Romantic values of individual freedom against tyranny. Satan's great speeches in Books I and II ('Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven') make him sound like a freedom fighter, not a villain.
Explanation
The counter-argument (Lewis, traditional readers) is that Milton carefully tracks Satan's degradation across the poem. In Book I he is magnificent and defiant. In Book IV he weeps at the sight of Eden and confesses he carries Hell within himself. In Book IX he is reduced to a creeping serpent motivated by envy, not principle. His grand rhetoric is always self-serving and self-deceiving. Milton shows us Satan's greatness in order to make us understand why the Fall was a genuine temptation — but the narrative structure ensures we see through Satan's posturing. The question for UGC NET: Milton's stated purpose is to 'justify the ways of God to men' — Satan is the antagonist, not the hero.
Examples
- ▸'Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven' (Book I) — Satan's defiance; sounds heroic, but it is pride rationalising failure
- ▸'Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell' (Book IV) — Satan's private confession that his heroism is a performance
- ▸Satan becomes a serpent (Book IX) — the final reduction of his 'heroic' stature
Exam Tip
Blake's exact phrase: 'of the Devil's party without knowing it' (Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793). Shelley called Satan 'a moral being... far superior to his God' (Defence of Poetry). Lewis's counter: A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942). UGC NET often tests which critic said what about Satan.
Concept 3
The Fall — Book IX and Free Will
Analogy First
Imagine someone warns you very clearly: do not touch the red button. You understand the warning. You have every reason to comply. And yet — partly out of curiosity, partly because someone clever talks you into it — you touch it. And everything changes. The theological question Milton is wrestling with is: whose fault is that? God made you, set the rule, and knew you would press it. Does that make it God's fault? Milton's answer: no — because you were free.
Definition
Book IX is the dramatic centre of Paradise Lost — the Fall of Man. Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempts Eve by arguing that eating the forbidden fruit will make her equal to God. Eve eats; then, choosing love over obedience, Adam eats too. The Fall is not an accident or a divine trick: both Eve and Adam act with full knowledge and full freedom. This is Milton's answer to the problem of theodicy — justifying God's goodness in a world of evil.
Explanation
Milton's theology of the Fall rests on free will. God in Book III explicitly states that He foreknows the Fall but does not predestine it — humans are created 'sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.' Eve's temptation involves Satan appealing to her curiosity and her desire for equality with God ('ye shall be as gods'). Adam's fall is different: he knows Eve has sinned and chooses to eat so as not to be separated from her — an act of love, but disordered love that places a creature above the Creator. The consequences (Book X) include shame, guilt, death, expulsion from Eden, and the introduction of sin and death into the world.
Examples
- ▸Satan's temptation of Eve (Book IX) — 'Did God say ye shall not eat of every tree?' — twisting God's command
- ▸Eve argues the fruit gives knowledge; Satan argues it gives divinity
- ▸Adam's choice — 'certain my resolution is to die / How can I live without thee?' — love as the cause of the Fall
Exam Tip
Milton's theodicy statement: 'justify the ways of God to men' (Book I, line 26). Free will is the key: God foreknows but does not predestine. 'Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall' — the exact phrase tested. The Fall happens in Book IX (of 12). Eve is tempted first; Adam falls by choice, not deception.
Concept 4
Blank Verse — 'The Verse'
Analogy First
In the 17th century, most serious poetry rhymed. Audiences expected it. Rhyme was a sign that the poet had worked hard. Milton publishes Paradise Lost without rhyme — and to justify this bold choice, he adds a note ('The Verse') to the second edition explaining why. Imagine a director releasing a silent film in 1970 and adding a programme note explaining why they chose silence. That is the cultural statement Milton is making.
Definition
Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter — lines of ten syllables in a pattern of unstressed/stressed beats, without end-rhyme. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in blank verse. In his prefatory note 'The Verse' (added to the 1668 edition), he calls rhyme 'the invention of a barbarous age' and 'no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse' — arguing that the great classical epics of Homer and Virgil did not rhyme, and that rhyme merely pads and distorts poetic thought.
Explanation
Milton's blank verse is not simply unrhymed iambic pentameter — it is extraordinary in its syntactic complexity. Milton uses enjambment (sentences running across line breaks), long periodic sentences that defer the main verb to the end, Latinate inversions, and a vast vocabulary drawn from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian. The effect is that the verse feels like thought itself, unfolding slowly and inevitably. This is why critics like T.S. Eliot attacked it (arguing it deafens the reader's ear to natural speech) and why others like F.R. Leavis agreed with Eliot, while defenders like Christopher Ricks argued that the complexity enacts the poem's themes of labyrinthine error and fall.
Examples
- ▸'Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree' — enjambment across the opening lines
- ▸Satan's speech in Book I runs for 50+ lines without a full stop — the verse enacts his relentless pride
- ▸T.S. Eliot's criticism: Milton's style creates a 'Chinese Wall' between the reader and natural language (1936, revised 1947)
Exam Tip
The note 'The Verse' was added to the 1668 reprint of the 1667 first edition. Milton calls rhyme 'the jingling sound of like endings' — a barbarous constraint. Blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter. Milton did not invent blank verse (Surrey introduced it in the 16th century) but raised it to its highest pitch.
Concept 5
The Council in Hell — Book II
Analogy First
Imagine a defeated political party holding a crisis meeting after a catastrophic election loss. Some say 'attack again immediately.' Some say 'make peace.' Some say 'do nothing and wait.' Some say 'corrupt the enemy from within.' Each position reveals the speaker's character. Milton does exactly this in Book II — the fallen angels debate what to do next, and each speech is a portrait of a different kind of evil.
Definition
In Book II of Paradise Lost, Satan convenes a council in Pandemonium (the palace of all demons, built in Book I) to decide how to respond to their defeat and imprisonment in Hell. Four angels speak, each representing a different political-moral position: Moloch (open war), Belial (passive submission), Mammon (build a kingdom in Hell), and Beelzebub (Satan's mouthpiece — corrupt the new creation, Man).
Explanation
The four speeches are a study in political rhetoric and moral failure. Moloch argues for renewed war — but his courage is recklessness masking despair. Belial argues for peace and patience — but his eloquence disguises cowardice and laziness. Mammon argues for making Hell a rival to Heaven — the most practically reasonable speech, but it substitutes pride for genuine restoration. Beelzebub's speech (written, we learn, by Satan) proposes the plan the poem will follow: corrupt Man to spite God. Satan then volunteers to undertake the mission himself — an act of apparent heroism that is actually the self-aggrandisement of a leader manipulating his followers.
Examples
- ▸Moloch: 'My sentence is for open war' — violent and reckless
- ▸Belial: 'I should be much for open war, O Peers, / As not behind in hate' — sophisticated but cowardly
- ▸Mammon: 'seek our own good from ourselves' — materialism as theology
- ▸Beelzebub: 'There is a place... another world' — Satan's plan disguised as a colleague's suggestion
Exam Tip
Four speakers in order: Moloch (war) → Belial (peace/sloth) → Mammon (build Hell) → Beelzebub (corrupt Man). Pandemonium = palace of all demons, Book I. The council is in Book II. Satan volunteers after Beelzebub's speech. Pandaemonium is the word Milton coins — it enters English as 'pandemonium' (chaos/uproar).
Concept 6
'Justify the Ways of God to Men' — Theodicy
Analogy First
Imagine a child asks: 'If God is good and all-powerful, why is there suffering?' Every religion has tried to answer this. The theological name for this question is theodicy — justifying God's goodness in the face of evil and suffering. Paradise Lost is Milton's answer: evil exists because God gave humans free will, and free will requires the genuine possibility of choosing wrong. Without the freedom to fall, obedience is meaningless.
Definition
Theodicy is the attempt to justify the goodness and justice of God in the face of evil in the world. Milton states his purpose in the opening lines of Paradise Lost: to 'justify the ways of God to men' (Book I, line 26). His answer is Arminian — God gives humans genuine free will, foreknows but does not predestine their choices, and holds them fully responsible for the Fall.
Explanation
Milton's theological position is Arminian (after Jacob Arminius, who argued against Calvinist predestination). God in Book III says: 'I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.' The Fall is therefore entirely Adam and Eve's responsibility. But Milton goes further: the Fall, though catastrophic, is part of a providential plan. The Son's offer to die for humanity (Book III) means the Fall leads eventually to Redemption. The final lines of the poem ('The world was all before them') suggest not despair but possibility — the fallen world is also the world of human history and ultimate salvation. Felix culpa — the 'happy fault' that necessitated Christ's coming — underlies Milton's entire theodicy.
Examples
- ▸'Justify the ways of God to men' — Book I, line 26, the poem's stated purpose
- ▸God in Book III — foreknowledge without predestination; free will as the condition of moral worth
- ▸'The world was all before them, where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide' — the closing lines of Book XII
Exam Tip
Milton's theological position: Arminian (free will) not Calvinist (predestination). 'Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall' — Book III. The closing lines are from Book XII (the revised 12-book version) or Book X (the original 10-book version). Felix culpa (happy fall/fault) — the idea that the Fall was fortunate because it brought Christ's redemption — is associated with St Augustine and used by Milton.
25 UGC NET–Pattern MCQs
All 5 UGC NET question types: Direct, Assertion-Reason, Match the Following, Statement I & II, and Multi-Select.
Assertion-Reason Key
- (A) Both A & R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
- (B) Both A & R are true, but R is NOT the correct explanation of A
- (C) A is true, R is false
- (D) A is false, R is true
Milton — Paradise Lost — UGC NET MCQs
Direct MCQMilton states his epic purpose in the opening lines of Paradise Lost as:
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common UGC NET questions about Milton and Paradise Lost.
What is Milton's stated purpose in Paradise Lost?
In Book I, line 26, Milton states his purpose as 'to justify the ways of God to men' — a theodicy explaining why God permitted the Fall of Man. His answer rests on free will: God gave humans genuine freedom to obey or disobey, and they must bear the consequences.
Was Paradise Lost first published in 10 or 12 books?
Paradise Lost was first published in 10 books in 1667. Milton revised it to 12 books in 1674 (the year of his death) by splitting Books VII and X each into two. The 12-book structure mirrors Virgil's Aeneid and is the version read today.
What did William Blake mean by 'of the Devil's party without knowing it'?
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793), Blake argued that Milton unconsciously sympathised with Satan's rebellious energy over God's authority — that Milton wrote more freely and powerfully when depicting Hell and Satan than Heaven and God. This launched the Romantic reading of Satan as the true hero of Paradise Lost.
What is the Council in Hell in Book II of Paradise Lost?
In Book II, Satan convenes a council in Pandemonium (the palace of demons) to decide how to respond to their defeat. Four angels speak in order: Moloch (open war), Belial (peace and patience), Mammon (build a rival kingdom in Hell), and Beelzebub (Satan's plan: corrupt Man). Satan then volunteers to journey to the new world.
Why did Milton choose blank verse for Paradise Lost?
Milton added a prefatory note 'The Verse' to Paradise Lost calling rhyme 'the invention of a barbarous age' and an unnecessary constraint. He argued the great classical epics of Homer and Virgil did not rhyme, and that blank verse — unrhymed iambic pentameter — allowed him to achieve the grandeur and freedom the epic subject required.
What is the significance of the closing lines 'The world was all before them'?
The closing lines of Book XII describe Adam and Eve leaving Eden 'hand in hand with wandering steps and slow.' The tone is sorrowful but not despairing — 'the world was all before them, where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide' suggests the fallen world is also the world of human history, freedom, and eventual redemption.