John Milton was a British poet known for Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. He was a Protestant in a Catholic world, educated, and married three times. His early works supported the Protestant church, but he opposed divorce laws and criticized education. He wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained while blind, with Satan as a likable character. He died in 1674 and later inspired the John Milton Society for the Blind.
John Milton (1608-1674) was a British Renaissance poet, best known for his long poetic work, Paradise Lost and its sequel Paradise Regained. He was a Protestant in a very Catholic world, making him an interesting critic of Catholicism in the 1600s. Fortunately, he was born in England, where Protestantism was widely accepted.
Milton’s educational career was extensive. His father initially wanted him to enter the ministry, but he was not satisfied with this decision. He instead vehemently pursued an advanced education, graduating with a master’s degree from Christ College in 1632. He then spent at least another five years in private study, covering a wide range of subjects from literature, to politics, to science. Because of his studies, many call him one of the most learned English poets.
He has been married three times. In 1642 he married Mary Powell, who at 16 was 17 years his junior. The marriage was not an instant success. Mary returned to her family home a month after the wedding and she stayed there for four years. However, her family’s political beliefs forced the entire family to seek refuge with Milton, resulting in her and Mary’s reconciliation. He was sincerely attached to his wife, and her death after the birth of their fourth child in 1652 affected him deeply.
He remarried four years later, to Katherine Woodcock, who lived only two years after the wedding. He remarried again in 1663, to Elizabeth Minshull. Minshull survived and cared for him as he became increasingly ill and eventually blind from glaucoma.
Many of Milton’s early works are written in prose in support of the Protestant church and Puritan goals. However, his first marriage made him an opponent of Protestant divorce laws. He also wrote pamphlets criticizing the education system. His work Eikonoklastes, is an argument justifying the execution of Charles I. The work was considered so politically subversive that he was arrested. However, he avoided execution and was released in 1659, after much pleading from his influential associates.
He retired and began writing the verse work in earnest. He had previously published some poetic efforts, such as his sonnets by him. Yet the two works Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained in the 1660s and 1670s would be his legacy to literature. At this point he was blind and needed to dictate the work to him. The dictation process is a testament to its fantastic ability to memorize and memorize information.
Paradise Lost is an epic work of poetry, similar in structure to Homer’s Odyssey with ten books detailing the fall of Satan and the fall of humans as they are exiled from Paradise after being tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent . Many really like Satan as a character and find him quite appealing and interesting. Some critics suggest that he deliberately made Satan likable to argue that evil is seductive.
Paradise Lost was an influential work studied by Romantic poets, who often sought to emulate the work. Modernists, like TS Eliot, didn’t like Milton. Modernist views are responsible for his fall from grace in the study of literature in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Paradise Regained is a continuation of Lost, where Satan attempts to tempt Christ and succeed with him as he did with Eve. Christ’s refusal to accept any temptation from Satan is the reconciliation of humans with God and a very serious Christian argument regarding the way to heaven. The verse work is considered an excellent piece, but many feel it falls short of the craftsmanship of Lost.
Samson Agonistes was released alongside Regained and is believed by many to be Milton’s discussion of his blindness. Samson is forced to toil in physical pain and is often referred to as being intellectually or spiritually blind.
Milton’s last works were some published poems and some treatises on the development of US government, in which he was deeply interested, as the United States had become a haven for Puritans. He died in 1674, but would later be honored in the 1920s when Helen Keller founded the John Milton Society for the Blind, which helped bring Christian materials to the blind and converted many biblical and spiritual writings into Braille form.
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