2021 EDIT: The language is still beautiful and enticing, but maybe I no longer have the patience for poetry that's hundreds of pages long. 'Paradise Lost' is a triumph in classic literature, but good grief it is dense. It might be best absorbed slowly and at one piece at a time. I don't agree with a lot of its views (what the myriad of interpretations can be gleaned out of them, anyway). And yeah, it is sexist, but I expected that. I hope Milton appreciated the hard work his daughter did in helping him to write this, in his blindness.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
'Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n'
The longest poem I've ever read.
I regret not one bit of it.
Once I got used to the language and prose,
'Paradise Lost' left me feeling anything but lost.
It is gorgeous, slow moving
But beautiful literature.
I prefer not to say what my religious beliefs are here. But I will talk about this book from a literary standpoint and will put my own interpretations on what poet John Milton wanted to say in his last masterpiece, which he put together when he was blind.
Contrary to popular belief, 'Paradise Lost' is not intended to make us sympathise with Satan and his fall. The first quarter or so of the book does focus on the rage, jealousy and deep-rooted despair of Satan - also called Lucifer, the Devil, and the Fiend - at being driven all the way down to Hell after a battle in Heaven. However, the rest of the story focuses on Adam and his not heeding the warnings of God and the angel Raphael about giving in to temptation. Adam's damnation over his and Eve's sin - dooming earth and mankind forever - becomes the ending revelation. Satan physically disappears back in Hell (he is the Serpent - the form he possessed when he first brought sin into the earth) and is an enigma that humanity must defeat by not repeating the mistakes of their forefathers.
It is clear that Milton wanted to use Satan as a cautionary figure against temptation and hence sin. 'Paradise Lost' is Adam's human tragedy with a light of hope for the future.
As for the first mother Eve, I have a complex and rambling theory about her role in Genesis as Milton told it:
History and our oldest surviving stories do seem to paint women as being the blame for all things wrong with humanity and the world. Just look at 'Pandora's Box'. I always saw this as an excuse for patriarchal societies not wanting to portray men as being weak and responsible for their own actions. In 'Paradise Lost', Eve is made to see herself in relation to Adam only; she herself is not her own person - as shown when she sees her reflection for the first time in water after being born out of Adam's rib. She seeks independence by doing her labours in Eden without her deemed-superior husband - and independence means being seen as equal to man, and not as an inferior. She thinks their gardening work will get done faster if they do separate tasks. Eve does her work out of love and obedience to God - her other creator - as Adam does, so she should already be seen as equal to her partner in love and helping.
When Satan sees Eve alone, he tricks her into eating the fruit (which he calls apples: no one else in the poem calls them that, symbolising his rebellion against God) from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve hopes to become as wise as a man - who she is made to see as higher than herself, like God - by eating the fruit. But in doing this, she performs humanity's first great sin - curiosity.
As for the Seed of Women being the source of all evil: when you think about it, the males in 'Paradise Lost' - such as Adam, the Almighty King and Satan - are, to put it mildly, not very nice. Adam is bitter to Eve when he lets himself give in to eating the fruit by Eve's recommendation; he blames her, however it is not clear whether he wouldn't have eaten the fruit if he were the one first persuaded by Satan alone. Eve may have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. This links to stories often blaming a hero's fall on a woman, not considering that men, like everyone else, are responsible for their own actions, even if women (seeking equality) did tempt them. And who knows if either Adam or Eve would not have eaten the forbidden fruit sooner or later anyway - and Satan was only speeding things up. Adam doesn't change his views on women in the end when he repents for his mistakes; continuing to view his wife and only lifetime companion as inferior and meek.
God works in mysterious ways by creating and placing the forbidden Tree of Knowledge in Eden in the first place. Perhaps he was testing humanity, seeing if they would avoid the tragic sin of temptation and curiosity; which would end up being a very human trait. Satan, a former and supposedly androgynous angel, expressed humanity - meaning: temptation - when he became jealous of the Son of God for being higher up and more loved than the most revered of angels. So he formed a rebellion - and thus his downfall.
And all this simply because the tragic figures of this story wanted to see if they could be equal to God. To serve him wasn't enough: true love and devotion might come out of not only being good, but out of being treated equally to their Creator.
So while I do see how 'Paradise Lost' can be viewed as a misogynistic piece of work, really the masculine forms are not seen in a much better light. Eve wanted to be independent and like the more "superior" man, and by expressing curiosity and greed, she achieved that. She achieved being human - both a man and a woman.
I view 'Paradise Lost' as being about human's so-called faults in trying to be more than they were set out to be by their Maker. Whether its morals are right or debatable is up to the reader.
I know I'm rambling, and likely Milton did not intend this to be his message, but this epic poem is such that different interpretations can be read from it by different people.
Interpretations such as: what is paradise exactly? Is it the same to everyone? An idea for a world of peace and purity, no sin whatsoever? Where the bad side of humanity cannot stain, otherwise all is lost?
'Paradise Lost' - told to justify the ways of God? Or to show the cruelty of Christianity? Or better still, to show that Christianity might have been built on misanthropy, to set us right with morals?
Well, however you view it, it is a brilliant literary landmark. Best read slowly, especially if like myself you are not used to reading poetry form. But in the end it is worth it; if not for its Genesis retelling, then for its language.
Similar to the Bible, it is an epic to last all of mankind with its messages, long after the time it was written.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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