Paradise Lost, written by John Milton, is the best epic poem in English literature. There is a doubt whether a second epic poem of such a large scale has ever been written in English literature, and it is an invaluable asset of world literature. The biblical event where Adam and Eve are cast out of Paradise due to their falling prey to the temptation of Satan is essentially the main story of Paradise Lost. The topic that God does justice to human beings has come up repeatedly in this book. Ever since the book was published, there has been a great deal of debate as to who its main protagonist is. However, before thinking anything about Paradise Lost, we should keep in mind that although the story is written based on biblical events, it reflects the political situation of England at that time.
John Milton was a staunch supporter of Oliver Cromwell. Milton even became a Member of Parliament from the Puritan-supported party. So, Puritans led by Cromwell assassinated King Charles I and seized power, and put an end to the monarchy. Earlier, people would believe that the monarchy in England was a blessing from God, and overthrowing the monarchy would be considered the work of the devil. So, we have to keep in mind that John Milton was against monarchy and was a staunch supporter of Cromwell. However, after the death of Cromwell, his son could not become a good ruler, and as a result, King Charles II came to power again in 1637 AD, which is called restoration. After the restoration, the tyranny of the king came down on Milton. Milton luckily survived, and he tried to keep himself busy writing Paradise Lost.
In Paradise Lost, there are three characters: Adam, Even, and Satan. These three are important characters. At first, I want to talk about Adam. Adam is the most beloved man of God, and God has created him with love. God used to love Adam very much, and God always wanted Adam to live happily in the Garden of Eden. That is why God created a companion for Adam, whose name is Eve.
Adam has all the good qualities, but he has one weakness. That is, he is fascinated by the beauty of Eve, and he loves Eve very much. As a result, Satan tempted Eve, and after falling into Eve’s temptation, Adam ate the forbidden fruit and was banished from heaven. We can consider Adam a hero because he has good qualities, and everything is his good quality. He does not have much fault for disobeying the order of God because he fell to the temptation of Eve, just as Eve was tempted by Satan. However, Adam’s character is not that strong, and he is obedient to God. Milton may not have made his character strong deliberately because there was much scope for strengthening.
Eve is the wife of Adam, and the biggest quality of Eve is that she is very attractive to Adam. However, Eve is more or less intelligent, but she does not have a strong character, and she is not strong. In fact, there are not many reasons to consider her a protagonist, but those who are feminists may want to say that John Milton has portrayed the strong side of female characters with Eve. No matter how strong men are, they fall prey to the wiles of women. Women are attractive, and that attractiveness is their greatest strength, but we cannot consider Eve as a central character or hero. The last one is Satan.
It has already been mentioned earlier that the political history of England had an influence on the poem “Paradise Lost.” In general, Satan is mentioned as Satan in the Bible, and no good side of Satan has been shown. However, in Paradise Lost, we see that despite Satan having evil qualities, he has some good sides as well. The first thing is that although he disobeyed God, he had at the same time wisdom, intelligence, and strength of character. He went against the creator of the world, and he declared rebellion. We can compare this with the rebellion of Oliver Cromwell of England. Before Oliver Cromwell, everyone knew that monarchies could never be overthrown, no matter how bad the king was. When one king is overthrown, another will come. However, Oliver Cromwell abandoned the monarchy system and introduced a completely new system where there would be no king. So, Satan has strength in his character, and Satan is not afraid of his creator and human beings.
What I personally felt after reading Paradise Lost is that there is no real hero here. However, considering that aspect, Satan seems to be the closest hero, but Satan does not have such good qualities. In the traditional system, by hero, we mean the person who is the central character of the novel and who has good qualities. The one who has bad qualities may be the central character, but he is not the hero.
John
Milton actually represented the biblical event in a new way, and that is why
Paradise Lost has been so interesting. Many literary works have been written
about biblical events in every age, but few have been as successful as Milton’s
Paradise Lost.
