Milton's Intentions for "Paradise Lost"
As stated in the beginning of the first book of Paradise Lost, Milton's intentions for writing his religious epic are to "assert Eternal Providence / And justify the ways of God to men" (Book I, ll. 25-26). Milton's audience, of course, is a fallen audience, like the narrator of the epic. Therefore, because the audience is innately flawed there is a danger that we may not read the text as it is intended to be read. Some may think Satan is the hero of the epic. Others may be inclined to blame God for allowing the falls to occur. However, both of these readings are shortsighted and are not what Milton has explicitly intended. Therefore, to prevent these deviant readings Milton has deftly interwoven a theme of personal responsibility for one's actions throughout the epic. In this manner, Milton neutralizes God from any unjust blame, exposes Satan for the Arch-Deceiver he is, and justifies the falls of both Angel and Man. A careful reading by the post-lapsarian audience reveals the author's intentions.
First and foremost, Milton clears God's omniscience from any suspicion of blame by post-lapsarian readers for "letting" the Angels rebel or Man eat of the forbidden fruit. Milton skillfully defends God's foreknowledge in Book III, when God says to His Son,
. . . they [rebel angels] themselves decreed
Thir own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less prov'd certain unforeknow. [my bold]
Book III, ll. 116-119
God establishes that His knowledge of future events is not the same as predestination. For example, we may know from the news that a serial murderer will be lethally injected on next Monday, but this foreknowledge does not mean that we forced the man to murder, nor are we the executioners. We are simply bystanders in the know. In this same vein, God is a knowing bystander to the falls. To force His divine will on the Angels or Man would be an injustice to each particular creature's own free-will. Instead, God must let each creature act on its own choices. In turn, God must act as a strict, yet temperate, judge: He must honestly reward the faithful and justly punish the transgressors. For this reason, God's foresight cannot be charged with the falling of Satan or Adam and Eve or the Reader. The responsibility for each fall resides in the active participant; that is, responsibility for one's action lies in his own free-will.
The concept of free-will is of utmost importance to God, and it is the key to justifying the falls and properly placing blame. Free-willing behavior is the wellspring of joy from which God drinks, but it is also the justification for His punishment against those who disobey His decrees. As Milton continually notes, God takes His greatest pleasure in honoring and loving His faithful creations. Nowhere in the epic does Milton have God saying He thoroughly enjoys punishing the disobedient. Love, honor, and integrity are the main reasons that angels and men are manifested with the ability to freely choose their actions in the first place. As God rhetorically speaks of all of His creations in Book III,
I made him [Man] just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
Such I created all th' Ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere
Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,
Where only what they needs must do, appear'd,
Not what they would do? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,
Made passive both, had serv'd necessity,
Not mee. [my bold]
Book III, ll. 98-111
God does not desire empty servitude. Forced praise, allegiance, or adoration are hollow and contiguous with forced predestination: it obliterates free-will and any pleasure derived from it. Rather, God enjoys genuine love and honest allegiance from His creations. Free-will validates the reciprocity for the respect and praise of the faithful who adore Him and the blissful light He radiates back. On the flip side, of course, free-will also justifies the punishment for transgressors of His holy decrees.
The most blatant and deceitful transgressor of God's will is Satan. Milton portrays Satan as a seemingly powerful and regal character who claims to have been wrongfully mistreated by the Almighty. His speech is loaded with semblances to reason and his arguments appear to be sound to the inattentive reader. One of many examples of his twisted speech occurs in the first book, in which Satan says,
"Nor. . .do I repent or change,
Though chang'd in outward luster; that fixt mind
And high disdain, from sense of injur'd merit,
That with the mightiest rais'd me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along
Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd
That durst dislike his reign, and mee preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd
In the dubious Battle on the Plains of Heav'n,
And shook his throne. [my bold]
Book I, ll. 95-105
Contrary to his speech, Satan's was not mistreated by God, nor was his force innumerable, nor was the outcome of the battle dubious, and neither did they shake God's mighty throne. A close and conscientious reading of Satan's deeds, accompanied by the helpful narrative tags, exposes Satan's false claims and black lies. Perhaps Milton purposely creates the persona of Satan as an attractive smooth conversationalist in order to show how easily one may be duped by seeming reason. However, an attentive and moral post-lapsarian reader, one of Milton's "fit audience. . ., though few" (Book VII, l. 31), will understand that Satan and his host fell from grace through their own folly. Even Satan himself momentarily admits this.
In a hesitant moment in Book IV, Satan finally admits that his fall is not God's fault, but his own, and that the punishment he and his crew are suffering is just. This occurs at a pivotal point in the epic: Satan reaches the boundary of Eden and notices the splendor of the Sun, and he is self-debating about going through with his initial plan of deceiving man. He soliloquizes,
O Sun,. . .how I hate thy beams
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy Sphere;
Till Pride and worse Ambition threw me down
Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless
Ah, wherefore! he deserv'd no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me. . . . [my bold]
Book IV, ll. 38-49
In this vital passage, Satan, the Arch-Deceiver and father of Sin, admits that he has fallen through his own pride and ambition. Just as important, Satan also sounds remorseful for rebelling against God, whose service is privately admitted as not difficult and justly due to God. Further in the same soliloquy he says,
. . .but other Powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshak'n, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Hadst thou the same free Will and Power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse
By Heav'n's free Love dealt equally to all?
Be then his Love accurst, since love or hate
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay curs'd be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues. [my bold]
Book IV, ll. 63-72
In this passage, Satan not only admits personal responsibility for his fall, but also validates the faithful angels' reward for choosing to remain true to God. And finally, the Fiend admits that his punishment is just, thus approving God's decision to cast them down from Heaven's high walls. But Satan's admittance of his fault should not be confused for repentance, the next step for achieving Divine Forgiveness. Satan says there is no pardon
. . .left but by submission; and that word
Disdainforbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the Spirits beneath. . . . [my bold]
Book IV, ll. 81-83
Alas, the Arch-Deceiver has again deceived himself. Once again, he views the due service to God as "servitude," and he cannot repent for fear of shame by his peers. Finally, forever-damned Satan seals his evil course by saying, "Evil be thou my Good" (Book IV, l. 110).
Satan's surprising soliloquy is an outright attempt by Milton to solidify Satan's personal responsibility for his own actions. At this point, even an obtuse post-lapsarian reader, or a reader who is often swayed toward Satan's deceptive arguments, will undoubtedly admit that Satan fell by his own choice. And by accepting this fact, the reader must also clear God from any possible blame for the fall of Satan and his crew. By justifying the fall of the Ethereal Powers, Milton then sets the stage for the fall of Adam and Eve. As with the angelic fall, Milton adroitly contrasts Adam and Eve's pre- and post-lapsarian behavior, thereby reminding the reader that they rightly fell by their own hand.
Before their fall, perfect Adam and Eve are always willing to praise God and His works. Their respect and thanks to God are repeatedly echoed throughout the first half of Paradise Lost, in which they are pre-lapsarian. A typical sample of their adoration to God occurs in Adam's initial speech:
Then let us not think hard
One easy prohibition, who enjoy
Free leave so large to all things else, and choice
Unlimited of manifold delights:
But let us ever praise him, and extol
His bounty. . . . [my bold]
Book IV, ll. 431-437
Adam and Eve are already conscience of their free-will, and they initially choose to praise God for His benevolence in giving them life and food. In turn, Milton's post-lapsarian audience should be aware that if this is how "perfect" man acted, then this should be the behavior that fallen man should strive to achieve. However, there is a marked change in Adam and Eve's behavior immediately after their fall. After the excitement and lust have worn off from eating the forbidden fruit they begin to blame each other for their fallen state and impending punishment. Adam blames Eve for willingly wandering off in the Garden when she knew that the Foe was lurking somewhere nearby. Eve, in turn, fires back that Adam could have just as easily been the one tempted by Satan, and that it was Adam's fault for not forcing her to stay by his side. As the narrator dolefully notes:
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless [« pun] hours, but neither self-condemning,
And of thir vain cont�st appear'd no end. [my bold]
Book IX, ll. 1187-1189
This scene stands in vivid juxtaposition to the earlier scenes of conjugal love to each other and their love and praise for God. However, the accusatory emotions of this scene are all too familiar in the post-lapsarian world, and the affinity should remind the reader of his fallen state. So, when Adam and Eve finally do admit their responsibility and repent, then their behavior should remind the reader that he, too, is responsible for his own actions and controls his own fate.
From the start Milton makes his intentions for Paradise Lost crystal clear. Milton intends to explain God's Providence and His ways, not glorify Satan or shift the blame for the falls away from the individual and onto God. Of course, there will always be the danger of a reader getting wrapped-up in the drama of the epic or misreading the author's intentions, but through skillful descriptions, beneficial narrative tags, and striking juxtaposition of scenes, Milton makes sure he aims the reader in the right direction.
Work Cited:
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1957. pp. 211-469.
© sklender, 1996 - Until My Death, and then three weeks beyond that.