In Which Humanity Loses Paradise

A Theme Analysis on John Milton's Famous Epic

In his epic poem "Paradise Lost", John Milton uses his imagination to explain a biblical story. He uses characterization and the general plot to bring out the theme: that we were created to be in God's image, but we became sinful and disobedient. This theme is shown throughout the epic in the events, such as the fall of man.

Characterization

The author is uses characterization to show the theme throughout the epic. John shows us that through characters that have turned away from God: “they themselves ordained their fall” (Milton Book 3. 128). This example shows proof of the theme to support it. The theme that we are all meant to be disobedient is shown throughout the story through various proofs just like this one. He might have tried to make this a major theme because he lived in a time period where people were starting to turn away from God, and he wanted his story to reflect that.

First Disobedience

"Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off from their Creator, and transgress his Will." (Milton 30-31).

In the text, we can see man’s first disobedience: “Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off from their Creator, and transgress his Will.” (Milton 30-31). This disobedience led to the loss of the paradise in which they lived. We used to live in a Paradise. It was perfect and created for us by God. Then, we fell for the temptation of Satan which shows that we became disobedient and sinful. We fell away and became imperfect, just like Satan did. Satan himself was a fallen angel. This shows us that even though created pure and in God’s image, we, and all other things, were meant to become sinful and disobedient.

Created Perfect, but a Loss of Perfection Happened

John Milton wants to communicate that we were created without sin. In his Paradise Lost, John Milton said: “Adam…created all/such to perfection” (Milton 5.469-472). John Milton says this to illustrate that Humans were created sinless at first. However, John further wanted to communicate that humans became sinful. Later Eve was tempted by Satan and ate the fruit that God told them not to eat. Then you will know that they did not obey the word of God and sinned. In Paradise Lost Book 9, John Milton said: “Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat” (Milton 9.781). Eve eating the fruit was disobedience to God, and with the first disobedience Man became sinful. Milton wanted to communicate this in order to say man was created in God's image, but like all things, we became sinful and disobedient.

Conclusion

Overall, the theme for Paradise Lost is that we became sinful. We were first created in God’s image. But just like any other living thing, we became disobedient. Just like in the book where we were given our power to resist temptation, but later were tempted by the serpent. The author John Milton also agreed on it and communicated it in his book.

-B. Lit Group Six