Epic poetry: John Miltons Paradise Los - Essay Example

The work further develops as Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden to live their lives on Earth. Milton lists his purpose for presenting this story in his Book I as a means to “justify the ways of God to men” (Milton). Within the historical context of Milton and his work, it was noble to present the relationship between Creator and creation so Paradise Lost can be considered as an epic by this definition.Another notable thing in Paradise Lost is Milton’s use of myriad classical and Renaissance epic concepts such as its concern with heavenly and earthly things as well as their interaction, its start in media res, the use of conventions such as using epic similes, using catalogues of both people and places and the invocations to a muse.

Furthermore, the work contains essential epic themes such as stories of origin, empires, nationalism and war. While there are conformities with epic style such as the ones listed above but Milton does include a range of variations on traditional epic principles in order to provide greater interest to the reader. Whereas previous epics like Iliad and Aeneid used distinctly recognizable heroes, Paradise Lost does not use any easily identifiable hero at all. However, the use of a central heroic character has been essential to epics for long so it has been suggested that Paradise Lost uses either Satan or Adam as the hero.

There is still controversy to who the hero in the epic is but it is recognized that these may be heroes.. The work further develops as Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden to live their lives on Earth. Milton lists his purpose for presenting this story in his Book I as a means to “justify the ways of God to men” (Milton). Within the historical context of Milton and his work, it was noble to present the relationship between Creator and creation so Paradise Lost can be considered as an epic by this definition.

Another notable thing in Paradise Lost is Milton’s use of myriad classical and Renaissance epic concepts such as its concern with heavenly and earthly things as well as their interaction, its start in media res, the use of conventions such as using epic similes, using catalogues of both people and places and the invocations to a muse. Furthermore, the work contains essential epic themes such as stories of origin, empires, nationalism and war. While there are conformities with epic style such as the ones listed above but Milton does include a range of variations on traditional epic principles in order to provide greater interest to the reader.

Whereas previous epics like Iliad and Aeneid used distinctly recognizable heroes, Paradise Lost does not use any easily identifiable hero at all. However, the use of a central heroic character has been essential to epics for long so it has been suggested that Paradise Lost uses either Satan or Adam as the hero. There is still controversy to who the hero in the epic is but it is recognized that these may be heroes. It is hard for certain people to understand how Satan could be a hero but Satan has been labeled as the perversion of heroism when placed in the context of Paradise Lost.

It is possible that Milton tried to redefine the standards of heroism for his Protestant audiences