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PARADISE REGAINED
John Milton
Paradise Regained
•
It is an epic by John Milton which was first published
in 1671, consists of four books.
There are similar theological themes with Paradise
Lost. Instead of Adam and Eve, in the book
temptation of Christ is depicted.
The story is based on the Gospel of Luke.
• Jesus rejects to commit three sins (gluttony,
vainglory, avarice) although Satan struggles for this.
• Critics think about why Satan tries to tempt him. Is it
just Satan’s nature or is it just because of the name
“Son of God”?
• According to Pope and Lewalsky Satan is confused
by the name “Son of God”. He is uncertain about
Christ’s identity although he is very ambitious.
• It is said that there is a competition between Satan
and Jesus Christ in terms of heroic knowledge.
• “The poem juxtaposes what he considers to be the
two competing theories of knowledge in the
seventeenth century: Satan, the empiric, advocates
knowledge derived externally from sense impression
and used for power: Christ, the platonic, represents
pure thought, inaccessible to the senses”
• Milton’s style
• John Milton’s major poems have similar structural patterns
• The trial and proof of the protagonist followed by an extension
of grace accompanied by a miraculous event.
• Similar to Paradise Lost, Satan tries to use seven deadly sins
• However, if Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained are
compared to each other, Paradise Regained is flatter and drier.
• Milton uses an abbreviated style
• He combines sentences with “and” or “or” which is very
common in Paradise Regained. (Especially in Satan’s
speeches with Jesus Christ).
Parody in Paradise Regained
• Abrams states that parody, “imitates the
serious manner and characteristic features of a
particular literary work.” In Milton's Paradise
Regained, we could say, according to Abrams's
definition, that Milton's brief epic imitates the
New Testament to a certain extent, since
Milton's Paradise Regained is an imitation of
Luke's exposition of Satan's temptation of
Christ in the wilderness.
• The plot of Paradise Regained imitates Luke's structure in
chapter four of his gospel. In both works, Satan begins the
temptation of Jesus while Jesus is wondering in the wilderness.
In addition, Satan tempts Jesus in three different ways. First,
Satan tempts Jesus to feed himself by way of a miracle.
Second, Satan offers Christ all the kingdoms of the world if
Christ will submit to Satan's authority. Lastly, Satan brings
Christ to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, where after
Satan's final temptation of Christ, Jesus remains faithful and
obedient to his father, and as a result is victorious over Satan.
• Milton develops his parody even further by adding a luxurious
banquet of foods in comparison to the simple “bread”
mentioned in Luke's gospel. In Book II, we are told:
• A table richly spread, in regal mode,
With disher piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour, beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,
Grisamber-steamed; all fish from sea or shore,
Freshet, or purling brook, of shell or fin
...Alas how simple, to these cates compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve!
And at a stately sideboard by the wine
That fragrant smell diffused...(340-351).
• This “first supper” would symbolically
identify the alliance between Satan and Christ.
Furthermore, the banquet could also be a
parody of the New Testament Last Supper,
where Christ also made a symbolic alliance
with his apostles.
The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
The painting represents the scene of the last supper from the final
days of Jesus as it is told in the Gospel of John
• Satan's second temptation of Christ is also a parody
on the second temptation mentioned in Luke's gospel,
and Milton's choice to do so, again, reveals Satan's
desire to replace Christ's authority with that of his
own authority.
• For the second temptation Satan offers the ultimate
temporal kingdom to Christ, Rome. “Thou on the
throne of David in full glory, / From Egypt to
Euphrates and beyond/ Shalt rign, and Rome or
Ceasar not need fear” (III, ll383-385).
• According to some critics, the Jesus of Paradise
Regained is partly Milton himself.
• It is said that Jesus’ classical education is typical of
seventeenth-century Cambridge rather than first
century Galilee.
• His whole concept of Jesus’ development reflects his
own.
• Jesus’ aim is to secure for his people
• Milton also struggled for Commonwealth as a
Puritan.
• It is also said that Milton’s Paradise Regained
is influenced by Vergil’s Georgics.
• The two works are about the same length and
each is divided into four books.
• Both poems are in the middle style, by which
he means not a flat level but a style that allows
for frequent oscillations upward and
downward from a middle way.
• Both poems are essentially similar in spirit
because both sre didactic.
• Both of them look forward to a future when
heroic deeds will be done and celebrated and
the world will be changed.
Christ's troubled sleep from Milton's 'Paradise Regained',
Book IV lines 401-25, c.1816-18
William Blake
Blake’s Illustration of Paradise
Regained
Christ tempted by Satan to turn the stones to
bread
Christ refusing the banquet offered by
Satan