Paradise Lost is an epic

Question: Justify John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ as an epic

Answer: An epic is a long narrative composition in verse dealing with a grand heroic but noble action that touches the entire humanity. It is the most ancient form of art. The great examples of classical epics are “The Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer that are still regarded to be the masterpieces of epic poetry. In Latin, Virgil’s “Aeneid” is almost equally famous. In the middle age “The Divine Comedy” composed by Dante is taken to be one of the best. All the epics are divided into a number of books dealing with one great story. However, “Paradise Lost” is the complete epic in the English literature.

“Paradise Lost” introduces the grand subject matter in the beginning of the poem. It is a unique matter – ‘the fall of man’. This subject is great and complete. According to Dr. Johnson – “His subject is not the destruction of colony, of the foundation of an empire.” Actually his subject sit the fate of the world, the revolution of heaven and earth, rebellion again the supreme king, the overthrow of their host and the punishment of their crime. The subject matter is conceived in such a way as to give the poem a universal character. In pursuance of the precedent of Homer and Virgil, Milton speaks of the theme of the poem at the very outset of the poem.

“Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit

Of the forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe

With loss of Eden, ………….”

In conformity with the tradition as in “The Iliad” and in “Odyssey”, the poet makes an invocation to the Muse of epic poetry. In this case, it should be mentioned that Milton’s Muse is not one of the nine Muses of the Greek Mythology. His Muse is ‘Urania’. She is the Muse of heaven who inspires the poet and the prophets of Israel, Christians and learning. His Muse will take him higher than the Ionian Mount. The poet seeks assistance from the Muse in order to create such a poetic art like “Paradise Lost”. The poet invokes to the Muse as:

“O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all temples the upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, ……”

In “The Iliad” there is the war council consisting of the war lords to make decisions. In the same manner, in “Paradise Lost” Satan, the paramount leader of all the fallen angels, convenes a meeting with all the angels in the vast hall of Pandemonium in which the leaders take part in deliberation leading to the decision of exploring the new world. Later he undertakes a perilous journey to the newly-created world through the chaos. Thus he has been uplifted beyond hope from his despair.

In writing of “Paradise Lost” Milton shows an imagination of remarkable range and sureness. His imagination has found the best expressions in the epic or Homeric simile which is an indispensable part of every great epic. However, the first epic simile used by Milton in the poem is about the giant size of Satan. The poet explains Satan in bulk:

“…as huge

As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

Titanian, or Earth born, that warred on Jove,

………………………………

Or that sea-beast

Leviathan which God…………..

Created hugest that swim the ocean stream;”

The style of “Paradise Lost” is so grand that it is difficult to appreciate it in temperate language. The meaning of the words, the syntax, the divisions of sentences and the use of the ablative absolute constantly remind the scholarly reader of classical authors.

Speech of elaborate length is another feature of epic. Apart from the poet’s explanations and descriptions of the background and scenery, the characters themselves speak fully explaining their thoughts, feelings and motives for our understanding. There is often a great deal of repetitions, but these repetitions add to the vividness of the narrative and we feel as if we are participants in the scene or action.

An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. There is no room for pleasantry and fun and light-hearted gaiety in a classic epic. Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is a sublime and noble poem characterised for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater ideas than those which Milton has presented in the first, second and sixth books. The seventh book which describes the creations of the world is equally wonderful and sublime.

 An epic is not without a moral. Besides giving a general representation to passions and affections, virtues and vices, the epic poet does not leave out a moral. The moral forms an integral part of Milton’s poem. It seeks to vindicate the way of God to men, to show the reasonableness of religions and the necessity of obedience to the ‘Divine Law’.

From above discussion, we can conclude that the epic, “Paradise Lost” remains one of the finest poems of the world. As it meets up almost all the requirements of a successful epic, now we can undoubtedly regard the poem as a successful epic poem.

Md. Saiful Alam

B. A. Honours and M. A. in English

Lecturer of English

Queen’s College, Dhaka

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my level best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.