Small Failures Huge Success – Paradise Lost

It is the flaws of Paradise Lost that make it better than a more perfect poem could ever be. Written by Protestant Christian John Milton as an epic, Paradise Lost is a twist on the biblical story of Adam and Eve, challenging long held Christian beliefs and suggesting controversial new ones. The poem travels outside the limits of traditional Christian doctrine and in turn several aspects are question begging; questions arising from readings of the poem are what make it a success. Indeed, it is the flaws, inconsistencies, and unconvincing aspects of Paradise Lost that stimulate its reader to question the meaning or intention behind the poem or specific dialogue within: in his essay “A Defence of Poetry” Percy Bryssh Shelley argues that there is no such thing as a failed poet or a failed poem and when this argument is applied to Paradise Lost it suggests that the poem is successful because it is created in the imagination of Milton and it stimulates the imagination of those who read it.

The role reason and imagination have in poetic creation is a dominant theme found in romantic period literature and as such provides excellent literary examples supporting Paradise Lost: an especially good example is Percy Bryssh Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”. Shelley presents the idea that imagination is essential to poetic expression and is derived within the mind through reason, making it reasonable to say that poets and his poetry can never fail because poetic expression requires an examination and explication of new thought. If poetry is created from imagination then Milton’s poem must be read subjectively because each persons thought processes will bring them to a different conclusion. Shelley supports this when he attests that “language is arbitrarily produced by the imagination, and has relation to thoughts alone.”1 A bad poem can seem like a ‘failure’ but it can never be a true failure if it has been conceived with the imagination of its creator and maintains the ability to spark the imagination of others who read it. Paradise Lost has many flaws but because the flaws raise questions they contribute to the success of the poem.

One critical flaw of Paradise Lost is its ineffectiveness in conveying the message that God is good and should be worshipped by man. In essence, the poem as an epic fails in developing and promoting its hero; as such it is unclear who the hero or protagonist is. The similes and metaphors used to describe Satan are greater than those that describe God in the first three books where attention is usually given to the protagonist. Furthermore, it is easy to sympathize with the supposed antagonist, Satan. God is not strictly benevolent, he acts in his own interests as is shown when he appoints his son to sit beside him in heaven, creating jealousy amongst angels because the son is receiving special treatment: this allows sympathy for the devil. Sympathy for the devil, uncertainty of who is the protagonist, and questioning of God’s benevolence all add up to foil the soundness of the poem.

Furthermore, the question of God’s benevolence and ulterior-motives behind his decisions undermines the entirety of Paradise Lost. When God created Eve, the perfect companion to Adam, did he know that they would come to worship each other more than him? He may have as the events leading to and including the creation of Eve, the deception of Eve by a disguised Satan, the fall of man, and the punishment set for Adam and Eve are questionable in regards to the benevolence and omnipotence of God. He creates Eve, more perfect than Adam, as any second creation would be after the mistakes of the first are corrected; however, he somehow fails to see how the two will react and possibly inspire each other to further desire forbidden knowledge and sin. The punishment set for Adam and Eve (the fall of man), is the most likely candidate for an ulterior-motive because God, who gave man free-will and therefore could not intervene when he saw Satan talking to Eve, now has an avenue at which he may seek revenge on Satan: sending his only son to the earthly realm so that he may sacrifice himself for the sin of man.

Paradise Lost can be seen as flawed in several ways but it manages to remain a strong force in the literary canon. The power of art to fuel imaginations long after its creation is why Milton is a success. In “Areopagitica” Milton shows his appreciation for the transcending power of poetry when he says “… books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”2 From devout Catholic to agnostic university student, Milton inspires individuals to question their faith and outlook on life, for this reason Paradise Lost is a success.

References

Milton, John. “Areopagitica.” The Major Works – Including Paradise Lost. Eds. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. New York. Oxford, 2003.

Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.” The Major Works – Including Paradise Lost. Eds. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. New York. Oxford, 2003. 355-618

Rumrich, John Peter. “Uninventing Milton.” Modern Philology. Vol. 87, No. 3 (1990): 249-265. Retrieved from J-STOR 04/02/06.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “A Defence of Poetry.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature Volume 2a – The Romantics and their Contemporaries. 2nd Ed. Eds. David Damrosch, et al. Toronto: Longman, 2003. 801-810.