John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay -- Epic Biblical Poems Blind Faith E

John Miltons Paradise Lost Freedom (free will) is the absence of imposed behavior.Individual freedom is obviously attractive, but when there is realfreedom of choice, the abuse choice is the one that is made - such asthe choice made by Satan who although he can be admired for his havingdared to rebel against the norm, is non heroic for having chosen toplot against God. Free will was given to man in order to be able tochoose the faith since in the absence of free will, there is no way totest faith. The more tested we are, the closer we are to God althoughwhether we truly exercise free will is obscure since perhaps itis simply enforced via the threat of punishment upon transgression. Inany event, despite the sanctions, man continues to disobey.Paradise Lost begins in medias res, i.e. in the middle of the deedand from line 1, the association is made to the consequences ofsinning (disobedience). Such is the responsibility of free will. Themotivation to sin is the associated pleasure of fulfilling individualdesires. Disobedience leads directly to punishment. It is important to bank line however that there is no fulfilment with transgression since thefeelings associated with this fulfilment disappear before they caneven be apprehended while the punishment lasts. Milton for certain knew allabout since as a puritan, he was a great believer of penance. It wasalso believed by Protestants at the time that without deprivationduring life, there was no ascent to Heaven upon death.Satans flaw in one word was pride. For any true protestant, this is aterrible sin since any achievement is directly imputable to God andnot to the man in question. Milton identifies pride as the cardinalsin b... ...ms throughoutParadise Lost that this simple equation might cause since God is goodand Charles II can be compared to God then logically it can bededucted that he is also good. Conversely, in the poem, we arrive atthe conclusion that Satan is bad and this time, since milton compar escromwell to Satan then it would seem logical to deduce that cromwellis also bad. However, this equation does not hold up to closereassessment and in this way, it is evident that in fact, this is a testsince we should properly analyse the facts and not simply acceptthings at face value because they seem right. He encourages us to makeour own investiations and make informed, knowledgable decisions.Consequently, it cannot be simply stated that all monarchs are goodsince such sweeping statements are false and it is indigenous toproperly examine each separate individual.