BRITISH LITERATURE IN THE 17TH CENTURY

John Milton (1608-1674), a leading poet of the English Revolution, actively supported the ideas of Puritanism in his works. After the execution of Charles I, he was appointed Latin secretary to the newly formed Council of State in Cromwell’s government. He was arrested and fined when the monarchy had been restored, but released, probably because he was blind and very old. At the end of his life, Milton bought a cottage near London and dictated his poems to his daughter. 

During this period, he wrote his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, dealing with the biblical theme of man’s disobedience and thereupon the loss of paradise. 

The main hero in this complicated epic is Adam, representing humanity, Nevertheless, the most fascinating passages are those dealing with the revolt of Satan against heaven and against God, the almighty creator of life. In Satan‘s speeches, God is presented as despotic and unjust in his treatment of Satan; God and his angels reflect the attitudes of an absolute monarch and his court. Satan, in his discussions with fallen angels, supports the principles of independence and freedom of will and evokes a sympathetic response in the reader. Milton wrote immediately the sequel of Paradise Lost, called Paradise Regained in 1671.

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