Paradise Lost Theme
When John Milton begins the poem of Paradise Lost he states that the theme of this story will be “Mans first disobedience”. The ideas of obedience/disobedience were one of the most common themes seen throughout the poem of Paradise Lost. Within it, all sins are seen as acts of disobedience against God. The poem tells the story of how Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and even further describes Satan’s disobedience. Once the first disobedient act occurs, there are usually two moral paths that one can take: the downward spiral of increasing sin, shown by Satan, or the road to redemption, as shown by Adam and Eve. Milton forms the basis of his poem by presenting these two paths. He does an intricate job of presenting the two paths by repeating the use of a motif. He uses the motif of light and dark, or good or evil throughout the whole of the poem. Milton’s use of such motif, of light and dark, helps to show us the conflicts the characters face between good and evil and their struggles with obedience throughout the poem. Although Adam and Eve were the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all God’s creation to disobey. Milton portrays humanistic features in the character of Satan, enabling readers to identify with him and to see the contrast between good and evil. In book One of Paradise Lost we first learn about Satan’s disobedience to God. Satan first disobeys by being rebellious resulting in his banishment from heaven to hell, due to his jealousy. After being banished from Heaven, Satan decides to corrupt God’s new creation of man on earth, this marking his path of the downward spiral of sin. Although God commanded that no one be let through the gates of hell, Satan’s daughter disobeys and lets her father through. This showing the continuing acts of disobedience towards God, and how Satan is causing those around him to sin and disobey as well. The idea of disobedience is continued when we meet Adam and Eve. We learn in the poem that Adam and
Cited: Milton, John. "Paradise Lost." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005 . 276-280.