Course Title: Introduction to Literary Criticism and
Theory
Topic: FROM MILTON
by Samuel Johnson
Course Instructor: Fasiha Batool
Samuel Johnson’s Points of Critique on Milton’s Poem PARADISE LOST
1. Samuel Johnson maintains about ‘Paradise Lost’ that among the productions of the human mind, with respect to design this
poem may claim the first place, and with respect to performance it claims the second place.
2. Samuel Johnson quotes Bossu (a French Critic), who maintains that the moral of other poems is incidental and consequent; in
Milton’s only it is essential and intrinsic. Milton’s purpose in Paradise Lost was the most useful and the most arduous
(difficult, requiring effort): “to vindicate the ways of God to man;” to show the reasonableness of religion, and the necessity
of obedience to the Divine Law.
3. About Milton’s style
To convey the moral there must be a fable; a narration artfully constructed, so as to excite curiosity and surprise expectation.
In this part of his work Milton have equaled every other poet. He has involved in his account of the Fall
of Man the events which preceded and those that were to follow it; he has interwoven the whole system of theology with such
propriety that every part appears to be necessary; and scarcely any recital is wished shorter for the sake of quickening the progress
of the main action.
4. About Milton’s Choice of Subject:
The subject of an epic poem is naturally an event of great importance. That of Milton is not the destruction of a city, the conduct of
a colony, or the foundation of an empire.
His subject is the fate of worlds, the revolutions of heaven and of earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest
order of created beings; the overthrow of their host, and the punishment of their crime; the creation of a new race of reasonable
creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture(punishment for wrongdoing) of immortality, and their restoration
to hope and peace.
5. About defect in the presentations of agents:
Samuel Johnson maintains that great events can be hastened or retarded only by persons of elevated dignity.
The weakest of the agents(Adam & Eve) in the Paradise Lost are the highest and the noblest of human beings, the original parents
of mankind.
6. About Types of CHARACTERS in the Paradise Lost:
The characters in the Paradise Lost are those of angels and of man; of angels good and evil; of man in his innocent and
sinful state.
7. Description of Angels:
Samuel Johnson maintains about Virtuous angels that,
➢ The virtue of RAPHAEL is mild and placid (tranquil), of easy condescension (superior behavior) and free communication.
➢ The virtue of MICHAEL is regal (royal) and lofty, attentive to the dignity of his own nature.
➢ ABDIEL and GABRIEL appear occasionally, and act as every incident requires.
➢ Milton has amiably painted the solitary fidelity (loyalty, observance of duties)of ABDIEL.
Samuel Johnson maintains about the Evil angels that,
➢ In the speeches of one of the Evil angels, SATAN, there is little that can give pain to a pious ear. The language of rebellion
cannot be the same with that of obedience.
➢ The malignity (malicious behavior) of Satan foams in haughtiness (arrogance) and obstinacy (stubbornness in changing one’s
opinion), but his expressions are commonly general and are wicked (evil or morally wrong).
➢ The love of Adam and Eve is pure benevolence and mutual veneration (respect) , their repasts are without luxury and their
diligence is without toil.
➢ Adam and Eve addresses to their Maker with the voice of admiration and gratitude.
➢ Fruition (Realization) left Adam and Eve nothing to ask; and innocence left them nothing to fear.
➢ In Adam and Eve, with guilt, enter the distrust and discord, mutual accusation and stubborn self-defence; they regard each
other as alienated minds, and dread their Creator as the avenger of their transgression.
➢ Finally Adam and Eve take shelter in His mercy, soften to repentance, and they melt in supplication(prayers).
8.About two parts of an Epic:
Of the probable and the marvelous, two parts of a vulgar epic poem, the ‘Paradise Lost’ requires little to be said.
It contains the history of a miracle,—of creation and redemption;
it displays the power and the mercy of the Supreme Being: the probable therefore is marvelous, and the marvelous is probable.
9. About Narrative:
The substance of the narrative is truth; and as truth allows no choice, it is, like necessity, superior to rule. To the accidental or
adventitious parts, as to everything human, some slight exceptions may be made; but the main fabric is immovably supported.
10. About MACHINERY & EPISODES:
Of the MACHINERY (Supernatural power) everything is done under the immediate and visible direction of Heaven
Of two EPISODES, Raphael’s relation of the war in Heaven, and Michael’s prophetic account of the changes to happen in the
world, both are closely connected with the great action; one was necessary for Adam as a warning, the other as a consolation.
11. About Integrity of the Design:
➢ To the completeness or integrity of the design nothing can be objected: it has distinctly and clearly what Aristotle requires—a
beginning, a middle, and an end.
➢ There is perhaps no poem of the same length from which so little can be taken without apparent mutilation (damage). Here are
no funeral games, nor is there any long description of a shield.
➢ The short digressions at the beginning of the third, seventh, and ninth books might doubtless be spared; but superfluities
(embellishments)are so beautiful.
➢ Milton, though he entitled ‘Paradise Lost’ only a “poem,” yet calls it himself “heroic song”.
12. About Sentiments and Diction:
➢ After the scheme and fabric of the poem, Samuel Johnson considers the component parts, the sentiments and the diction.
➢ The sentiments, as expressive of manners or appropriated to characters, are for the greater part unexceptionably just.
➢ Splendid passages containing lessons of morality or precepts of prudence occur seldom. Such is the original formation of this
poem, that as it admits no human manners till the Fall, it can give little assistance to human conduct.
➢ Its end is to raise the thoughts above sublunary cares or pleasures. Yet the praise of that fortitude with which Abdiel maintained
his singularity of virtue against the scorn of multitudes may be accommodated to all times; and Raphael’s reproof of Adam’s
curiosity after the planetary motions, with the answer returned by Adam, may be confidently opposed to any rule of life which
any poet has delivered.
13. About Thoughts in Paradise Lost:
➢ The characteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He
can occasionally invest himself with grace; but his natural port is gigantic loftiness. He can please when pleasure is
required; but it is his peculiar power to astonish.
➢ Milton knows the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and
aggravating the dreadful: he therefore chose a subject on which too much could not be said, on which he might tire his
fancy without the censure of extravagance.
➢ In Milton every line breathes sanctity of thought and purity of manners, except when the train of the narration requires
the introduction of the rebellious spirits; and even they are compelled to acknowledge their subjection to God, in such a
manner as excites reverence and confirms piety.
15. Fault in the Allegory of Sin and Death:
➢ Milton’s allegory of Sin and Death is undoubtedly faulty.
➢ Sin is indeed the mother of Death, and may be allowed to be the portress of hell; but when they stop the journey of
Satan, a journey described as real, and when Death offers him battle, the allegory is broken.
➢ That Sin and Death should have shown the way to hell, might have been allowed; but they cannot facilitate the
passage by building a bridge, because the difficulty of Satan’s passage is described as real and sensible, and the
bridge ought to be only figurative.
➢ The hell assigned to the rebellious spirits is described as not less local than the residence of man. It is placed in
some distant part of space, separated from the regions of harmony and order by a chaotic waste and an unoccupied
vacuity; but Sin and Death worked up a “mole of aggravated soil” cemented with asphaltus, a work too bulky for
ideal architects.
➢ This unskillful allegory appears to me one of the greatest faults of the poem; and to this there was no temptation
but the author’s opinion of its beauty.
About Paradise Regained:
➢ Of Paradise Regained, the general judgement is that it is in many parts elegant and everywhere instructive.
➢ The basis of Paradise Regained is narrow and its dialogue is without action.
