Human Behavior in the Works of John Milton

Introduction: Milton's Life and Literary Context

The English poet John Milton was born on December 9, 1608, in London, near St. Paul's Cathedral. This remarkable birthplace seems prophetic, as Milton became one of the most outspoken voices of his time regarding human behavior and one's relationship with God. Milton was one of three children born to John and Sara Milton. Their family parish, All Hallows, was famous for its reforming Puritan ministers. Milton's father was a professional scrivener as well as a musician and composer (Skerpan-Wheeler).

In 1620, Milton attended St. Paul's School, and in 1625 he entered Christ's College at Cambridge. There Milton studied logic, rhetoric, and ethics. He wrote two books about preaching during this period, and within a few years he was "composing strong, if humorous critiques of strict old-fashioned Aristotelian philosophy" (Skerpan-Wheeler). Milton left Cambridge and became a private student in 1632, hoping to "serve his country by becoming a 'relater of the best and sagest things among mine own Citizens'" (Skerpan-Wheeler). He concluded his education by touring Italy and other countries. When news of civil unrest brought him back to Britain, Milton worked as a tutor but also began to publish pamphlets known as "antiprelatical tracts" (Skerpan-Wheeler).

Many of Milton's works challenged conventions and traditions, and some reveal his reasons for not becoming a clergyman. Albert C. Labriola asserts that Milton's "chief polemical prose was written . . . during the strife between the Church of England and various reformist groups such as the Puritans and between the monarch and Parliament" (Labriola). Labriola further asserts that these works "advocate a freedom of conscience and a high degree of civil liberty for humankind against the various forms of tyranny and oppression, both ecclesiastical and governmental" (Labriola). His works were not without controversy—or fame.

Milton married Mary Powell in 1642. Skerpan-Wheeler suggests this was probably an arranged marriage, since Milton's father owed Powell's father money. Mary returned to her family within months of the wedding, but after external pressure she came back to Milton, and they had a daughter, Anne. His troubled marriage prompted him to write several tracts about divorce, in which he challenged conventional thought by using government as an analogy: if a nation can dissolve its relationship with a failing monarch, then a husband or wife should likewise be able to separate from an incompatible spouse. Milton continued to write on the concerns of his day—education, art, logic, and religious doctrine. His eyesight began to fail, and by 1652 he was totally blind. His wife died in childbirth. In 1656, Milton married Katherine, who died in 1658. In 1663, he married Elizabeth Minshull and is noted to have lived a peaceful life with her.

There is no doubt that Milton's political beliefs affected his writing. This was an organic process, as it tends to be with all thinkers and writers, and Milton seemed to appreciate the unfolding nature of history. His experiences gave him a unique perspective, and we can be confident that he wrote from his own passion and lived knowledge. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than Paradise Lost, in which elements of the Western world are infused with the destiny of one of humanity's oldest stories. Roy Flannagan asserts that Milton was a "child of the Protestant Reformation" (Flannagan 9) and contends that very few individuals have read as widely as Milton did. He composed Latin and Greek dictionaries so "precise and complete" (Flannagan 10) that they served as models for later works. When the new government collapsed and kingship was restored, Milton was jailed for his role in "the now disgraced regicidal (king killing) government" (Moss).

While there is much logic in Milton's work, it should also be noted that his poetry is recognized for its exceptional quality. Thomas Macaulay claimed that Milton's poetry "produces an illusion on the eye of the mind, as a magic lantern acts best in a dark room" (Macaulay 6), functioning like an "incantation" (8). Even though Paradise Lost was written at a time when "images of beauty and tenderness are in general beginning to fade" (19), Milton "adorned it with all that is most lovely and delightful in the physical and moral world" (19). This quality of adornment is precisely what allows Milton's poetry to be studied today.

Political Beliefs and Prose Works

While Milton is renowned for his poetry, it is worth noting that his prose became equally significant, especially during the English Civil War. He was convinced that the political disturbances in England demanded his attention. Alexander Witherspoon notes that even before the break between the Protestants and loyalists, Milton had "allied himself firmly with the Puritan party by a series of pamphlets" (Witherspoon 260). Perhaps one of his most compelling pieces from this period is The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in which Milton justifies the execution of Charles I.

Shortly after the execution of the king, Milton was appointed Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth Council of State, where he served for eleven years and devoted to that cause "most of his energy, his talents, and his eyesight" (Witherspoon 378). The length of time Milton committed to this role demonstrates his passion not only for the war itself but for its outcome. His sentiments are thoroughly reflected in his art.

Lewalski writes that Milton's final years were "busy and productive" (489). He composed Paradise Regained as well as Samson Agonistes. She notes that Paradise Regained "offers Jesus as a model of unflinching resistance to and forthright denunciation of all versions of the sinful or distorted life" (493). In Samson Agonistes, Milton presents a "warrior hero" (493). Both works, she maintains, "dramatize, in different ways, Milton's characteristic stance in the prose tracts: the attainment of liberty, the exercise of governance, and indeed any worthy action in the service of God and country are predicated on virtue, sound moral and political understanding, and openness to divine illumination" (493).

Paradise Lost and the Politics of Human Behavior

Thoughts, beliefs, and passions converge in what is arguably Milton's greatest work, Paradise Lost. J. Martin Evans contends that echoes of Milton's political thought can be found throughout the poem. Evans observes that "the motives which impel Satan on his voyage replicate, in turn, virtually all the social and political arguments advanced in favor of England's colonial expansion in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries" (Evans). He further observes: "During the course of the poem, then, Satan rehearses virtually all the major roles in the repertoire of English colonial discourse. By turns buccaneer, pilgrim, and empire-builder, he embodies not only the destructive potential of imperial conquest but its glamour and energy as well. It may well be no accident that the critical glorification of Milton's devil took place during the heyday of England's imperial power while his descent from hero to fool coincided with its decline" (Evans). Evans also notes that "God's emissaries, too, function as agents of imperial authority. Indeed, Raphael has in some ways even more in common with the explorers than his diabolical antagonist" (Evans). In Evans' reading, even Adam and Eve represent English settlers. While this interpretation may seem far-fetched, it is significant in that it reveals how deeply the conflicts of Milton's age penetrated his epic vision.

Joyce Moss agrees that political struggle is central to the epic. She states:

Paradise Lost is rife with insurrection—Lucifer's, Adam's, and Eve's. By the poem's conclusion, it is clear that obedience to God ought to provide a system for ordering man's behavior in the world. But it is equally clear, according to the poem, that political struggle is a sad fact of fallen humanity, one that perhaps may never be satisfactorily resolved, and that this struggle is rooted in the original battle in the Garden of Eden, in which desire was allowed to overpower reason. . . . In this dark philosophy, upon which the poem ends, one perhaps sees Milton's own hard-learned political lessons. (Moss)

Barbara Lewalski asserts that in Paradise Lost, Milton "poured all that he had learned, experienced, desired, and imagined about life, love, artistic creativity, theology, work, history, and politics" (Lewalski). She argues that the poem is "a more daring political gesture than we often realize" (Lewalski 442) because it "undertakes a strenuous project of educating readers in the virtues, values, and attitudes that make a people worthy of liberty" (Lewalski 442). While on the surface the epic appears to be a tale of Adam and Eve and the Fall, it is certainly much more than that.

Conclusion: Milton's Vision of Moral Life

Milton had a specific vision of human behavior, and he was not inhibited about expressing it. He firmly believed that religion was essential to a fulfilling life, and his writing reveals just how important a relationship with God truly is. Human behavior is illuminated through every character he emphasizes, and it is through the lessons of these characters—Adam, Eve, Satan, Jesus, and Samson—that we learn best how Milton believed we should live. His works remain enduring reflections on the moral possibilities and limitations of human nature.