Free Will

John Milton's Paradise Lost attempts to justify "God's will" by giving a better understanding of the "ways of God", according to the author. In his work, Milton addresses several issues from biblical text as he expands on the "role of woman" as it is written in the book of Genesis. "Woman's role" is recognized and presented as one that is subordinate to man. Several associations are recognized between Milton's work and books of the Bible which reveal much about the way both of these books intend to define the role of a woman.

Milton's purpose in Paradise Lost is nothing less than to assert eternal providence and justify the ways of God to men - a most daunting task.  For Milton to succeed in his endeavour, he has to unravel a number of theologiccal thorns that have troubled christian philosophers for centuries.  Since his epic poem is, essentially, a twelve book argument building to a logical conclusion - the 'justification of the ways of God to men' - he will necessarily have to deal with these dogmatic problems, and, in doing so, reveal his own take on the Christian theology.

Eve’s hunger to become independent from Adam and all she is commanded to do is similar to Satan’s situation in that their yearn for power and singular identity lead them to revolt against their creator. Her desire to separate from Adam is first seen when she is introduced to the audience in her state of narcissism. She sees a reflection of herself in a pond and is in awe of her beauty “of sympathy and love,” (IV, 465) which shows the parallelism to Satan’s own arrogant vanity. He catches on to this similarity they share and decides she will be an easy target of persuasion. He quickly takes charge and plans how he will lead her to eat the apple from the “Tree of Knowledge,” which is the only tree that God prohibited to pick fruit from. Satan first catches her attention by being a serpent who speaks; something she had never encountered before. He smooth talks her into really listening to him by focusing his words around her and how much better life could be if she just took a bite

The best response to the problem of evil is the free will response. This response argues that God, although “All-PKG,” is not literally capable of doing anything. That is, God cannot do something against its own definition. For example, God cannot create a box which is round, because the definition of those two things makes them impossible to be the other. Following this logic, the free will response says that God created humans as beings with free will, so he cannot control the actions of humans based on the definition of free will.

A central problem in John Milton's "Paradise Lost" in the theological issue of free will versus fate, a traditionally much-debated question. Free will is the condition of having control or direction over fate or destiny; the individual shapes his life and future through his actions. The opposing view, complete lack of free will (made famous by John Calvin), is predestination, which expresses the idea that our futures have been foreseen long before our existences, so our actions are preordained, and our paths chosen for us. Milton's presentation of the character Adam wrestles with these ideas around free will throughout Paradise Lost; while he does in fact eat the apple of his own

John Milton’s Paradise Lost presents an unorthodox version of the book of Genesis from the bible. Milton’s interpretation is problematic in that it encourages readers to become sympathetic with Satan, as well as introduces gender inequality in a powerful way. Adam is presented as a perfect creature who is strong and brave and Eve is created from his rib, and is offered as a weaker, less important character. When Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge causing the fall of mankind, Milton points to her weakness as a woman for blame. However, Milton then writes book eleven of Paradise Lost, which shows that Eve fell for no other reason that it was all a part of God’s plan. Eve’s fall in Milton’s Paradise Lost is a result of God’s plan, however,

Milton in Paradise Lost illustrates God as the main creator of life. Milton also expresses that God’s real desire is power. God here used his own power of free will to make the decision to create life. From this, the reader can already see the ability of free will being practiced. He mentions that he gave all angels and man the power of free will so they can express their own individuality in

Through his work of Paradise Lost, Milton exposes his view that God allows suffering in order for a greater good of the human race to exist. Milton uses the Fall- both Satan’s and Adam and Eve’s- as a device to demonstrate human corruption, as each fall is “a step down from a higher being to a lower being”. Both the Fall of Satan and the Fall of Adam & Eve are falls away from a position of divine power to a position of chaos and disorder- something Milton illustrates as an undesirable event. Milton introduces Satan as a selfish, power-hungry character; similar to an individual of today’s society who believes they are the greatest- nobody can ‘one-up’ them. He inherently denies of the existence of a greater God, as that would discredit his own belief that he is the utmost being. Instead of blind denial, Satan instead builds up a power against God himself, in an effort to “contest the throne of Heaven” (slide). However, this in of itself is a hypocrisy on his own beliefs, as he cannot be autonomous in a search for autonomy, since he is unable to defeat God on his own. This is Satan’s first fall, because he has now relinquished his stance on denying a being greater than himself, and must maintain his uprising unless he wants to face what Milton would consider a second Fall. Milton uses Satan as a representation of disobedience within the human race; he is the ‘wrong direction’ in the two paths of moral decisions. He uses Satan to show that rebellion that stems from self-

     In Paradise Lost, the consequences of the fall and the change in relations between man and nature can best be discussed when we look at Milton's pre-fall descriptions of Eden and its inhabitants. Believing that fallen humans could never fully understand what life was like in Eden and the relationships purely innocent beings shared, Milton begins his depiction of Paradise and Adam and Eve through the fallen eyes of Satan:

Written at the heart of the Enlightenment John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, illustrates some of the impacts that the key principles of the controversial time. Paradise Lost, unlike the King James Bible, shows logical thinking, complexity, and true love in Adam and Eve. This gives the reader more of an idea of how he tries to justify God’s ways to men. In doing this John Milton shows the reader that Adam and Eve should be held most responsible for the fall of mankind, because God created them able to resist temptation yet free to make their own decisions.

In this epic poem, John Milton defines God as an all-knowing and an all-powerful entity and also that he created everything not only in the world, but the universe. In this creation, it is said that he made all things perfect. However, a major contradiction occurs as Satan is very active, and he is far from perfect. To correct this mistake, Milton said that the ability of all to have free will was the reason that some people turn bad. “Let us advise, and to this hazard draw with speed what force is left, and all employ on our defense, lest unawares we lose this our high place, our sanctuary, our hill,” (Bk. 5, 729-732). We can see this example of free will when God is examining the fact that Satan and his army are advancing in their actions. If they had no free will, God would have been able to put a stop to this, rather than just watch the events unfold. Either everything God created was not actually perfect, or God did actually create evil, and this can be seen as the root cause of the fall of mankind. While God may have not created evil, as depicted by Milton’s theodicy, the idea of free will can be seen as another root cause to the sin and fall of Adam and Eve. This just shows that even if Adam and Eve had not eaten the fruit from the forbidden tree, the evil and sin was still going to occur. Thus, all of the horrible things that happen in the world cannot

Choices are the ability to do one thing or another, and these things could be good or evil. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, God chooses to create everything good in the world which includes free-will for his creation. They now have the same ability to decide whether to do good or evil. Satan quickly demonstrates this ability by doing evil when he rallies some angels to fight with him against God. Satan vows revenge when God kicks him and the traitor angels out of Heaven. Satan’s sedition tempts God’s creation into mutinying against God. Both male and female do what is wrong. They put the forbidden fruit into their mouth and swallow it. In Paradise Lost by John Milton, the four main characters make a decision, to create, to destroy, or to rebel, and each are subject to the consequences of that choice.

In the story of creation expressed in “Paradise Lost”, Milton depicts how food can act as a way to transform a person of innocence into one defined largely by depravity. Within his story, Milton communicates the fall of man through the act of consumption. Reversely, man’s ability to achieve redemption is also profoundly contingent on food. In religiously sanctioned eating, such as the Holy Communion, food can act to aid one’s relationship with God. By participating in the Eucharist and other godly ways of consumption, man becomes able to rebuild and restore the relationship with God that became corrupt after Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge. In Christian faith, everything hinges on God’s interpretation. If God gives a regulation, whether that regulation present itself in the form of food or not, man’s level of ability and willingness to follow that decree largely defines his spiritual

In this plan for man's salvation the end shall justify God's means. Therefore justifing the problem of evil and reasons for allowing both sin and death to exist. This ultimate plan of God's Milton presents in Paradise Lost is also a Greater Good Defense. Still, some might not understand why God finds it necessary to put his creations through this process. Milton shows us how this process benefits mankind who has fallen from grace, and also benefits God.

Free will and the ability to make choices will result in consequences. In the passage from “Book IX” of Paradise Lost, John Milton indirectly conveys the “cause and effect” concept, initially stemming from Eve’s decision to eat the Forbidden Fruit, resulting in her fall from grace and into humanity. Milton ultimately focuses on describing Eve and her transformation of character after her sin in order to emphasize her fall from purity and portray the significance of her disobedience.