Among Milton's three major poems, the brief epic thus addressed itself most specifically to the Restoration audience. While Paradise Lost was evidently composed over the long period before and after the Restoration, it saw new political problems in post-revolutionary society. The text conceals the historical traces of its own composition so skilfully that readers are likely to forget its political significance. Paradise Lost is obviously political poem. It is true, that Milton's concern with political circumstances is an important element that enables him to perform his role as a prophet and to participate in the historical process with a prophetic vision of teaching and correcting his contemporaries. Order custom essay Background and Politics in John Milton`s Paradise Lostįor Hill, it is astonishing if Paradise Lost is not about politics he calls it “a different type of political action from those which have failed so lamentably” (67). Hill connects Milton's ideas, or even his theology, to the political circumstances of seventeenth-century England. Christopher Hill (1978), for example, stresses the importance of a historical approach to Milton's Paradise Lost. They tend to lay much emphasis on his political awareness to see spiritual aspects that underlie Milton's poetic imagination. Recent critics have called attention to Milton's view of history reflected in his Paradise Lost. Thus he becomes a prophet, seeing the things invisible and proclaiming the values that are eternal.
Milton finds the will of God, not in the reformation of the political world, but in the spiritual reformation of each individual. Once an active participant in the political turmoil of seventeenth-century England, he now asserts in Paradise Lost “Eternal Providence” that transcends not only his contemporary England but also the sinful works of men in history. Milton has dramatic vision of God in history, re-creating the key stories of Scripture.
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