Analysing Milton's Paradise Lost as an Allegory of socio-political anxieties during the Restoration period (post-Republican) in England

Abstract

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is often approached as a theological epic concerned with the “Fall of Man”, divine providence, free will and redemption, but the poem also functions as a profound political allegory emerging from the turbulent historical circumstances of seventeenth-century England. Written by a committed Puritan intellectual who had actively supported the English Commonwealth and defended the execution of Charles I, the epic bears the imprint of the anxieties generated by the English Civil War, the Puritan Revolution, the Commonwealth and the Restoration of Charles II. This paper argues that Paradise Lost simultaneously operates as sacred history and political commentary. Through the depiction of cosmic conflicts between God and Satan, Milton dramatizes contemporary debates concerning liberty, authority, monarchy, conscience and rebellion. While the epic ultimately justifies divine authority, it also grants Satan a renaissance humanist psychology along with a strong rhetorical power and autonomy like never before. The resulting ambiguity allows Milton to encode his own political disappointments within a theological framework. The paper further explores how Milton transformed classical epic conventions through Christian subject matter and examines the allegorical acronym “PARADISE” as a framework for understanding the poem’s engagement with the period of Restoration in England.