Milton and the Burden of Freedom

Abstract

Throughout his writings, Milton, deeply engaged in political and theological controversy, sought to clear a space for human freedom in a world ruled by an omniscient and omnipotent deity. Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, as well as other works by Milton in verse and prose, explore the problematical aspects of a universe ruled by an Old Testament God of wrath, demanding obedience, who allows his creatures the freedom to be 'authors' of their own fate. Milton and the Burden of Freedom examines the contradictions inherent in Milton's religious, political, and ethical beliefs as expressed in his poems, prose writings, and the treatise De Doctrina Christiana. Milton, whose writings are rooted in the Reformed tradition while challenging Calvinist orthodoxy, is both radical and conservative. In this book, Warren Chernaik traces the evolution of Milton's attitude towards freedom, servitude and virtue during a century of political upheaval and disappointed hopes.

Milton's Late Poems

“…52 With the reading I am pursuing in this chapter, Paradise Lost offers what Warren Chernaik calls "a space for human freedom." 53 Such a space differs from the familiar arguments about free will in that it allows up front for the consequences of a range of forces in shaping the will, a process of shaping that is neither free in itself nor necessarily freeing. Through its characters' development, Paradise Lost narrates a process not just of realization but also of change.…”