Endless Search for Truth in John Milton's Paradise Lost Paradise Lost essays

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Paradise Lost and the Endless Search for Truth To some, truth is something that is absolute and unchanging. To others, truth is volatile and inconstant. In the 16th and 17th century, the foundations of civilization itself had been shaken. Many of the ideas which were thought to be absolutely true had been plunged into the depths of uncertainty. The cosmological, geographical, and religious revolutions called into question the nature of truth itself. It is no wonder, then, that some of the great writers at the time included within their works a treatise on the ways in which truth is constructed. Because of the major ideological revolutions that shaped their world, Milton used characters and theatrical devices to create their own ideas on the construction of truth. As a result of Milton's failed political aspirations, he believes that individuals do not construct truth, or decide for themselves what the truth is; instead, individuals receive the truth directly or indirectly from God. Conversely, deception comes from Satan. In Paradise Lost, Milton sets up this idea by forcing good to result only from obedience to God's will and evil to result whenever God is disobeyed. Dr. Evans' argument that Milton's ultimate point in all this is to express a moral position that is very extreme, that no quality or action can be innately good or evil, is firmly rooted in this model. What determines the morality of anything we do is in whose service we do it. Since Raphael was sent from God, his warning is true and divine. Since Satan disobeyed God, his ideas are all false lies. Part of Milton's ideology may have come from his own life experiences. After the restoration of the monarchy, his political aspirations were crushed. As a result, he had probably lost some faith in the ability of individuals to correctly determine the truth for themselves. It would be comforting to him, then, if truth and goodness could only come from God. Milton's experiences greatly influence his conception of truth, urging him to develop truth as something that comes from only one divine source and is absolutely constant. Milton believes, on the other hand, that since humans are imperfect, mistakes will ultimately be made when deriving the truth. So rather than having individuals decide on the vast arrays of ideas in the world, it is more comforting for Milton to have the truth decided by a divine authority. Milton uses the characters of God and Raphael to construct his idea of divine truth. Raphael is a messenger sent directly from God, and because his warnings are disobeyed by Adam, Adam lets Eve separate from him, which leads to and eventually the fall of man. It is important that Raphael is a messenger figure, since he contrasts Satan, who is telling his allies his own message. It is not necessarily the message or idea itself which determines its validity, but who says the message determines its truthfulness, according to Milton. Although Satan's message seems to be one that has elements of nobility, taking on the fight against seemingly impossible odds, turning fear into hope, because that message comes from Satan, it is inherently bad. The messenger figures force upon us a notion of truth that is based upon the origin of the message rather than the content of the message. Milton uses this deceptive notion of the truth in Paradise Lost in order to construct a theory of morality that is based upon the individual doing the action rather than the action itself. With the character of Satan, Milton offers many instances of deception, only one of which is the temptation of Eve by Satan. Many of the events in the poem to show how easily we are deceived. Eve's temptation of Adam is only one example. Her ulterior motive of having Adam eat the fruit, and thus die, so that he would never be with another woman, is questionable at best. Yet her attempt at deception fails, since Adam takes the apple for different reasons. This example suggests that deception, no matter to what end, is immoral. The many examples of Satan's deception not working adds to this idea. Like Dr. Evans says, Satan turns into a serpent for the sole purpose of it being discreet. Yet the fact that he turns into a talking serpent is precisely the thing that grabs Eve's attention and would have foiled Satan's plans if it were not for what Dr. Evans called Satan's improvisational work. Throughout the book, Satan's "infernal logic," as we call it in section, appears in his speeches. Two examples are, "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven" (Milton 240) and, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 240). As Dr. Evans said, Milton is taking the position of a moral extremist. He is saying that evil beings can only do evil things; conversely, good people can only do good things. Morality, then, is shaped by the individuals doing the action rather than a coherent philosophical ideology. The nature of truth is not constant and unchanging; instead it is as volatile as the world around us. As discomforting as it may seem to us, our search for the truth is endless. It may seem that the moment we find a truth that satisfies us, another truth is discovered, which shakes the very foundation of our beliefs. We may want to believe a certain opinion, and we may even try to hold on to that opinion in the midst of conflicting evidence, but if we do, we are likely to be left behind by the rest of history. The revolution of thought that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries forced Milton to change the foundations of their own thought. They were all willing to present to us their own ideology of truth so that we may benefit from their knowledge. Everyone faces these crises in life, the crisis of one's own opinions being shattered by reality. We may hold on to our opinions, disregarding fact or twisting the facts to fit our theories. But in order for progress to occur, we must at times shed our previous beliefs in favor of ones newly created. We must endeavor to find a version of the truth that is based in knowledge, and one that satisfies our desires. We may never find a version of truth that is satisfactory for everyone. But our search cannot cease. Truth, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

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