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Summary of “An Essay on Man” by Alexander Pope
Summary of an essay on man by alexander pope
Summary of “An Essay on Man” by Alexander Pope
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An Essay on Man
Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man is an attempt to vindicate, as Milton had attempted to justify, the ways of God to man. Both attempt to explain God to man, but come up with different conclusions. Milton states that man can overcome God's design through faith and decency. In contrast, Pope remarks that man must accept what life gives him without trying to change his fate.
Milton seeks to "justify the ways of God to men" (Paradise Lost, 1.26) through example. Paradise Lost focuses on the fall of man and the consequences thereof. After the fall of man, Adam and Eve must endure their punishments, and achieve redemption. They can no longer live within the confines of Eden; but through faith and conviction they will persevere. God gives Adam and Eve free will and the use of reason. Although they choose poorly and are punished with the pains and sufferings of humanity, God allows Adam and Eve to live; though not as they were accustomed to in Paradise. They must live life as we know it; with its weaknesses, yearnings, inevitable defeats; but with the knowledge that they can overcome "To leave this Paradise, but shalt posses / A Paradise within thee, happier far" (Paradise Lost, 12.586-587).
Similar to Milton, Pope tries to "vindicate the ways of God to man" (An Essay on Man, p. 2264.16), however he derives a different conclusion. Pope believes that "In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies" (An Essay on Man, p. 2266.123). He sets out to demonstrate that no matter how imperfect and disturbingly evil the universe may appear; it is nonetheless a work of God and must be accepted "Then say not man's imperfect, Heaven in fault; / Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought" (An Essay on Man, p. 2265.69-70). It seems imperfect to us only because our perceptions are limited by our moral and intellectual capacity. His conclusion is "And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, / One truth is clear: Whatever is, is RIGHT" (An Essay on Man, p. 2270.291 - 292) that we must learn to accept our positions in the universe, in which we can, lead happy and virtuous lives.
...to mankind in Paradise Lost - one of the fundamental concepts in Christianity and vital to Milton's objective to "justify the ways of God to men" (1, 26) - the gods in the Aeneid are continually reminding Aeneas that he cannot afford to be distractive by the temptresses that are women because the future of Rome lays in his hands. Milton's God, on the other hand, allows Eve to fall and her blatant transgression caused the loss of paradise and all of creation has to experience the consequences of original sin. In Paradise Lost Eve was expected to submit to her ultimate authority, Adam. Rather, it is Adam in Book IX who submits to Eve's unreasonable discourse on separation. Indeed, the implication of a man (as a superior being) succumbing to feminine wiles and passion is an intense concept which - for both Virgil and Milton - threatened the very basis of their society.
The seat of faith resides in the will of the individual and not in the leaning to our own reasoning, for reasoning is the freedom of choosing what one accepts as one’s will. In considering the will was created and one cannot accuse the potter or the clay, Milton writes to this reasoning, as “thir own revolt,” whereas the clay of humankind is sufficient and justly pliable for use as a vessel of obedience or disobedience (3.117). The difficulty of this acceptance of obedience or disobedience is inherent in the natural unwillingness in acknowledging that we are at the disposal of another being, even God. One theme of Paradise Lost is humankind’s disobedience to a Creator, a Creator that claims control over its creation. When a single living thing which God has made escapes beyond the Creator’s control this is in essence an eradicating of the Creator God. A Creator who would create a creature who the Creator would or could not control its creation is not a sovereign God. For who would not hold someone responsible for manufacturing something that could not be controlled and consider it immoral to do so? To think that God created a universe that he has somehow abdicated to its own devices is to accredit immorality to the Creator. Since the nucleus of Milton’s epic poem is to “justifie the wayes of God” to his creation, these ‘arguments’ are set in theological Miltonesque terms in his words (1. 26). Milton’s terms and words in Paradise Lost relate the view of God to man and Milton’s view to the reader. Views viewed in theological terms that have blazed many wandering paths through the centuries to knot up imperfect men to explain perfect God.
In Paradise Lost, Milton displays the Christian worldview by integrating truths and values of his faith in place of humanistic values. Key elements such as the nature of the protagonist, the setting in which the epic takes place, and rudiments of the plot convey the fundamental aspects of Christianity. Milton took his worldview and applied it to a worldly genre, revolutionizing the epic
While he was studying and learning the scriptures he became exceedingly fearful of God and was quite concerned about how he would ever be forgiven for his sins. This weighed heavily on him to the point that he became eccentric in his attempts and methods to be forgiven. He eventually left for Wittenberg and became a theology lecturer while he was studying for his doctorate. It was that during this time his manner of thinking started to change. He started to read and interpret the scriptures on his own instead of blindly following the message that the church preaches about it. One day while working on a lecture he came across the phrase “the just shall live by faith,” (Christ pp195) which transformed the way he thought about God and the good works doctrine of the church. He now started to believe that God was a just and a benevolent God, and that forgiveness did not depend on his own righteousness. He started to see that humankind could not be righteous because we were prone to sin from the beginning and that all it took was for one to place his faith in Jesus Christ and God would pronounce that sinner
Human reason has not always been a presence in our daily lives. Doing the right thing, being ethical, and making educated decisions, one would think, are the ideal principles behind human nature. Sadly, only in more recent times has human reason shed its good grace on more modern societies. For many centuries, constant war and the reconstruction to nations, countries, and empires led to the rise and fall of many different leaders and in tow their governments. Within such societies, political spokesmen like Machiavelli, Locke, and Marx, interpret their ideas to the people, which still remain significant to this day. One of their main focuses was to raise awareness, on their ideas on trust and human reason. While Locke and Marx urge us to have faith in human reason, as a positive means to society, Machiavelli would claim the contrary. The concept of human nature and reason to both John Locke and Karl Marx juxtaposes that of Machiavelli’s, and their notions derive from their different eras, economies, environments, and strict governments, which ultimately shaped their ideologies on human nature.
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:
In Paradise Lost, Milton portrays his belief that God's real desire is power. To achieve this power, God has given to man the freedom to choose. By giving mankind, more specifically Adam and Eve, this freedom, God will have undefeatable power because those following him will be true. As Eve later states,
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
The attention Milton gives to each character, and their specific personality, allows us to interpret their actions as consciously chosen deeds within the larger framework of the poem. Great detail is given to the idea of "creation". Beyond that of the creation of the world in Book I, there are many instances where the act of creation itself becomes an act of endowing power on some object or person. The most obvious example would be the creation of Adam and Eve by God. By creating the pair, God, desires them to glorify His ways through their praises and deeds. He gives them enough power over their destiny to choose to worship Him as the Almighty. The fact that they have free will is important to God because they choose to give Him praise despite any outside temptation. There is one obvious drawback to this kind of power. They chose to follow Satan’s beguiling words. The fact that they had the free will to follow Satan’s words meant that their decision was cosmically more important because it was arrived at through conscious thought. We can see this idea of power demonstrated throughout Paradise Lost. The dual relationship between the beneficial act of bestowing power at the time of creation and the negative side of the free will to use that power freely, shows up within every character. Instances of creation appear in every book, and can be associated with every character. Some of the first appearances of the word "author" are connected with the idea of creation. In Book III, the throngs of assembled angels say,"Eternal King, the Author of all being/Fountain of light, thyself invisible/..." (III, 376-7) Here God is portrayed as the great originator of everything in all of creation. To be the "author" of something is to be the creator, much the same way as Milton himself is creating the world of the poem. In virtually every instance the act of "authoring", is associated with images of primacy and legitimacy. The ultimate act of creation, that of shaping the physical world itself, brings about another reference to this idea.
Complicating Milton’s Eve: Justifying the Ways of God to Man, and the Ways of Man to Women While the Biblical creation story is just one in a diverse cannon of creation mythologies and superstitions which have informed various cultures throughout history, for John Milton and the Christian faithful of his time the Bible served as a powerful social tool, accepted as historical fact and employed to justify societal conventions, describe natural phenomena, and clarify a meaning for life. Throughout his life and the litany of his works, John Milton sought to understand the great truths of his world through rational observation and analysis, applying his dialectic lens to understand faith, reason, and human nature through a philosophy of binarism.
God wants a new intelligent species to roam the Earth and wants them to be able to prosper without him. He knows this is going to be a tough task so he creates two humans first and tests them to see if they are ready for his Son his second in command. Once he sees that they are ready he sends his Son to Earth and allows mankind to go on living life on their own. I believe Milton uses juxtaposition throughout Paradise Lost to confuse the reader at times but ultimately try to point out the plan God has for
Reichert, John. Milton's Wisdom: Nature and Scripture in Paradise Lost. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press. 1992
In the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Milton wastes no time conveying to his readers what his purpose in writing the epic is. He writes in the beginning that he intends to “assert Eternal Providence, / and justifie the wayes of God to men” (I. 25-26). What exactly does this mean though? In order to be able to clearly judge and evaluate what these lines imply, it is important that one understands what exactly Milton’s thoughts we regarding “Eternal Providence” and the “wayes of God”. Stemming from this idea, it is important to also realize how the idea of free will intertwines with the omniscience of God. For Milton, God’s omniscient did not constrain the free will of Adam and Eve. However, this idea presents the reader with a paradoxical situation that Milton as an author was fully aware of. Paradise Lost presents the reader with eternal providence and free will as being part and parcel of each other, neither constrains the other, and it is these two aspects, along with that of knowledge that lay the groundwork in understanding Paradise Lost.
In "An Essay on Man" Pope is trying to make clear the relationship of humanity to the universe, himself, society and also to happiness. He states "For me health gushes from a thousand springs; seas roll to waft me suns to light- me rise; My footstool earth my canopy the skies" (330). Pope implies that the universe is created for man's pleasures and needs and so therefore we are all connected to the chain of universal order. Through this connection man realizes that all are part of one stupendous whole. He then suggests that this order extends further then we know; any interference with it could destroy the whole. Pope asks in the poem, "Is the greater chain, that draws all to agree, upheld by God or thee?" (327).
Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton uses various tools of the epic to convey a traditional and very popular Biblical story. He adds his own touches to make it more of an epic and to set forth new insights into God's ways and the temptations we all face. Through his uses of love, war, heroism, and allusion, Milton crafted an epic; through his references to the Bible and his selection of Christ as the hero, he set forth a beautifully religious Renaissance work. He masterfully combined these two techniques to create a beautiful story capable of withstanding the test of time and touching its readers for centuries.