Milton's 'Paradise Regained' by Jessica & Joanna About 'Regained' Published 1671 as a sequel to 'Lost' Comprises four books ('Lost' has twelve) averaging about five hundred lines of blank verse each Protagonist is Jesus of Nazareth, antagonist is Satan Origins of 'Regained' 'Paradise Regained' is based on the Gospel of Luke’s version of the temptation of Christ in the desert. Epic poem about creation, the fall and resisting temptation, and the redemption of mankind. Themes Original sin Religion & Christianity The struggle between good & evil Biblical symbolism & imagery
Devils/daemons Heaven & Hell Redemption Temptation
(BOOK 1) Jesus of Nazareth is baptised by John the Baptist. This rite is attended by Satan, cloaked in invisibility. Satan calls a meeting with the fallen Angels (the "Powers of Air") and they decide to overthrow this new enemy, Christ, who Satan has learnt is the son of God. Led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus enters the desert and pursues holy meditations. For forty days he wanders in the desert unharmed, then begins to feel hunger. Just at that moment, he meets an aged man (Satan in disguise) who expresses amazement at the lost and perilous situation of the wanderer. Jesus replies “Who brought me hither will bring me hence, no other Guide I seek." The old man then suggests that if Jesus were really the Son of God, he should command the stones to become bread. Jesus sees through Satan's disguise though. (BOOK 2) Satan calls another meeting and receives a vote of confidence for his own plan of using honour, glory, and popular praise combined with relief from the suffering of physical hunger. Satan appears again but does not attempt to conceal his identity. He invites Jesus to eat, but he refuses the food, not because the food itself is unlawful but because it is the offering of Satan. Satan then plies Christ with riches and wealth, and the position of a conqueror, to try to tempt him. Christ declares that desire for glory, which belongs to God, not humanity, is sacrilege. (BOOK 3) Satan recovers and offers a new temptation: power. Pointing out that most renowned men in history had achieved their greatest deeds before they were as old as Jesus but fails to convince Christ. Satan takes him to the top of a mountain and shows him the terrestrial kingdoms, in particular the empires of Rome and Parthia for Christ to have. Again Christ refuses these. (BOOK 4) When Jesus sleeps again, Satan disturbs him with ugly dreams and raises a fearful storm. Satan seizes Jesus, flies with him to Jerusalem, places him on the highest pinnacle of the Temple, and cries,
"There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright Will ask thee skill. . . . Now show thy Progeny; if not to stand, Cast thyself down; safely if Son of God: For it is written, He will give command Concerning thee to his Angels, in their hands They shall uplift thee, lest at any time Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone. To whom thus Jesus. Also it is written, Tempt not the Lord thy God; he said and stood. But Satan smitten with amazement fell." After Satan’s second fall, a host of angels fly to the temple, take Jesus to a fertile valley, and spread before him a table of celestial food. After they sing another hymn of triumph, Jesus returns home to his mother’s house. Critical evaluations of 'Paradise Regained' "The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It is a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns the world into a different place." -- Cynthia Bourgeault, from 'The Wisdom Jesus' Unlike his internationally acclaimed epic 'Paradise Lost', 'Regained' lacks both an intense conflict between worthy moral antagonists and the narrative action such conflicts afford. To many, the novel’s Satan seems to have been pathetically reduced to an incompetent schemer who is no match for the stoical [enduring pain and hardship without showing one's feelings or complaining] Jesus of Nazareth, who dominates the extended debates occupying most of the epic. 'Regained' can be breath-taking in its stark poetic simplicity and in its profound narrative expansion of Luke’s brief account of Jesus’ three temptations in the wilderness. To appreciate its narrative “action” is thus to understand how Milton uses a dialogical form of conflict drawn from the book of Job to illuminate and expand these three themes. The temptations Jesus is required to face are lack of faith, hunger, desire for glory, desire to overthrow the enemies of his people by violence, and pride in being declared the beloved Son of God. Milton presents Jesus as the highest type of human being, the true Son of God whose example has something to teach all people, a being divine only in being fully and perfectly human. Like the rest of humankind, he can demonstrate his love of God only by maintaining his faith, hope, and integrity, which in turn empower his love of others and of self. The contrast to this all-embracing love is the all-enslaving hate of Satan and his cohorts, who have by now become less like the mighty archangels of Paradise Lost and more like the spirits of worldly ambition, pride, and greed who deceive the faithful and the wicked alike. Although primarily a Christian message, this epic trial of the worldly principles of leadership and learning can challenge anyone to examine how best to exercise them.
