Geography of John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
The goal of our project is to accurately represent the geography of “Paradise Lost” as Milton created it, and to provide comparing and contrasting of this geography with literary, Christian and pop culture sources. In order to do so, we looked to a variety of sources from the 17th and 21st centuries to provide a historical context. While Milton heavily relied on literary and Christian traditions, he succeeded in creating a unique vision of Heaven, Hell, Chaos and Eden (pre-Fall and post-Fall) that has survived four hundred years. These visions are still alive and kicking, as seen in our popular culture sections.
The following quote, though specifically about Chaos, can be applied to “Paradise Lost” as a whole:
“In the bodying forth of his grand chaotic vision he must, as epic poet, necessarily resort to the use of mystic symbol and allegory or other appropriate imagery…But the poet’s own imagination is evidently unclouded, his perception sensitive and clear, and his general design carefully delineated. Selecting quite diversified materials from a variety of philosophical and traditional sources, he has syncretized them into a consistent chaos which is completely like no other but which is admirably adapted to his epic design” (Curry, 90-91).
We invite our readers to explore the geography of “Paradise Lost” that we have researched, and see for yourself Milton’s “unclouded” vision.
Our project is divided into the following sections:
- Heaven
- Hell and Chaos
- Eden
- Earth After the Fall
- The Universe
- Images of Paradise Lost
- Reading Questions
The Universe of "Paradise Lost" as imagined by Walter Clyde Curry:
These pages have been created by: Cari Gibson, Brittani Newland, Jay Jay Stroup and Amanda Westerhouse. Class: Milton and His Age, ENL4341; Professor: Dr. Kate Giglio; University of Central Florida, Spring 2008 semester. Further Readings & Works Cited.
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