Shakespeare's plays and Milton's long poems, such as Paradise Lost (1667), represent the heyday of blank verse. Paradise Lost is an epic written by john milton, a British politician and scholar. Paradise Lost tells the story of Satan, the rebellious god in the poem, who was sent to hell for resisting the authority of God, but never gave in and sought revenge in Eden.
Adam and Eve were lured by Satan's possessed snake and stole the fruit of the tree of knowledge forbidden by God. Finally, Satan and his companions were turned into snakes, and Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
This book shows that human beings must rely on knowledge and labor to enter the civilized society of productive labor from the ignorant primitive society. At the same time, there are two opposing and contradictory forces in the universe itself, and bloody changes and struggles have occurred again and again in human history, resulting in a neglected paradise tragedy.
Evaluation:
Hegel, a German philosopher, thinks Paradise Lost is the late flower of a semi-religious and semi-artistic epic, but generally speaking, it is not highly appraised. He thinks that the content depth and original charm of poetry, especially in the objective attitude of epic, are not as good as Dante.
Hegel attributed it to "the conflict and disastrous ending written in the poem are dramatic, and the unrestrained lyric poetry and moral lesson tendency make the subject matter far from the original epic form."