Freedom in Paradise Lost

Br. Christian Patterson, LC

Introduction

Freedom is the God given ability to consciously choose among possible goods and flourish accordingly. The modern world has rejected this understanding of freedom and instead promotes the idea that to flourish man needs to transcend good and evil, or truth and falsehood. Liberation no longer lies in the rightly ordered cosmos, but in an overthrown cosmos where each person becomes their own god. Evidently, this ensues in a theomachy in which we all suffer the consequences. People prefer power and domination to happiness. John Milton extensively explores the idea of free-will and justification in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. He shows that the purpose of freedom is the attainment of beatitude through one’s own agency; and that beatitude is attained through making good choices and using right reason.

To arrive at this conclusion, we will go on journey through Milton’s Cosmos and look at Satan, Adam, Eve, and Christ’s choices in Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. First, we will see how Milton sets up a world in which God is sovereign, and his purpose is for all his creatures to freely enjoy beatitude by living in harmony with the created order and singing his praises. Then we will see Satan’s vindictive reaction to God’s purpose and the terrible consequences that ensue for him as he inverts truth and seeks dominion. Next, we will see Adam and Eve preserve their beatific life before the fall through praise and obedience, and how doubt and pride lead to their loss of beatitude. Finally, we will see Christ who comes to show man how to regain original happiness through suffering, obedience, and truth.

Chapter 1

Milton’s Cosmos

Because creation both depends on and finds its purpose in God, the freedom with which God has endowed creatures only has meaning according to God’s design. In Paradise Lost, Milton creates a cosmic order influenced by Arminian and Reformed-Orthodox theology that responds to two questions: Who is God? And what is his purpose in creating? Milton answers these questions throughout the Epic by showing that God’s sovereignty encompasses the whole universe when he creates freely, rules over all his creatures, and has power over sin and death through redemption; and that there is a plan behind his creative acts, namely that all creatures should be happy, free, and worship him.

God’s All-Encompassing Sovereignty

First, God shows the sovereignty of his will through his creative act. In the seventh book, Raphael shows that God created by his word alone: «So spake th’Almighty and to what He spake / His Word, the Filial Godhead, gave effect»[1]. He also creates by his own will and design since in creating he «is faced with alternative possible choices, and he is free to decide between these alternatives»[2]. He is sovereign because he creates freely: «Creation is not a necessary expression of the divine nature, but a free expression of [his] preeminent “goodness”»[3].

Furthermore, God’s sovereign will is shown in his dominion over the angels. When the angels rise up to rebel against God, the Son sends the rebel angels into hell: «headlong themselves they threw / Down from the verge of Heav’n. Eternal wrath / Burnt after them to the bottomless pit»[4]. The fallen angels themselves grudgingly have to profess God’s sovereign will albeit through «bad theology as an instrument of blasphemy»[5]. They say that God is «a supreme “Arbitrator” who inflicts his will on those lacking the power to resist»[6]. Moloch claims that «hell is a confining prison, a sphere in which all freedom is negated»[7]. Mammon «cannot think of grace except as a form of compulsion that brings about “Forc’t” worship»[8]. Although they blame God for their misfortune, they cannot deny his primacy.

Finally, God’s sovereign will is shown in redemption. God is not bound to arbitrary justice, but he brings about redemption according to his will. God promises: «Man shall not quite be lost but saved who will, / Yet not of will in him but grace in me / Freely vouchsafed»[9]. God’s sovereignty is such that he overcomes the evil caused by the angels since God will «freely choose to re-people heaven»[10]; «This over-compensation for the lost angels especially highlights the freedom of God in creation»[11]. He is free from all necessity and «creates freely and contingently … he stands to gain nothing for himself in the creation of a new world»[12].

God’s Providential Plan

Milton’s cosmos also shows God’s intelligent design that gives meaning to creation. God’s providence has decreed a threefold plan, namely that all creatures are made for happiness, that all creatures should be free, and that all creatures should worship him.

First, God calls all creatures to beatitude. The plan of beatitude is depicted in both the garden of Eden and in heaven, where God’s creatures dwell in supreme happiness. Adam relates from his experience: «needs must the Power / That made us and for us this ample world / Be infinitely good»[13]. It is also said of the angels:

That day as other solemn days they spent / In song and dance which yonder starry sphere / Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels / Resembles … And in their motions harmony divine / So smooths her charming tones that God’s own ear / Listens delighted.^[14]

Moreover, God himself announces his plan: «The entire heavenly colloquy in the third book … may be viewed as a dramatic portrayal of predestination»[15]. Milton portrays through man’s first state of beatitude and the promise of redemption a predestination of universal election. God so desires his creatures to be happy that even if man should transgress, God will offer redemption: «The grace of salvation is not an afterthought, but a gift of God which precedes even the need for salvation»[16]. Thus «all human beings are eternally elected for salvation»[17].

Secondly, God makes all creatures free. When the Father and the Son are planning man’s redemption, God shows how all creatures possess freedom:

I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood though free to fall. / Such I created all th’ ethereal pow’rs / And spirits, both them who stood and them who failed: / Freely they stood who stood and fell who fell.[18]

This freedom is unchangeable, deriving from God’s very being: «I formed them free and free they must remain… I else must change / Their nature and revoke the high decree, / Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained / Their freedom»[19]. God’s plan for creaturely freedom is further highlighted when he asks for a volunteer to make the sacrifice for man’s redemption. «It is imperative that [the angels] have the freedom to be able to say yes or no to this request»[20]; Milton’s model «rests very heavily on the free will defense that it is better to have free will than to be prevented, absolutely, from sinning»[21]. Furthermore, freedom is the focus of God’s plan: «The Father makes human freedom, rather than human salvation, the object of predestination»[22]; Human freedom is «the highest concern of the eternal will of God»[23]. Milton upholds a «view of providence that allowed a space for human freedom»[24]; «God himself created and will respect, at all costs, free will»[25].

Finally, God calls all creatures to worship him in obedience. In the creation narrative God appoints a head over the angels and demands obedience:

Hear all ye angels, progeny of light… Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand! / This day I have begot whom I declare / My only Son… Your head I Him appoint / And by Myself have sworn to Him shall bow / all knees in Heav’n and shall confess Him Lord.[26]

Their beatitude is based on their obedience to the Son: «Him who disobeys / Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day, / Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls / Into utter darkness … without end»[27]. This order applies as much to humans as it does to the angels: «And easily transgress the sole command, / Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall / He and his faithless progeny»[28]. They are also «Directed in devotion, to adore / And worship God Supreme, who made him chief / Of all his works… And worship him; and in reward to rule / Over his Works, on Earth, in Sea, or Air, / And multiply a race of worshippers»[29]. Therefore, in order to maintain the beatitude of their innocent state, all they have to do is to obey: «Be strong, live happily, and love, but first of all / Him whom to love is to obey, and keep / His great command»[30].

Chapter 2

Satanic Freedom

Since God made his creatures free, their happiness depends on their free response. Satan is the antithesis of righteousness and demonstrates the abuse of freedom. He seeks to go beyond what God has set in place. Evidently, Milton shows how freedom that tries to usurp the power that is proper to God ends in decay and ruin. In seeking to overcome the divine order and usurp God’s power, Satan is enthralled and tortured.

Satan’s Choices

First, Satan will not submit to God. After the Father begets the Son, he refuses to be subject to God’s will: «Will ye submit your necks and choose to bend / The supple knee»[31]; Instead, he tries to overpower God: «Our puissance is our own. Our own right hand / Shall teach us highest deeds by proof to try / Who is our equal»[32]. Moreover, he narrates the cause of his fall as ambition against God: «pride and worse ambition threw me down, / Warring in Heav’n against Heav’n’s matchless King»[33]. Finally, he shows his proud rebellious spirit from the pits of hell: «Here we may reign secure, and in my choice / to reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: / Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven!»[34].

Furthermore, Satan lies. When Satan is challenged by the angels, he «responds like a cunning scholastic theologian»[35]. He first lies when rallying the angels in heaven against God: «With calumnious art / Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears»[36]. Afterwards he deceives Uriel on his way to tempt Adam and Eve: «So spake the false dissembler unperceived»[37]. He finally maliciously flatters Eve into eating the fruit: «He ended and his words replete with guile / Into her heart too easy entrance won»[38].

Consequences

The consequences of Satan’s attempts to overturn the created order are self-destructive. He wanted to rule in the place of God. In the end, «high on a throne of royal state … Satan exalted sat»[39]; «they adore me on the throne of Hell / With diadem and scepter high advanced»[40]. Yet, opposed to the bliss he originally sought, he is condemned to eternal torture, his intellect is darkened, and he loses his freedom.

First, Satan falls into hell to endure eternal torments and is transformed into a beast. «The Arch-Fiend lay / Chained on the burning lake. Nor ever thence / Had ris’n or heaved his head but that the will / And high permission of all-ruling heav’n / Left him at large to his own dark designs»[41]. In hell, he suffers torment: «in spite of scorn, / Tears such as angels weep burst forth»[42]. Moreover, he is transformed into a snake: «He fell / A monstrous serpent on his belly prone … a greater pow’r / Now ruled him»[43], whence he «expresses dismay at his own ‘foul descent’, with his original spiritual essence now ‘mixt with bestial slime’»[44].

Secondly, his intellect is darkened. «The choice to fall … restricts knowledge, especially self-knowledge, and leads to delusion and confusion»[45]. Satan in his colloquy explains: «Lifted up so high / I’sdeigned subjection … Forgetful what from Him I received / and understood not that a grateful mind / By owing owes not but still pays, at once / Indebted and discharged»[46]. He also reveals the darkness of his mind: «The mind is its own place and in itself / can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. / What matter where, if I be still the same / And what I should be»[47]. Moreover, when facing Zephon in the fourth book, Satan is «unrecognizable; his fall has diminished what he knows, making it inadequate to the reality he confronts»[48].

Finally, he is enslaved. Abdiel explains to Satan: «This is servitude: / To serve th’unwise … as thine now serve thee, / Thyself not free but to thyself enthralled»[49]. Although Satan sought greater sovereignty, Abdiel rebukes him: «Yet chains in Hell, not realms, expect!»[50]. The fall consists in a «self-chosen confinement and not the uncontrollable freedom he originally sought»[51]; «with limited knowledge, choice and, therefore, freedom are limited»[52]. «Whatever freedom of choice Satan and his followers may have possessed in their initial rebellion has been stripped from them as part of their punishment»[53].

Chapter 3

Adam and Eve’s Use of Freedom

Adam and Eve are also free. They provide an example of both beatitude and sorrow. Milton shows how freedom lived well leads to growth, harmony, and prosperity; whereas disobedience leads to death, slavery, and darkness.

Freedom Before the Fall

Before the fall, Adam and Eve respect the boundaries set for them as creatures, are obedient to their mission of maintaining the garden, and praise God while enjoying the goods they have been given. First, they respect the boundaries God sets for them. Adam «is told to keep his curiosity in check, not to pry too far into God’s ways, and above all to honor the prohibition of the Forbidden Tree as a pledge of his obedience»[54]. He responds to these instructions with docility and respect: «How fully hast thou satisfied me, pure / Intelligence of Heav’n, angel serene, / And freed from intricacies, taught to live / The easiest way nor with perplexing thoughts»[55]. Secondly, Adam and Eve faithfully tend the garden. Adam speaks to Eve:

Man hath his daily work of body or mind / Appointed which declares his dignity / And the regard of Heav’n on all his ways … Tomorrow ere fresh morning streak the east / With first approach of light we must be ris’n / And at our pleasant labor to reform / yon flow’ry arbors, yonder alleys green.^[56]

Furthermore, the morning after Eve has her nightmare, Adam determines to go to work punctually: «let us to our fresh employments rise / Among the groves, the fountains and the flow’rs»[57].

Finally, Adam and Eve actively engage in worship. In the morning, after their work: «Lowly they bowed adoring and began / their orisons, each morning duly paid / In various style»[58]. And in the evening before retiring: «Both turned, and under open sky adored / the God who made both sky, air, earth and heav’n / Which they beheld, the moon’s resplendent globe and starry pole»[59]. In his worship, «Adam reasons … toward the goodness of God who gives these gifts to his creatures»[60].

Freedom After the Fall

In contrast to the prelapsarian era Milton presents the fall, «an irrational possibility that can be actualized only by a flagrant denial and contradiction of the judgement of right reason»; which can «be understood only … in its utter discontinuity with everything that has transpired in prelapsarian life»[61]. In the fall, Adam and Eve distrust the creator, seek to exceed what has been given to them by God, and choose to love the creature more than God.

First, Eve chooses to distrust God. Discursive or intuitive reason «always involves choice»[62]. Thus, her choice to distrust God is her first evil act as she questions in book nine: «In plain then what forbids He but to know, / Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?»[63]. «Eve has abandoned her understanding and experience of God to fall into a crabbed reasoning with an illogical conclusion»[64]. She also seeks higher knowledge than the practical knowledge that Raphael had recommended earlier, as evident through the questions she asks:

But if death / Bind us with after-bands what profits then / Our inward freedom? … How dies the serpent? He hath eat’n and lives / And knows, and speaks, and reasons and discerns … For us alone / Was death invented? Or to us denied / This intellectual food for beasts reserved?[65]

Similarly, Adam doubts God’s prophecy: «Perhaps thou shalt not die. Perhaps the fact / Is not so heinous now»[66]. He goes on to choose Eve rather than fidelity to God: «However, I with thee have fixed my lot / Certain to undergo like doom. If death / Consort with thee death is to me as life»[67]; «Adam denies the experience he has of God’s complete goodness and the imago Dei within him, and chooses the image of himself instead»[68]. Adam finally idolizes Eve: «I the praise / Yield thee»[69].

Finally, they both strive to go beyond what God has arranged for them and disobey God’s singular injunction. Eve first eats the fruit, looking for something more than what God has already given her:

Here grows the cure of all: this fruit divine, / Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, / Of virtue to make wise. What hinders then / To reach and feed at once both body and mind? / So saying, her rash hand in evil hour / forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.[70]

Upon discovering Eve’s sin, Adam likewise looks to go beyond human nature and eats the fruit: «To us as likely tasting to attain / Proportional ascent which cannot be / But to be gods or angels, demigods»[71]; «from the bough / She gave him of that fair enticing fruit / with liberal hand. He scrupled not to eat, / Against his better knowledge, not deceived / But fondly overcome with female charm»[72].

Consequences

Adam and Eve’s respective choices for good and evil present a dichotomy of consequences. Contrary to Satan’s experience of irreversible and ever-descending consequences, Adam and Eve experience temporal and mutable consequences since an act of the human will is a «temporal decision made by human beings, and as such it can never be a once-for-all, irreversible decision…[humans] are never in principle beyond the possibility of salvation»[73]. «Disobedience to God is a confining condition … while obedience liberates to multiple possible right choices»[74]. Adam and Eve’s good choices result in a harmonious life engaging all their faculties; greater knowledge of God and themselves; and greater freedom. Contrariwise, their bad use of freedom results in their enthrallment, loss of understanding, and death.

First, good choices are made among a «rich variety of pre-lapsarian possibilities»[75]. When Adam and Eve live well, they enjoy the bliss of Eden: «In their original state Adam and Eve are ‘perfect,’ and as such they are able to persevere in obedient happiness»[76]. This happiness is conscious and active:

[Adam and Eve] know a great deal from what they see around them, what they have been told, and what they experience. The happiness they enjoy is not a static, unchanging placidity but active involvement with each other and the world around them.[77]

Thus, their life is full and engages the whole person. This allows them to grow in their knowledge of God which is «ongoing … an appropriate part of the complex abundance of living in happiness»[78]. Their free decisions help them to grow in self-knowledge as they «illustrate an unfettered free will forming a conscious, happy, and integrated humanity»[79]. Their life in bliss is not static but entails the «possibility of positive development»[80]; «the narrative of Paradise Lost withholds the fall for several days, in order to portray dramatically Eve’s and Adam’s dynamic and evolving process of growth through the exercise of their freedom»[81].

Contrastingly, Evil choices have disastrous consequences. The most striking consequence is Adam and Eve’s reduced freedom. After the fall «we may still be free to choose, but our power of choice is impaired»[82]. The first balance that existed in the prelapsarian state is no more, as «the fall decisively tips the balance towards evil, so that the freedom to choose the good is lost»[83]. Human nature after sin is «enslaved by its own inclination to sin, and lacking the power to transcend and so to escape the enslaving self»[84]. Furthermore, Adam and Eve «forget or ignore their experience of God’s abundance» which means that «language that was once spontaneous song turns into bad logic, and taste once associated with infinite varieties of feasting degenerates into a dominating sensuousness that undermines the pleasure it would exploit»[85]; reason is overturned and they are limited to knowledge subject to their senses[86]. Finally, «Death will limit their lives, the expulsion from paradise will limit their pleasures, childbirth and labor will bring them pain»[87].

Chapter 4

Redeemed Freedom

Christ is the free man par excellence. He is sent by the Father «to conquer Sin and Death, the two grand foes»[88]. He takes on the fallen human condition and shows man how to regain paradise through suffering, adherence to Divine Truth, and obedience to the Father’s will.

Suffering

Christ models the path to freedom in suffering. Christ, «by humiliation and strong sufferance … shall o’ercome Satanic strength»[89]. Although suffering seems to be the absence of action, Christ chooses it to overcome evil: «Satan is desperate for Christ to do something, but he does not realize that by suffering Christ is acting already, working already toward his eternal reign»[90]. First, Christ is led into the wilderness without knowing why, which requires a radical trust: «And now by some strong motion I am led / Into this wilderness; to what intent / I learn not yet. Perhaps I need not know»[91]. And he undergoes what Divine Providence decides without wavering: «Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope, / I bid not, or forbid. Do as thou find’st / Permission from above; thou canst not more»[92]. Furthermore, he puts his trust in God: «But now I feel I hunger; which declares / Nature hath need of what she asks. Yet God / Can satisfy that need some other way»[93]. In fact, «the Son lovingly submits to his earthly passion in humility, obedience, absolute trust, and infinite patience. Patience is a most important virtue of the Son»[94]. Secondly, he is always waiting for God’s appointed time: «All things are best fulfilled in their due time; / And time there is for all things, Truth hath said»[95]; «my time, I told thee (and that time for thee / Were better farthest off), is not yet come»[96]; «know, therefore, when my season comes to sit / On David’s throne»[97]. Thus the path of life «is a persistent working and suffering for perfection of being, an inner insistence upon a perfect state of grace»[98], that demands a radical trust in the Father.

Truth

Christ also adheres firmly to the truth. When man fell, he accepted the lies and the inversion of values that Satan had presented to him. Thus, «in order for Christ to restore paradise, he must combat and defeat the false world of Satan»[99]. His mission is «to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles»[100]; «myself I thought / Born to that end, born to promote all truth, / All righteous things»[101]. He is able to see through the deceptive temptations that Satan, trying to fool Christ into subjecting his rational soul to his emotions[102], puts before him: «Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, / And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles»[103]; amidst these temptations, he restores right order: «Yet wealth without these three is impotent / To gain dominion, or to keep it gained»[104]; «this is true glory and renown—when God, / Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks / The just man, and divulges him through Heaven»[105]. He returns to God what belongs to God: «And so of all true good himself despoil’d, / Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take / That which to god alone of right belong»[106]. «Christ says that God, not man, is the source of truth»[107] and thus that light from God is sufficient for all his needs: «Of knowing what I ought. He who receives / Light from above, from the Fountain of Light, / No other doctrine needs, though granted true»[108].

Obedience

Finally, Christ is obedient to the Father. «What Adam lost through disobedience, Christ regains through loving obedience»[109]. First, he waits for the Father’s will to begin his ministry: «But openly begin, as best becomes / The authority which I derived from Heaven»[110]; and holds to God as his only guide: «To whom the Son of God:—“Who brought me hither / Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek”»[111]. His greatest hunger is to do the Father’s will: «Me hungering more to do my Father’s will»[112]. Furthermore, he will suffer all things due to his love for the Father’s will:

The Father in his purpose hath decreed— / He in whose hand all times and seasons rowl. / What if he hath decreed that I shall first / Be tried in humble state, and things adverse, / By tribulations, injuries, insults, / Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence, / Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting / Without distrust or doubt, that He may know / What I can suffer, how obey?[113]

He does not take Satan’s shortcuts but adheres with obedience to the Father: «but what the means / Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell»[114]. «The incarnate Son seeks total union with the will of the Father, so that he in turn will be a perfect expression of the wisdom and love of the Father»[115].

Conclusion

Thus, the purpose of freedom is the attainment of beatitude through one’s own agency; and that beatitude is attained through making good choices and using right reason. Satan’s attempts to usurp God’s power and dominate lead to his destruction and irremediable humiliation. Adam and Eve grow in their agency as they live in paradise, enjoying life in God amidst a myriad of possibilities; they only lose their freedom when they chose to rebel against God and thus their reality changes for the worse. In the end the Son comes to show man how to regain freedom and paradise through resisting sinful tendencies and rediscovering a harmonious life through suffering, truth and union with God’s will.

The purpose of freedom must be understood to live well. It is not restricted to a set of rules which must be followed, rather it is intrinsically tied to the question of the pursuit of human flourishing and happiness. Milton shows that if man wants to be happy, he needs to be obedient and live in accord with right reason which comes from God. The consequences of sin and pride are terrible, whereas a life lived in obedience and love leads to eternal bliss and harmony.

Bibliography

Primary Bibliography

MILTON, J., Paradise Lost, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York 2005.

MILTON, J., “Paradise Regained” in Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained, Signet Classic, New York 1968.

Secondary Bibliography

BIEHL, M., “Paradise Regained: An Intellectual Drama of the Nature of Being and Freedom”, UNI ScholarWorks in https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=3071&context=etd [03-15-2026].

CHERNAIK, W., Milton and the Burden of Freedom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017.

MYERS, B., The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost, James Cook University, Douglas 2004.

POOLE, W., Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2017.

WOODS, S., Milton and the Poetics of Freedom, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh 2013.

[1] J MILTON, Paradise Lost, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., New York 2005, VII. vv. 174-175, p. 164.

[2] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost, James Cook University, Douglas 2004, p. 152.

[3] Ibid, p. 156.

[4] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, VI. vv. 864-866, p. 156.

[5] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 100.

[6] Ibid, p. 108.

[7] Ibid, p. 112.

[8] Ibid, p. 113.

[9] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, III. vv. 172-174, pp. 60-61.

[10] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 159.

[11] Ibid, p. 160.

[12] Ibid.

[13] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, IV. vv. 412-414, p. 89.

[14] Ibid, V. vv. 618-627, p. 123.

[15] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 123.

[16] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 124.

[17] Ibid, p. 126.

[18] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, III. vv. 98-102, p. 59.

[19] Ibid, III. vv. 124-128, p. 59.

[20] W POOLE, Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2017, p. 272.

[21] Ibid, p. 275.

[22] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 140.

[23] Ibid.

[24] W CHERNAIK, Milton and the Burden of Freedom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, p. 41.

[25] W POOLE, Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost …, p. 279.

[26] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, V. vv. 600-608, p. 123.

[27] Ibid, V. vv. 611-615, p. 123.

[28] Ibid, III. vv. 94-95, p. 58.

[29] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, VII. vv. 514-630, pp. 173-176.

[30] Ibid, VIII. vv. 633-635, p. 195.

[31] Ibid, V. vv. 787-788, p. 128.

[32] Ibid, V. vv. 864-866, p. 130.

[33] Ibid, IV. vv. 40-41, p. 78.

[34] Ibid, I. vv. 261-263, p. 10.

[35] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 101.

[36] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, V. vv. 770-771, p. 128.

[37] Ibid, III. v. 681, p. 75.

[38] Ibid, IX. vv. 733-734, p. 217.

[39] Ibid, II. vv. 1-5, p. 26.

[40] Ibid, IV. vv. 89-90, p. 80.

[41] Ibid, I. vv. 209-213, p. 9.

[42] Ibid, I. vv. 619-620, p. 21.

[43] Ibid, X. vv. 513-515, p. 243.

[44] W CHERNAIK, Milton and the Burden of Freedom…, p. 150.

[45] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh 2013, p. 126.

[46] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, IV. vv. 49-57, p. 79.

[47] Ibid, I. vv. 254-257, p. 10.

[48] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 126.

[49] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, VI. vv. 178-180, p. 137.

[50] Ibid, VI. v. 184, p. 137.

[51] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 126.

[52] Ibid.

[53] W CHERNAIK, Milton and the Burden of Freedom…, p. 136.

[54] W POOLE, Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost …, p. 25.

[55] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, VIII. vv. 180-183, p. 182.

[56] Ibid, IV. vv. 618-626, pp. 94-95.

[57] Ibid, V. vv. 125-126, p. 109.

[58] Ibid, V. vv. 144-146, p. 110.

[59] Ibid, IV. vv. 721-724, p. 97.

[60] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 119.

[61] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 200.

[62] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 122.

[63] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, IX. vv. 758-759, p. 217.

[64] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 133.

[65] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, IX. vv. 760-778, p. 217.

[66] Ibid, IX. vv. 928-929, p. 222.

[67] Ibid, IX. vv. 952-954, p. 223.

[68] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 138.

[69] J MILTON, Paradise Lost …, IX. vv. 1020-1021, p. 224.

[70] Ibid, IX. vv. 776-781, p. 218.

[71] Ibid, IX. vv. 935-937, p. 222.

[72] Ibid, IX. vv. 995-999, p. 224.

[73] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 130.

[74] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 136.

[75] Ibid, 188.

[76] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 123.

[77] Ibid, p. 107.

[78] Ibid.

[79] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 186.

[80] Ibid, p. 188.

[81] W POOLE, Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost …, p. 268.

[82] B MYERS, The Theology of Freedom in Paradise Lost …, p. 206.

[83] Ibid, p. 210.

[84] S WOODS, Milton and the Poetics of Freedom…, p. 130.

[85] Ibid, p. 139.

[86] cf. Ibid.

[87] Ibid, p. 138.

[88] J MILTON, “Paradise Regained” in Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained, Signet Classic, New York 1968, I. v. 159, p. 347.

[89] Ibid, I. vv. 160-161, p. 347.

[90] M BIEHL, “Paradise Regained: An Intellectual Drama of the Nature of Being and Freedom”, UNI ScholarWorks in https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3071&context=etd [03-15-2026], p. 79.

[91] J MILTON, “Paradise Regained” … I. vv. 290-292, p. 350.

[92] Ibid, I. vv. 494-496, p. 355.

[93] Ibid, II. vv. 251-253, p. 362.

[94] M BIEHL, “Paradise Regained: An Intellectual Drama of the Nature of Being and Freedom”…, p. 32.

[95] J MILTON, “Paradise Regained” … III. vv. 181-183, p. 373.

[96] Ibid, III. vv. 396-397, p. 379.

[97] Ibid, IV. vv. 146-147, p. 384.

[98] M BIEHL, “Paradise Regained: An Intellectual Drama of the Nature of Being and Freedom”…, p. 68.

[99] Ibid, p. 42.

[100] J MILTON, “Paradise Regained” … I. v. 175, p. 347.

[101] Ibid, I. vv. 204-206, p. 348.

[102] cf. M BIEHL, “Paradise Regained: An Intellectual Drama of the Nature of Being and Freedom”…, p. 61.