The Destruction Of Humanity In John Milton's Paradise Lost

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In John Milton’s novel, Paradise Lost, Milton tries to juggle with the complicated idea of where he believes humanity belongs in nature, and this is juxtaposed by their assumed success or failure of the matter. His points seem to be clear on where he thinks humans stand throughout this piece. However they become contrasting when the readers begin to look at the deeper meaning of why the first humans are unsuccessful. Milton’s writing implies two sides, the first being that he thought humans were put on the earth to control nature, but that idea is contrasted and complicated by the other side in that they would never be able to accomplish it well enough to satisfy because nature is too vast to actually control. Milton never addressed the issue with having a life purpose that can never be fulfilled. …show more content…

However this idea is complicated by the fact that God created Eden as a paradise to humans, and it would be inconsistent with the rest of the novel if Milton took this opportunity to suggest that God is not always perfect. The second possible option is, that the task is purely created to give these beings purpose; this theory is further supported by the fact that Milton could have identified that the garden was always perfect and never in need of landscaping, or by making the angels in the novel the main workers. However, Milton made the conscious choice to have Adam and Eve be the only gardeners identified in the story, making them the stewards of Eden, which implies their stewardship over all nature. Seeing as this is Adam and Eve’s purpose the readers can deduct that they are a mere representation of humanity as a whole, and we can come to the assumption that Milton has full belief that humanity is meant to control

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