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To Revitalize The Flaccid Garden : A Study Of Milton's Paradise Regained, Daniel Clyde Bartges

Master's Theses

By 1654, Milton had partaken of misery, neglect, frustration, poverty; temptation, and disillusionment, as do all men; and it was his hope to "justify" (actually to "explain" since, to Milton, God's "ways" do not lend themselves to mortal justification) these plights to his fellow man. He shared the troublesome question of the Puritans: why is there evil in a world created by a beneficent God? A sincere Christian, he hoped to find a solution to this religious embarrassment through Biblical interpretation and subsequent enlightenment.

It is my belief that Paradise Regained constitutes Milton's most concentrated effort toward solving this baffling …