The Influence Of Milton's Life Experiences On The Creation Of Samson Agonistes And Paradise Lost

John Milton(1608-1674) is a great revolutionary poet,one of the most sublime of English poets.His puritan and republican ideas can be found in all his works of importance.The thesis will interpret the influence of the poet's life experiences on the creation of the two famous poems from the psychology of literary creation and on the basis of Milton's important works Samson Agonistes(1671) and Paradise Lost(1667).According to the theory of psychology of literary creation(from Tong Qingbing's The Course of the Psychology of Literary Creation,2001:248),a literary work is the expression of an author's experiences and the experiences are sources for literary creation. When literature expresses an author's life experiences,the content of his works will reflect his life experiences and the forms of his works.When the same plots of his works are moulded by different forms,the expressed feeling will be totally different.An author's experience of sublimity refers to his passionate interpretation about anguish and joy when he is in some state of the constrained feeling(from Tong Qingbing's The Course of the Psychology of Literary Creation,2001:104).This kind of experience is an abnormal experience after suffering setbacks.The result is that he will get much deeper experience towards his life and society,which is different from his own practical experience and understanding.In this thesis,the author will put the two greatest poems Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost into study to analyze how Milton's strong religious beliefs influence the creation of the two poems.Then she will illustrate Milton's personal misfortunes to find Milton's motivation and purpose to create Samson Agonistes,from the similarity of Milton and Samson,the character Milton created,and try to have a detailed text analysis to explore the influence on Samson Agonistes based on the theory of psychology of literary creation.Lastly,she will analyze Milton's revolutionary practice and the ambivalence in the image of Satan,a heroic Satan and an evil Satan,from Milton's devout religious beliefs,to dig out Milton's staunch revolutionary fighting will and the poet's contradiction between the two roles of Milton the puritan and the republican by an author's experience of sublimity to the influence on Milton's creation of Paradise Lost.This dissertation contains three chapters:Chapter One is Introduction.In this chapter, the literature review about Milton and the research results about him both at home and abroad and the research methods of the text will be introduced.Chapter Two is the influence of Milton's religious beliefs,life experiences and revolutionary practice on the creation of Samson Agonistes(1671) and Paradise Lost (1667).In this chapter,the author will make an analysis of the three experiences.Milton's own puritan upbringing,religious perspective and his intent to express the Christian faith—all this shows that Milton had strong religious beliefs.Milton was a devout puritan.He advocated stoicism.He was morally austere and conscientious.This made Samson whom Milton created blind and suffering,which came from God's punishment for disobedience and loss of virtue.Samson regained his strength from God after his repentance.He defeated the Philistines,and the hero's spirit got rebirth in the end.Milton's personal misfortunes were the poet's unhappy marriage and his blindness in Samson Agonistes.The theme of Samson Agonistes had highly personal significance for Milton,for the poet himself,like Samson,was blind,and had married a woman who became hostile to him. Milton is one of the most sublime of English poets.In sustained majesty of thought and diction he is unrivalled,his descriptive power was astonishing,too.His truly noble beings to construct an idea include all the virtues.His grandeur of thought,nobility of soul and inspired emotion can be seen in Paradise Lost,from the speech of Satan who he mould through his rich imagination.He fought in a more direct way against tyranny,and the fight was always the vivid imageries with which his poignant thoughts and fiery ideas were usually expressed.The failure of the English Revolution in the 17^th century thwarted Milton's political and religious ambition.To relieve his mental repression,he channeled his energy into the composition of Paradise Lost.He is compensated of his repressed ambition by creating and identifying with the character Satan.It is the rebellious and unyielding spirit of Satan that upholds the poet to fight against fate.Milton was a devout Christian.Milton's Satan was a heroic Satan.At the same time,he was an evil Satan, although Milton held a positive view of Satan,who scorned authority and fought against tyranny.With the failure of the English Revolution,Milton showed his discontentment to the leaders of the revolution.So Satan as the leader of the rebel angels,became the aim of his attack.It is Milton's rejection that Satan was Anti-God and heathenish.Milton the puritan and the republican make him contradictory.Chapter Three is Conclusion.From the analysis of Chapter 2,the author will draw the conclusion naturally,that is to say,Milton's strong religious beliefs do influence the creation of his three masterpieces Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes,which draw their materials from the Bible.The poet gave the rein to his imagination.Milton's personal misfortunes,unhappy marriage and his blindness are enbodied in Samson Agonistes.He created Samson Agonistes and the character Samson he recast in the poem is similar to the poet's personal misfortunes.The whole poem strongly suggests that Milton's puritan ideas and Milton's passionate longing like Samson's could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life,.In Paradise Lost,through the revolt of Satan,the revolutionary spirit in Satan and Milton's pious religious beliefs,we see in the poem Milton's inner contradiction between Milton the puritan and Milton the republican or bourgeois revolutionist.The contradiction becomes most obvious as Satan and his mates in their cries for freedom and against tyranny directly.So,we can say that Milton is not only a devout Christian,but also a rebel against God.He is not only a puritan poet,but also a revolutionary poet.Milton's religious philosophy,his deep-rooted puritan ideas,personal misfortunes and sublime revolutionary practice exercise great influences on the creation of Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost.