In this essay, Achinstein compares Andrew Marvell's and John Dryden's responses to Paradise Lost in terms of the postrevolution issues of political and religious toleration.

In this essay, Bennett contends that although Paradise Lost is not a true political allegory, a comparison between Milton's prose works on English history and his characterization of Satan reveals a strong connection between the tyranny of Charles I and the false freedom of the fallen angels.

In this excerpt, Radzinowicz suggests that the mixture of psalm genres and classical influences apparent in the work allows Paradise Lost to transcend the epic genre and become an expression of religious worship as well.

In this excerpt, Lewalski suggests that Milton made use of earlier epic types, merged with biblical allusions, to approximate divine models of heroism and power, and to convey the wonder of the Creation.

In the following essay, Fixler shows that Milton conceived Paradise Lost as a form of devotional celebration, a revelation and praise of God and his mysteries.

In the following essay, Webber claims that Milton, however awkwardly and imperfectly, breaks new ground when he raises issues concerning women's rights and importance.

In this excerpt, Gregerson discusses the development of subjectivity in Paradise Lost, focusing on the issue of sexual difference and subordination.

In the following essay, Gilbert studies the influence of Paradise Lost on female writers.

In this excerpt, Turner examines Milton's depiction of sexuality before the Fall, observing that Milton appears to envision an innocent eroticism and equal partnership not entirely in keeping with the later admonitions of Raphael and Christ.

In this excerpt, Quilligan looks at the role of reading and listening in Paradise Lost, noting that much of the action in the poem turns on whether Eve assumes a mediate position and with whom, concluding that Eve comes close to demonstrating the poem's “fit reader.”

In this essay, Stevens addresses the issue of colonialism in Milton's poem, countering an earlier argument that Paradise Lost maintained an implicit critique of empire.

In the following essay, McColley argues that for Milton, Eve is the embodiment of poetry, as “she personifies poesy in her work, in the imagery associated with her, and in the method of her vocation.”

In the following essay, Lewalski responds to a feminist study of Paradise Lost that looks at the work in terms of sociological role definitions and asserts that such analyses are limited in their ability to assess the true complexity of Milton's treatment of women and the universality of the poem's concerns.

In the following essay, which was originally published in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology in 1961, Allen suggests that Paradise Lost should be thought of as an allegory about allegory and sees the movement in the epic as similar to that in the myths of Orpheus and Hercules, as the characters descend into darkness before ascending to light.

In the following essay, Rajan argues that Paradise Lost is a mixed-genre poem whose primary genre of epic undergoes revisionary treatment in Milton's hands and holds that the work seeks its identity between possibilities of epic and tragedy, or loss and restoration.

Below, Achinstein examines Milton's political and ethical concerns in Paradise Lost and his belief that perceptive readers who possess self-knowledge are key to the maintaining of liberty in England.

In this excerpt, Colley examines the scene in which Eve observes herself in the pool after her creation. Colley disputes interpretations that view Eve's actions as a narcissistic impulse, instead maintaining that the scene asserts Eve's free will.

In the following essay, Kermode contends that the basic theme of Paradise Lost is the recognition of lost possibilities and says that to embody this theme Milton exhibits life in a “great symbolic attitude” and not through explanations of how and why.

In the following essay, Weller maintains that Andrew Marvell's poetry rehearses the pastoral motifs that inform John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, and he examines how the lyric mode is used in the expansive form of the epic.

In the following essay, originally published in Philological Quarterly in 1949, Barker discusses how in Paradise Lost Milton moved away from a Virgilian ten-book, five-act structure to a twelve-book form that ultimately serves to reduce Satan's power over the poem.

In the following excerpt, which originally appeared in his nine-volume work on the lives of the English Poets, Johnson examines the epic's defects—claiming that we do not readily identify with the human protagonists and noting that “none wished it longer than it is”—as well as its greatness, saying that “in reading Paradise Lost we read of universal knowledge.”

In the following essay, originally published in English Studies in 1948, Gardner considers the character of Satan, responding to other critics' assessments of him and determining that Milton developed the figure dramatically throughout the poem and “expended his creative energies and his full imaginative powers in exploring the fact of perversity within a single heroic figure.”

In the following essay, Wilding argues that in Paradise Lost Milton is less concerned with the issue of sexual equality than with the revolutionary aim of achieving total human equality, “of restoring us to that still unregained blissful seat.”

In the following essay, Bloom identifies the literary antecedents of Paradise Lost.

In the following excerpt from his full-length study of Milton's poetry, Martz discusses the importance of the notion of choice in the epic, pointing out that for Milton human dignity depends on the power of choice—which includes choosing to err as well as make amends for errors.

In the following essay, which was originally published in ELH: A Journal of English Literary History in 1958, Hartman claims that there are two plots in the epic that work to contrapuntal effect and which serve to emphasize God's remoteness and power.

In the following essay, which originally appeared in his highly influential full-length treatment of Paradise Lost, Lewis calls Satan “the best drawn of Milton's characters” but insists that the poet did not admire his creation.

In this excerpt originally published in 1779, Johnson praises the genius of Paradise Lost in superlative terms, reaffirming his earlier judgment that Milton was the greatest of the English poets.

In the following excerpt, Coleridge praises the sublime simplicity of Paradise Lost.

In the following essay, which was originally published in 1964 as a introduction to his edition of the first two books of Paradise Lost, Rajan surveys other critics' responses to the style of the epic and claims that the work's diction, sound, and imagery contribute to the poetic result of a lucid surface whose depths are charged with meaning.

In the following excerpt, which originally appeared in his edition of Milton's poetry, Moody praises Paradise Lost as one of the greatest poems and declares that it is the epic's style which is its surest claim to enduring admiration.

In the following dedicatory poem, which first appeared in the second edition of Paradise Lost, the poet Andrew Marvell praises his contemporary's bold and original effort that has “not miss'd one thought that could be fit” and whose greatness is in no way diminished for being in blank and not rhyming verse.

In the following poem, first published in 1674 in the second edition of Paradise Lost, Marvell defends Milton from charges of impiety as well as criticisms of his style.