How Paradise Lost drew on Isaiah
A documented line of influence: John Milton demonstrably engaged Isaiah’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
Relevance
8/10
On Paradise Lost’s page
- The Satan you know — the fallen morning-star, proud and ruined — is Milton reading Isaiah 14:12
- "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning" gave Milton both the image and the name; the identification of Lucifer with Satan is largely Paradise Lost's doing
- Read Isaiah first and the source of Milton's grandest character is hiding in a single prophetic verse
On Isaiah’s page
- Satan's pride and fall come from a single verse here — Isaiah 14:12, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning"
- Milton built his great antagonist out of that line, and in doing so fixed Lucifer-as-Satan in the English imagination for good
- He mines Isaiah for more than the fall — even Paradise Lost's Leviathan simile comes out of these chapters