Incisive in his writings and controversial in his time, John Milton, through his prolific publications, offers his readers moral insight that extends from the soul to politics. Given such an understanding, one can use Milton and his works to nuance one's conception of the human condition and the governmental forces that enable or disable it. This last idea, according to which a government can restrict the activities of its citizens, is current and Milton seriously contests it. Politically speaking, Milton fought for the notion of liberty, believing that freedom of choice and expression is an integral part of the human experience. So when the British Parliament enacted the Licensing Order of 1643 – requiring authors to submit their works for approval before publication – Milton took up writing, publishing Areopagitica, a dynamic prose work arguing against the restriction of freedom. (Kerrigan 923). With its mandate, the government could monitor all books, ultimately allowing it to arbitrate and control the flow of knowledge. In this work, Milton implores Parliament to repeal its law and thus restore the rights of the British population, demanding "the liberty to know, to express and to argue freely according to their conscience..." (960). Although the most obvious goal of the work is to ensure freedom of publication for all authors, regardless of the content of their work, the essence of its argument extends beyond books: freedom is the freedom of choice. Books, and the restrictive laws surrounding their distribution, seem only to serve as a microcosm of this larger argument, for they are "not absolutely dead things, but contain within them a power of life which makes them as active as the was this soul of which they are an offspring…” (930). Milton's reader, in light of this definition, must treat books on an equal footing with humans, knowing that to restrict the book is to restrict the individual. With this in mind, it can be applied to other works of Milton, namely Comus: A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, in which the protagonist, Lady Alice, must confront vice and choose virtue instead. In her temperance, Alice reveals herself to be Milton's “fighting Christian,” ultimately reflecting the fundamental principles of Miltonic freedom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Before revealing Milton's ideas on virtue, one must first understand his ideas regarding the existence of good and evil. A religious man himself, Milton believed in the existence of both, going so far as to say that the two "grow together almost inseparably" (938). Such a realist perspective differentiates Milton from his political opponents, whose regulation of literature involves the expulsion of evil from society. By asserting the codependence of good and evil, Milton forces the individual to actively choose between the two, aligning with one, but not both. Apart from their inherent connection, Milton believes that both forces have practical application, each being a lens through which to identify the other: it is like the peel of an apple tasted that the knowledge of good and evil like two twins separating. together we jumped into the world. And perhaps this is the destiny into which Adam fell to know good and evil, that is, to know good through evil. (939) To support his argument that evil is essential to the knowledge of good, Milton traces it back to its biblical roots, specifically the book of Genesis, inin which Eve, tempted by Satan, eats the forbidden apple and, in doing so, releases evil. in the world, ultimately leading to original sin. Of course, the purpose of his allusion is to clarify the birth of evil, to prove that, throughout human history, good and evil have existed simultaneously. Literal implications aside, Milton hopes his readers will understand that, without an evil to balance it all, goodness is nothing more than an amorphous word devoid of moral consequence. To be truly good, one must actively abstain from evil, the eradication of which would entirely weaken the value of good. By restricting certain books, Parliament deprives individuals of their freedom, of their choice, thus preventing any true realization of the good in them. So, to oppose such deprivation of liberty, to right the wrongs of Parliament and free liberty from its chains, Milton wrote Areopagitica. After contemplating Milton's freedom, proving that it is freedom of choice, one must understand virtue as the driving force behind this freedom. choice. Now, harmoniously combining freedom and virtue in a hypothetical individual, Milton expresses to his reader the notion of the "true Christian warrior", who can "apprehend and consider vice with all its apparent baits and pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish ", and yet I prefer what is truly better..." (939). By assigning a feminine pronoun to vice, Milton personifies it, prescribing a seductive human form to tempt the individual; now incarnate, she roams the earth, seeking to spread her seed and infect those who are virtuous. It should be noted that such personification is almost misogynistic, as it immediately associates the female form with moral corruption. Yet, to embody Milton's “Christian warrior,” one must interact with vice and repudiate it; after all, you can't truly succeed without the opportunity to fail. Perhaps hampered by his political motivations, Milton does not fully explore this Christian figure in his parliamentary invocation; however, it can be located in another work of Milton's, produced a decade before Areopagitica. Commissioned by Bridgewater's leaders, Comus features his children: Lady Alice, his 15-year-old daughter, and her two little brothers, one 11 years old and the other nine years old. (Kerrigan, 61-62). To spite these children – located alone together in a forest – Milton chooses Comus, traditionally associated with the Greek god whose presence brings anarchy and chaos, but here a cunning wizard whose “many baits and cunning spells/… insinuate and invite the children.” 'irregular sense/of those who pass without concern on the way' (Milton, 82). An agent of corruption, Comus deceives and takes advantage of innocent bystanders, hoping to corrupt their virtue with temptations of vice. More than corrupt, he appears as the physical manifestation of vice, entering the scene with "a charming stick in one". hand, his glass in the other, with him a rout of monsters led like various kinds of wild beasts…” (Milton, 67 years old). Considered here as a gentle and relaxed character, he leads his followers, who have all passed through once, "without any interest elsewhere", only to be infected and degraded by witchcraft. Yet, for the purposes of the mask, Comus targets Lady Alice, the young virgin whose chastity foils her depravity. Interestingly, when informed by Areopagitica, one understands Comus' evil as the source of his fascination with Alice. Good and evil, as previously established, are intrinsically linked, allowing Comus to “feel the different rhythm of a chaste foot” (69). Embodying evil, Comus is empowered to sense the presence of good, here manifested in the Virgin Mary. So, delighted by the.