"To stand upright will ask thee skill": freedom in John Milton's late poems

This thesis provides the first philosophical systematization of John Milton’s views on freedom and uses this systematic exposition to interpret the most pivotal choices in the final three poems of Milton’s literary career—Paradise Lost (1667, 1674), Paradise Regained (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671). Rather than approaching each of these poems as an isolated work, I argue for reading the three late poems as a conceptual trilogy, where each work depicts a unique paradigmatic figure in the Christian logic of standing and falling. The movements of standing and falling are the movements of Miltonic freedom. Drawing from both Milton’s late poems and his more theoretical prose, I build on the pioneering work of Dennis Danielson and Benjamin Myers to develop a complete philosophical exposition of Milton’s views on freedom, with regard to God, angels, and both unfallen and fallen humans. Understanding what the category of freedom meant for Milton allows the representations of freedom in the poetic trilogy to be read through the lens of Milton’s theory. I examine the freedom of the four sets of protagonists in the poems: the fallen movements of Satan, as well as Adam & Eve, and the standing movements of Jesus and Samson. My exegesis challenges popular critical approaches which find the central choices of these characters unintelligible and reveals the practical Milton who sought to demonstrate the path of true freedom to his readers.