Plan of the lecture english literature of the XVII century

History of Philosophy
(1655 – 62). 
The scene was now being set for the so - called ‘battle of the books’, in the course of 
which humanism was revised as neoclassicism according to standards laid down by the 
likes of Bentley and Boileau (Grafton 1991; Highet 1949 ) 
Paradise Regained 
hearkens back to the Book of Job, whose principal character 
is tempted by Satan to forgo his faith in God and to cease exercising patience and 
fortitude in the midst of ongoing and ever-increasing adversity. By adapting the trials 
of Job and the role of Satan as tempter and by integrating them with the accounts of 
Matthew and Luke of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, Milton dramatizes how 
Jesus embodies Christian heroism. Less sensational than that of Classical protagonists 
and not requiring military action for its manifestation, Christian heroism is a 
continuous reaffirmation of faith in God and is manifested in renewed prayer for 
patience and fortitude to endure and surmount adversities. By resisting temptations that 
pander to one’s impulses toward ease, pleasure, worldliness, and power, a Christian 
hero maintains a heavenly orientation that informs his actions. Satan as the tempter in 
Paradise Regained 
fails in his unceasing endeavours to subvert Jesus by various means 
in the wilderness. As powerful as the temptations may be, the sophistry that 
accompanies them is even more insidious. 
Paradise Regained 
unfolds as a series of debates—an ongoing dialectic—in 
which Jesus analyses and refutes Satan’s arguments. With clarity and cogency, Jesus 
rebuts any and all arguments by using recta ratio, always informed by faith in God, his 
father. Strikingly evident also is Jesus’ determination, an overwhelming sense of 
resolve to endure any and all trials visited upon him. 
Though 
Paradise Regained 
lacks the vast scope of 
Paradise Lost
, it fulfils its 
purpose admirably by pursuing the idea of Christian heroism as a state of mind. More 
so than 
Paradise Lost
, it dramatizes the inner workings of the mind of Jesus, his 
perception, and the interplay of faith and reason in his debates with Satan. When Jesus 
finally dismisses the tempter at the end of the work, the reader recognizes that the 
encounters in 
Paradise Regained 
reflect a high degree of psychological verisimilitude.