The Christian Hero:Quest For "the Spirit Within"in Milton’s Heroic Trilogy

John Milton is an epoch-making poet in English literary history. As to Milton’s trilogy of heroic poems(Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes), Miltonists have often been studying and exploring them separately and even fragmentarily rather than as an organic whole. Besides, not enough critical attention has been paid to his status in and his contribution to the tradition of western heroic poetry. The present research, adopting such literary critical approaches as archetypal criticism, intertextuality, psycho-analysis, historicism, defamiliarization, and feminism, and based on close textual reading of Milton’s theological treatise Christian Doctrine and his poetic trilogy, attempts at a comprehensive and systematic thematic study of Milton’s "hero."Milton endeavors in his treatise to bridge the gap between man and God, highlighting that man should shoulder the full responsibility for his turning heroic or evil. Besides, Milton emphasizes repetitively that man is endowed with Godlike features both externally and internally, which is the essence of Milton’s "hero." Based on such theology, Milton characterizes an array of uniquely Miltonic heroes in his heroic trilogy.Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, this dissertation falls into four chapters. The introduction presents a literature review, the definitions of "the Greek Hero" and "the Christian Hero," the research methodology, the essentials and the layout of the dissertation.Chapter One explores Milton’s theology to facilitate the analysis in the following chapters. The chapter covers Milton’s statements on Jesus as Son of God, the Holy Spirit (the Spirit), and "the Spirit within" as well as Milton’s paradox on temptation. Special attenton will be paid to the sections in Christian Doctrine on Jesus which function as the theoretical basis of Miltonic Christian Hero and serve to decode Milton’s trilogy. The ultimate aim of Chapter One is to clarify Miltonic Christian Hero and its relationships with "the Pattern of Temptations" and "the Spirit within."Chapter Two, focusing on the epic heroes in Paradise Lost, expounds that Milton, while abiding by the Devil tradition in Christianity, transforms Satan from an abstract Christian concept of Evil into a perplexing "heroic" image and, by resorting to "Satan’s Trimorphic and Pan-historic Pattern" and allegory tradition in English literature, strengthens the tension in the epic and provides the pre-temporal background for the inevitability of Adam and Eve’s Fall. Moreover, Milton views the Fall as the Fortunate Fall and, by placing Greek and Christian heroes in binary opposition, classifies fallen Adam and Eve on the quest for "the Spirit within" as a heroic Christian wayfaring couple.Chapter Three exposes the epic hero Jesus of Paradise Regained, whose dual identity resides essentially in humanity. Satan’s temptations are designed to try Jesus’humanity, which undergoes trials of all kinds before reaching its summit where Jesus is naturally exalted to "God-in-man" and where, Milton believes, divinity waits to reveal and integrate itself with humanity when and only when humanity resists all temptations and completely defeats evil. By characterizing Jesus as "Man’s interior teacher" and the prototype of the Christian hero who "keeps’standing’before temptations," Milton carves the Christian hero of "the Spirit within" with faith and patience.Chapter Four discusses why Samson, one of the two physical giants in Samson Agonistes, is considered as the only spiritual agonistes advocated by Milton in his theological treatise and heroic trilogy. Samson rises from his Fall, undergoes three temptations, regains faith, and eventually regenerates into a typical Miltonic Christian hero, hence "attaining a new and subtle heroism."The dissertation concludes that Milton’s "permanent place in the canon" of western heroic poetry lies not only in his re-defning "the true hero," but more in characterizing an array of Miltonic Christian heroes who manifest Milton’s faith and profundity in his understanding of the world and human nature. Hence, Milton puts into practice "the Poet’s Consecration" of constructing a just society and warding the truth of life, exerting a far-reaching influence on English literature.