Post Six:

While reading Jefferson’s Commonplace Book, I found the incorporation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost interesting. The inclusion of the seventeenth-century epic poem gives an insight to Jefferson’s beliefs regarding religion. The epic poem is a re-telling of the biblical story of Adam and Eve and their exile. Milton wrote Paradise Lost, with the idea to re-introduce religion into society. Two main themes are introduced in the poem, one of them is marriage. Milton presents marriage in the poem as a mutual decision between man and woman. There is a sense of mutuality among them, they fall in their “respected” roles of wife and husband in order to have a stable and communicative relationship. Tying back to mutual respect, Milton also suggests that they both have the right and the say in marriage. If need be, they both have access to divorce.

The other dominant theme in the poem is idolatry. Idolatry is the worship of idols; the worshiping of inanimate objects as a god. Thomas Jefferson was a Christian. It made sense that the message in Paradise Lost was included in his commonplace book. In the epic, Milton portrayed Jesus as the hero, a being that is powerful enough to defeat all evil. Milton’s beliefs and values aligned with Jefferson’s belief that Jesus is the “one true leader.” Jefferson’s Commonplace Book was a compilation of works from famous poets, philosophers, writers, etc. Their works reflect the interests and beliefs of one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

Works Cited

WILSON, DOUGLAS L., editor. Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book: Princeton University Press, 1989, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zv9b5, Accessed 14 2020.