Teaching Johm Milton's Paradise Lost in an undergraduate class is a formidable task. The language, most of all, is often too difficult for the students to understand the meanings and to grasp the context. Futhermore, the text demands certain leve ...

Teaching Johm Milton's Paradise Lost in an undergraduate class is a formidable task. The language, most of all, is often too difficult for the students to understand the meanings and to grasp the context. Futhermore, the text demands certain level of knowledge about Christian theology in order for the reader to comprehend the significances, which, in fact, make the work something far beyond a well-known tale of Christian myth. Despite the difficultie, however, Milton's work ought to be taught in English major courses because it is not only a great work of literature, through which students may learn about the value of humanity, but it still does maintain
a strong influence even upon today's arts and culture.
This paper attempts to present pedagogical strategies, as well as the limitations, that I have used in undergraduate Milton clases, so as to search hopefully for a better method which might be helpful to all those who are and will be teaching Paradise Lost. A few exceptions there may be, but it is hardly possible to cover the entire work within the second half of a semester, the time I usually allocate to Milton. Asking the students to read the entire text would certainly be a ready and easy way to a disater. Selection and concentration are inevitable, and the instructor should carefully choose the parts to be read together in class, the parts to be asigned, and the parts that he/she will cover in the form of story telling.
Particular emphasis is placed on the method to sustaining students' interest in Paradise Lost, and I always try to present the meanings of the work much simpler than they actually are. Although 'offering a diluted or predigested form" is not something that a good instructor should do, it is my belief that this method is much better than to scare the students off while avoiding simplification and distortion. After all, most of our students are not going to become Miltonists, nor should we focus, in our undergraduate clases, on those few students who would pursure their study in Milton, that is, even if they do exist.