The Shifting Faces of Epic Heroes: The Evolutionary Trajectory of Heroic Ideals in William Davenant’s Gondibert and John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Abstract

This study argues that in the selected works of the seventeenth-century English epics, William Davenant’s Gondibert (1651) and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), the epic heroes are constructed as part of the poets’ personal responses to the problems and questions initiated by the profound social, religious, philosophical, and political changes occurring in the seventeenth-century England. Both poets highlight the need for the development of new virtues, behaviours, and ethical standards in response to the dramatic changes at the time. Accordingly, this dissertation hypothesises that the epic heroes in these works are not only used as a vehicle for social and political commentary, but also as blueprints for ethical systems congruent with the needs of the contemporary epoch, thereby fostering the moral progression and advancement of the audience. This leads both poets to significantly deviate from the traditional concept of the epic hero, each reimagining and reshaping conventions in their own distinctive way. The evolution of Davenant’s new epic hero is characterised by rhetorical prowess, tempered ambition, reason, openness to new knowledge, and a pro-peace stance, yet is also marked by justified martial prowess due to the realpolitik. Davenant writes for the high strata of the society from both sides of the Civil War, believing that as the “chiefs” of the society they should adapt to contemporary shifts to better fit the offices of government. Milton’s redefinition of the epic hero is characterised by innate free will, political responsibility, rhetorical prowess, a worth determined not by lineage but by merit marked by endurance and patience, autonomous obedience to God guided by right reason, and a nuanced view of war that recognises its brutal reality yet also understands the necessity of martial prowess in a politically charged world. By redefining heroism in this manner, Milton shifts its domain from the exclusive preserve of high society to the realm of the everyday Christian, making it accessible and relevant to a broader spectrum of society.