ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -John Milton’s Areopagitica was one of the first written treatises on the concept of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It is a document written in protest against the censorship of printed works.

Detailed explanation-2: -Milton’s point is that God endowed every person with the reason, free will, and conscience to judge ideas for themselves, so the ideas in a text should be rejected by the reader’s own choice, not by a licensing authority.

Detailed explanation-3: -Although Areopagitica is commonly viewed as an eloquent plea for freedom of speech, in its context it should be understood as an argument for allowing printers to bring forth works that could be subjected, after publication, to evaluation, scrutiny, and censorship as might be judged appropriate.

Detailed explanation-4: -There he says, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties” (746). Milton explains why censorship is so antithetical to a free and democratic society in a fourfold argument.

Detailed explanation-5: -Milton’s main argument in Areopagitica is based heavily on classical notions of Freedom, those put forth in Ancient Greece and Rome. He argues that if a text is to be rejected, it must first be meticulously examined before being refuted with good reason based in fact.