Paper 101: Memory, Exile & Identity in John Milton and Aphra Behn: Rewriting Displacement in the Post–Civil-War and Restoration Eras

Paper 101: Memory, Exile & Identity in John Milton and Aphra Behn: Rewriting Displacement in the Post–Civil-War and Restoration Eras

This blog is a part of the assignment of Paper 101: Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods 

Memory, Exile & Identity in John Milton and Aphra Behn: Rewriting Displacement in the Post–Civil-War and Restoration Eras

Table of Contents

• Academic Details 
• Assignment Details
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Research Question
• Hypothesis
• 1. Introduction: The Poetics of Banishment
• 1.1. Thesis Statement
• 1.2. Methodological Approach 
• 2. Theoretical and Historical Context: The Unstable Self in the Restoration
• 2.1. Defining the "Restoration" and the "Problem of Periodization"
• 2.2. Exile as a Foundational Post-Civil-War Experience 
• 3. John Milton: Paradise Lost and the Trauma of Ideological Exile 
• 3.1. The Fallen State: Paradise as Metaphor for Lost Nationhood
• 3.2. Memory, Language, and the Redefinition of Self 
• 3.3. The Poetics of Loss and Redemption (Internal Exile)
• 4. Aphra Behn: Oroonoko and the Brutality of Colonial Exile 
• 4.1. Physical Displacement and the Erasure of Identity 
• 4.2. Colonial Betrayal and the Instability of Restoration Identity
• 4.3. Rewriting History: Oroonoko and the Politics of Colonial Memory 
• 5. Comparative Analysis: Divergent Rewritings of Displacement 
• 5.1. Internal (Milton) vs. External (Behn) Exile
• 5.2. Gendered and Racial Dimensions of Banishment
• 5.3. Memory as Trauma vs. Memory as Resistance
• 6. Conclusion: The Shared Project of the Displaced Self
• References 

Academic Details 

• Name: Nidhi R. Pandya 

• Roll No.: 20  

• Enrollment No.: 5108250024  

• Sem.: 1  

• Batch: 2025 - 2027  

• E-mail: nidhipandya206@gmail.com   

Assignment Details  

• Paper Name: Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods 

• Paper No.: Paper 101 

• Paper Code: 22392  

• Unit 3: Aphra Behn’s the Rover 

• Topic: Memory, Exile & Identity in John Milton and Aphra Behn: Rewriting Displacement in the Post–Civil-War and Restoration Eras 

• Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University  

• Submitted Date: November 10, 2025 

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• Words: 2735 

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• Sentences:  220 

• Reading time: 10 m 56 s 

Abstract 

This paper explores how the experience of political and cultural displacement fundamentally shaped the literature of John Milton’s 'Paradise Lost' (1667) and Aphra Behn’s 'Oroonoko'; or The Royal Slave (1688). Analyzing texts written in the shadow of the English Civil War, it argues that both authors engaged in a necessary act of rewriting displacement by utilizing narrative, memory, and literary form to construct a coherent sense of identity amid existential crisis. Milton, an ideologically exiled Puritan, internalizes the loss of the Commonwealth, rendering Paradise as a metaphor for failed nationhood and locating redemption within language and spiritual memory. The comparison reveals a shared literary project: to negotiate the trauma of banishment whether political, spiritual, or physical by creating narrative structures that restore dignity and assert a resilient identity against the fragmentation of the post-Civil-War world.  

Keywords 

Exile, Displacement, Identity, Restoration Literature, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Aphra Behn, Oroonoko. 

Research Question 

How do John Milton's Paradise Lost and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, published during the political instability of the post–Civil-War and Restoration eras, utilize the literary concepts of exile and memory to construct divergent yet necessary strategies for rewriting personal and national identity? 

Hypothesis 

Milton and Behn, through their respective uses of internal (Milton) and external (Behn) exile, hypothesize that the trauma of post-Civil-War banishment can only be successfully navigated by establishing new, resilient forms of identity Milton's based on spiritual/intellectual memory, and Behn's based on resisting colonial erasure through historical record. 

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1. Introduction: The Poetics of Banishment 

The transition from the Interregnum to the Restoration period (1660 onwards) was not merely a political shift; it was a profound rupture in the collective and individual consciousness of the English nation, characterized by instability, political flux, and the widespread experience of banishment. As Tim Harris argues, the Restoration ushered in an era of deep social and cultural change, making the very idea of a stable "Restoration identity" problematic (Harris 1997, 188). Within this volatile landscape, two monumental works emerged that centered displacement: John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost (1667) and Aphra Behn’s novel Oroonoko; or The Royal Slave (1688). Both texts are united by their urgent need to address the trauma of exile, loss, and fragmentation through the mechanisms of memory and narrative rewriting. 

1.1. Thesis Statement 

This paper contends that John Milton and Aphra Behn, writing from positions of ideological and social marginality, respectively, employ a poetics of banishment to rewrite displacement in the post–Civil-War and Restoration eras. Milton treats exile as an internal, spiritual wound, using the memory of Paradise to critique the lost English republic and redefine human identity through language. Behn treats exile as an external, physical, and racial trauma, using the colonial displacement of Oroonoko to mirror the period's profound cultural instability, asserting that identity in the Restoration was defined by the negotiation of perpetual loss. 

1.2. Methodological Approach 

To support this claim, the analysis will proceed in three stages. First, I will establish the shared context of instability, drawing upon scholarship that defines the "Restoration" as a period of flux (Zwicker 2006; Harris 1997). Second, I will focus on Milton’s experience of political and spiritual exile, examining how it is woven into Paradise Lost as a foundation for his poetics of loss (Loewenstein 2002; Teskey 2003). The comparative element will then contrast Milton’s attempt at redemption through memory with Behn’s portrayal of trauma as indelible social reality. 

2. Theoretical and Historical Context: The Unstable Self in the Restoration 

To understand the core project of Paradise Lost and Oroonoko, one must first recognize the profound instability of the political and cultural moment in which they were written. The period following the execution of Charles I, the collapse of the Commonwealth, and the subsequent restoration of the monarchy in 1660 created a society predicated on both restoration and radical repudiation. 

2.1. Defining the "Restoration" and the "Problem of Periodization" 

The term "Restoration" itself, denoting the return of the monarchy, is misleadingly singular. As Steven N. Zwicker notes, defining this literary or cultural period is a profound problem, suggesting the era was less about a stable return and more about a persistent sense of flux and contested historical meaning (Zwicker 2006, 427). The Restoration was characterized by intense scrutiny of what it meant to be "English," "loyal," or "civilized." The return of the king did not simply erase the memory of the Interregnum; rather, it codified the period into a traumatic memory to be suppressed. The literature, therefore, was less a celebration of return and more an examination of the self’s ability to survive catastrophic political change (Zwicker 2006, 430). 

2.2. Exile as a Foundational Post-Civil-War Experience 

The experience of exile, both literal and ideological, served as a foundational trauma of the mid-17th century. Mark R. F. Williams’ study on Royalist exiles demonstrates that banishment was a deeply internal, spiritual, and devotional experience (Williams 2014, 910). After the Restoration, the ideological exile of former Parliamentarians and Republicans most famously Milton became the defining reality. This ideological displacement, combined with the new, harsh realities of burgeoning colonial empire, forms the core thematic bridge between Milton and Behn. In both cases, the experience of being outside was the essential prerequisite for their literary engagement with memory and identity. 

3. John Milton: Paradise Lost and the Trauma of Ideological Exile 

John Martin and the Art (Paradise Lost: The Creation of Light) 

Milton’s epic poem, published just seven years after the Restoration, is arguably the definitive literary response to the failure of the Republican cause. Paradise Lost uses the story of Adam and Eve’s fall as an elaborate metaphor for the political and personal trauma Milton endured. 

3.1. The Fallen State: Paradise as Metaphor for Lost Nationhood 

David Loewenstein asserts that Milton’s poem is fundamentally an attempt to negotiate the poet's own "experience of political and spiritual exile" (Loewenstein 2002, 85). The loss of Eden acts as a clear analogue for the loss of the Commonwealth the ideal republic Milton had championed. The sense of banishment is palpable in Satan's famed lament: 

"The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n" (I.254-255). 

This line is the ultimate expression of ideological exile: the only space left for the banished political mind is the self. Gordon Teskey further elaborates that Milton’s later poetry involves a negotiation of loss, using the grand scale of the epic to recast his political failure into a universal spiritual narrative (Teskey 2003, 334). The act of writing the poem becomes Milton’s own method of "rewriting" the political narrative he lost, finding a higher justification for his work. 

3.2. Memory, Language, and the Redefinition of Self 

For Milton, memory is the primary vehicle for both pain and potential redemption. Adam and Eve, upon their expulsion, retain the memory of Paradise, which fuels their sorrow but also their eventual wisdom. Their only possession after banishment is language and the internal capacity for rational thought. Milton thus suggests a post-fall identity that is redefined not by political success or place, but by inner virtue and intellectual clarity. The process of writing the poem itself a monumental act of preserving sacred history is the ultimate assertion of the exiled author’s persistent identity and refusal to be silenced by the political reality of the Restoration. 

3.3. The Poetics of Loss and Redemption (Internal Exile) 

Milton’s poetic technique of focusing on internal states the dialogues within Satan’s mind, the theological struggle of Adam reinforces the nature of his internal exile. While the physical location shifts, the true drama unfolds in the consciousness of the protagonists. This emphasis aligns perfectly with the experience of the ideological exile who cannot physically leave but whose worldview has been rendered illegitimate by the state. The poem offers a template for survival: the external world may be lost, but the internal spiritual and intellectual life remains a sovereign state (Loewenstein 2002, 88). This is how Milton rewrites displacement: he trades a physical, external paradise for an inward, spiritual resilience. 

4. Aphra Behn: Oroonoko and the Brutality of Colonial Exile 

Title Page of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko 

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko; or The Royal Slave (1688) shifts the discourse of displacement from the internal, ideological trauma of Milton’s epic to the external, physical, and racial brutality of colonial enslavement. Written towards the end of the Restoration period, Behn, as a woman navigating the literary world, utilized her own experience of social and professional marginality to frame a critique of power and betrayal. The narrative, set in the remote Surinam colony, functions as a political allegory where the trauma of a non-European royal’s capture and humiliation reflects the instability and moral decay Behn saw at the heart of the restored monarchy. 

4.1. Physical Displacement and the Erasure of Identity 

Oroonoko’s displacement is absolute: he is stripped of his royal status, his name (re-named "Caesar"), and his freedom. Behn details his initial identity with effusive praise, making his subsequent fall all the more tragic. He is described as a man of profound honour and physical perfection, possessing a mind that "was master of a thousand parts" and a face that "was as capable of all the various expressions of the soul, as any I ever saw" (Behn, Oroonoko 1.15). This detailed establishment of his natural nobility is crucial, as it makes the literal journey from Africa to the slave colony a dramatic and agonizing act of identity erasure. His physical displacement is a trauma that no internal virtue can fully overcome, setting him in sharp contrast to Milton's Adam. 

4.2. Colonial Betrayal and the Instability of Restoration Identity 

The central crisis of Oroonoko is not the initial capture, but the subsequent acts of betrayal by the English colonists, who violate treaties, break promises and ultimately subject him to violence. This betrayal, carried out by those representing 'civilized' Europe, serves as a devastating critique of Restoration ethics. The identity of the English colonist is shown to be defined by opportunism and moral duplicity. The narrator’s professed admiration for Oroonoko, coupled with her inability to prevent his fate, mirrors the difficult position of the socially marginalized author who can articulate truth but not enforce justice. The colonists, "being people of great avarice... could not be persuaded to think he was other than a slave" (Behn, Oroonoko 1.20). This underscores the triumph of colonial economics over inherited nobility, confirming the period’s shift toward material self-interest that Harris describes (Harris 1997, 201). 

4.3. Rewriting History: Oroonoko and the Politics of Colonial Memory 

Behn's novel, framed as a factual account by a reliable eyewitness, is a powerful attempt to rewrite the history of enslavement and exile by centering the dignity of the victim. Janet Todd argues that Behn’s narrator attempts to control the "politics of colonial memory" by preserving Oroonoko’s story as a testament to European barbarity (Todd 1994, 560). The brutal, drawn-out torture and execution of Oroonoko ensures that his physical body is destroyed, but his symbolic integrity is preserved by the narrative itself. 

"Thus died this great man, after having lived so very greatly" (Behn, Oroonoko 1.21). 

The final act of dismemberment is an attempt by the colonial power to fragment his memory, but Behn’s narrative intervention serves as an act of resistance an ethical imperative to ensure the political and colonial memory cannot be cleanly suppressed (Todd 1994, 565). By memorializing the trauma, Behn asserts a moral identity outside the corrupt Restoration system. 

5. Comparative Analysis: Divergent Rewritings of Displacement 

While Milton and Behn both address the trauma of banishment arising from the instability of the mid-17th century, their methods of "rewriting displacement" are fundamentally divergent, reflecting their differing positions of marginality and their generic choices. 

5.1. Internal (Milton) vs. External (Behn) Exile 

Comparison of Internal (Milton) vs. External (Behn) Exile 

Image Source: Grok Ai 

The core difference lies in the location of the exile. Milton’s banishment is fundamentally internal (spiritual and ideological). As Adam is told, "A Paradise within thee, happier far" (Paradise Lost XII.587). The exile is tragic but redemptive. This concept of internal sovereignty, as explored by Loewenstein, allows Milton to turn political failure into spiritual victory (Loewenstein 2002, 95). Behn’s exile is external (physical and racial). Oroonoko’s identity is not redefined by an internal sovereign mind but is erased by the external, economic forces of the slave trade. While Milton offers a path toward spiritual restoration through memory, Behn offers only a stark historical record of irreversible destruction. 

5.2. Gendered and Racial Dimensions of Banishment 

The marginality of the authors informs the identity of the displaced. Milton’s ideological exile as a man of letters aligns him with Adam, whose ultimate solace is rational. Conversely, Behn’s social marginality as a woman writer is reflected in the novel’s focus on the victimized body (Oroonoko’s physical suffering and Imoinda's fate). The trauma in Oroonoko is inflicted on a racial 'other' who is rendered vulnerable by his physical presence in the colonial space. Her eyewitness narrative emphasizes immediate, brutal suffering, grounding the abstract notion of "loss" in the tangible reality of the colonial periphery. 

5.3. Memory as Trauma vs. Memory as Resistance 

Both texts utilize memory, but with different effects. For Milton, the memory of Paradise is painful but serves a pedagogical purpose it leads to wisdom and a greater faith in divine providence. As Teskey notes, Milton uses this negotiation of loss to create a universal framework of spiritual survival (Teskey 2003, 335). For Behn, the memory of Oroonoko's glory and the memory of his suffering is purely traumatic. It serves not to redeem the individual, but to indict the society. The narrator’s act of chronicling his life and death is therefore an act of resistance an ethical imperative to ensure the political and colonial memory cannot be cleanly suppressed (Todd 1994, 565). While Milton's memory looks inward for consolation, Behn's memory looks outward to history for justice. 

6. Conclusion: The Shared Project of the Displaced Self 

The literature of the post–Civil-War and Restoration eras, when examined through the lens of displacement, reveals a profound anxiety about the nature of identity that transcended political allegiance and genre. This paper has demonstrated that John Milton, writing from a position of ideological banishment, and Aphra Behn, writing from a position of social marginality, both engaged in a vital project of rewriting displacement to assert an enduring sense of self against fragmentation. Milton’s Paradise Lost offers a template for survival by internalizing exile, using the memory of a lost paradise to construct an identity founded on spiritual resilience and intellectual clarity. Behn’s Oroonoko, in contrast, externalizes this trauma, presenting physical and racial displacement as an indelible social reality. 

Ultimately, these two monumental works confirm that identity in this volatile period was not secured by the political 'restoration' of the monarchy, but by the strenuous negotiation of perpetual loss. This shared literary impulse the need to articulate and manage the trauma of banishment is what defines the literature of the age, supporting Zwicker's observation that the period is best defined by its instability rather than its stability (Zwicker 2006, 440). Their shared legacy is a testament to the enduring power of literature to be the 'place' where lost worlds are eternally remembered, and justice is perpetually demanded. 

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Rewriting Displacement: Memory, Exile, and Identity in Milton and Behn

References:

• Behn, Aphra. “Oroonoko; or the Royal Slave.” Oroonoko, gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700151h.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025. 

• Brett-Smith, H. F. B. The Review of English Studies, vol. 11, no. 43, 1935, pp. 351–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/508093. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025. 

• HAGGERTY, GEORGE E. “Recent Studies in the Restoration and Eighteenth Century.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 57, no. 3, 2017, pp. 645–86. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26541932. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.  

• Harbage, Alfred. “Elizabethan: Restoration Palimpsest.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 35, no. 3, 1940, pp. 287–319. JSTOR,https://www.jstor.org/stable/3716627
   Accessed 4 Nov. 2025. 

• Harris, Tim. “What’s New about the Restoration?” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 1997, pp. 187–222. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4051810. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025. 

• Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.” Project Gutenberg, 1 Nov. 2025, www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26/pg26-images.html. 

• Sachse, William L. “Recent Historical Writings on Restoration England.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 1974, pp. 1–11. JSTOR,https://www.jstor.org/stable/4048207. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025. 

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