밀턴의 『아레오파기티카』와 이혼론 산문들의 정치성

If we read Milton’s divorce tracts and Areopagitica in the context of the English Revolution, we can recognize politics in common between them, which goes toward a free republican society or nation. Though we can examine those tracts separately from each other, we can better approach them together as a group of tracts pursuing political liberty rather than merely personal or social liberty. All those tracts were published in the revolutionary period between Milton’s anti-prelatical tracts and his later anti-monarchal ones, with Areopagitica published in the middle of five divorce tracts. As Milton wrote a series of divorce tracts for the liberty of divorce, which was not accepted by any of his contemporary religious denominations or sects, he intentionally challenged and violated the law of licensing. The liberty of divorce may be a kind of personal or domestic liberty, but the very freedom to defend the liberty in public must be political. And his argument for unlicensed printing aims for the liberty of free debate that is basically demanded by a free republic. Though some critics argue that Milton’s divorce argument is man-centered and that his argument for free printing is prejudiced against Catholics, their charge may be attributed to the context of his contemporary patriarchal society and the English Revolution itself. Under the circumstances of both patriarchism and Puritanism, Milton argued for domestic and social liberty, cherishing a free republic in the heart, though not explicitly attacking the monarchy. So, his pursuit of personal or social liberty cannot but be political.