John Milton's sonnet 'On His Blindness' is a statement on the individual's worthiness independent of one's measurable achievements

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: John Milton criticizes our modern achievement-oriented society in his sonnet 'On his blindness' because nowadays performance is a precondition for high regard and appreciation of somebody. However, his poem can serve as a statement in favor of a person's worthiness independent of one's performance and workload. The expression achievement-oriented society means that the distributions of goods like economic resources but also 'prestige' and 'power' are dependent on the attributed individual's performance. This functionality is the so called 'achievement principle' (Arzberger 24). In other words: Reputation is due to measurable accomplishments. Who does not achieve enough, does not gain any esteem. In order to examine my thesis I am going to analyze both the sonnet's poetic and rhetorical form. First of all I am going to point out the gist of the poem briefly.

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