Paradise Lost

Milton explains that Adam and Eve's disobedience occurred partly because of a serpent's deception. This serpent is Satan. The poem shifts its focus to Satan and his followers in Hell, where God in Heaven has just cast them after their defeat.

Satan, stunned, lies in a lake of fire that gives off darkness instead of light. Breaking the awful silence, Satan speaks to his second-in-command, Beelzebub, bemoaning their terrible position. He does not repent of his rebellion against God, suggesting instead that they might gather their forces for another attack. Beelzebub is doubtful. He now believes that God cannot be overpowered. Satan does not contradict Beelzebub's assessment, but he does suggest the possibility of perverting God's good works to evil purposes. The two devils rise up and fly to the dry land next to the flaming lake.

Once out of the lake, Satan becomes more optimistic. He calls to his legions, the fallen angels who followed Satan in defying God and have so become devils. The fallen angels obey Satan immediately, joining him on land despite their wounds and suffering. Milton lists some of the notable angels whose names have been erased from the books of Heaven. He says that later, in the time of man, many of these devi

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He suggests a meeting at which they will discuss the feasibility of another war.

Rising action - The angels battle in Heaven; Satan and the rebel angels fall to Hell; God creates the universe; Satan plots to corrupt God's human creation; Raphael answers Adam's questions and warns him of Satan

Climax - Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge

Falling action - The Son inflicts punishment; Adam and Eve repent; Adam learns about the future of man

Themes - The Importance of Obedience to God; The Hierarchical Nature of the Universe; The Fall As Partly Fortunate

Motifs - Light and Dark; The Geography of the Universe; Conversation and Contemplation

Symbols - The Scales in the Sky; Adam's Wreath

Foreshadowing - Eve's vanity at seeing her reflection in the lake; Satan's transformation into a snake

Analysis

Throughout the first two or three books of Paradise Lost, Satan seems to be the hero of the poem. While the devils seem heroic and noteworthy, just like Homer's warriors, they actually just lost the war in Heaven. Milton also references the military heroes of earlier epics when he presents Satan as a military hero in Book I and the council of devils as a council of war. Satan finds himself defeated and banished from Heaven, and sets about establishing a new course for himself and those he leads. Even in defeat, they are an awesome army to behold. By making us sympathize with Satan, Milton forces us to question why we admire martial prowess and pride in literary characters. He assumes many shapes, and Milton compares him to numerous creatures, but the size of these creatures steadily diminishes, reflecting the steady diminishment of Satan's moral stature. In other epics, these sorts of similes establish the great size or strength of characters, and on the surface these similes seem to do the same thing. Later books, however, reveal that Satan is decidedly the antagonist. Unlike Achilles and Odysseus, however, Satan is a devil. He also insists that he prefers ruling Hell to serving God in Heaven. Then, at greater length, he compares Satan to a Leviathan, or giant sea creature, so huge that sailors mistake it for an island and fix their anchor to it. Milton plays with tradition by focusing the first quarter of his epic on the antagonist rather than the protagonist.

Approximate Word count = 1117
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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