Summary of Paradise Lost Book I Milton states that the purpose of Paradise Lost is to reveal the ways of God to man, a noble and epic attempt to reconcile God to man. Satan and his Fallen Angels are found in Hell in pain from God’s thunderbolts. Satan is indomitable and whips his dejected demons into discipline and injects them with some of his own determination. (Our admiration of Satan’s courage should not blind us to his moral error: Satan embodies selfish pride that fails to comprehend that submission to a loving God is NOT bondage, BUT true freedom and joy). Book II Satan puts forth a plan to plague God by annexing the newly created World. Satan preempts the mission of reconnaissance and journeys through Chaos toward the World. Satan dominates the meeting of the Fallen through his personality. Milton characterizes each major demon differently through the conversations (Milton would have seen much political oratory at Court). Satan flatters all, allowing a release of tension; Moloch is impetuous demanding immediate action. Belial is unctuous (smooth but insincere) and glib (smooth, silver tongued, but unconvincing) saying to do nothing. Mammon suggests that they make the best of their situation in Hell. Beelzebub, the mouthpiece for Satan, persuades all to accept Satan’s plan. Satan leaves Hell to reconnoiter talking to Sin and Death at the gates of Hell. Book III God perceives Satan’s plan and tells his Son of Satan’s future success in seducing mankind. The Son of God offers himself as ransom for man. Satan enters Earth. Milton seems to be least successful in Book III because Milton, the man, is trying to explain God through his conversations. God comes across as a schoolmaster and readers are left to question omniscience versus free will and how an all merciful God can punish mankind from Adam and Eve because of that one error in judgment for ALL time and for all generations (concept of Original Sin and man’s fall from grace). Book IV Satan looks at the beauty of God’s Creation. He overhears Adam and Eve discuss the Forbidden Fruit. Satan in the form of a toad begins to tempt Eve. Satan searches his soul, realizes the supremacy of God, and the justice of his submission to God but his pride won’t let him submit. His followers will be disappointed and he also
knows that he is so stubborn that if he repents he will rebel again. Satan is awed by the loveliness and innocence of God’s creation and is ashamed that he intends to wreck God’s creation, but he continues anyway, beginning his debasement. Book V Eve relates her dream to Adam and is comforted. They have morning prayers and go about their daily duties in the Garden. The angel Raphael is sent by God to warn Adam and Eve and recounts how Lucifer, jealous at the promotion of Christ, incited angels to rebel against God. Book VI Raphael recounts the three days’ war in Heaven and the defeat of the rebels by Christ and their casting out of Heaven and Christ’s return to the throne of God. Book VII Raphael recounts the six days of Creation (this and remaining books take place on Earth while much of Books I-VI take place in Heaven or Hell). Book VIII Adam asks Raphael about the structure of the Universe, receives some answers, and like good neo-classicists, says than man should concern himself with his own affairs. Adam tells Raphael about his own creation and his first meeting and nuptials with Eve. After warning Adam about passion, Raphael departs. Remember the Great Chain of Being and man’s place in the Cosmology. Also remember both the Ptolemaic and the Copernican Theories. Note that the true hero of Paradise Lost is man as seen through one man, Adam. Milton stresses Adam’s intellectual curiosity and his love for Eve. It is in these essentially human conditions that help cause the Fall. Through the process of reasoning, Adam’s dissatisfaction with his state and his carnal affection for Eve lead Adam astray. Eve is beautiful and feminine but Satan has already cast her as the weak spot for his beguilement. Her vanity and ambition will make her sin. Book IX Encountering Eve alone, Satan persuades her to eat of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam, knowing better, eats of the fruit in his loving resolve to share her fate. They seek to cover their nakedness and argue with one another. Although warned by Raphael, Eve femininely insists on gardening alone. Milton dwells on the fall from innocence of the innocents, never to be innocent again.
Satan hates himself for his crime and is remorseful but unrepentant, trapped by his sinful pride. He entices Eve as the skillful orator to the simple mind, unacquainted as she is with cunning and falsehood. Adam recognizes her sin but joins her in mistaken loyalty and love. Innocence is again at fault because he does not realize that he should remain innocent and intercede for her instead of sharing her sin and thus losing all. The book ends with the first domestic quarrel: sex now becomes guilty, shame overcomes them, and both mutually recriminate. Book X God sends Christ to pronounce judgment and in pity to clothe the pair. Sin and Death invade the Created World, and Satan returns to Hell to boast of his triumph. After lamenting their fate, Adam and Eve are reconciled and plead to God for Mercy. Adam finally assumes his responsibility and aided by divine love is contrite. Milton thus points out that man now can achieve divine grace by knowledge of sin and repentance. Love of God can conquer evil and rescue man from sin. Book XI The archangel Michael comes to dispossess Adam and Eve from Paradise, and Michael tells Adam of the course of history up to the Flood. Book XII Michael reveals to Adam the mission of Christ and the means toward the salvation of man. He conducts Adam and Eve from Paradise. Milton sees man’s hope in his individual salvation, not in a perfect society. Then, Milton depicts Adam as the conscious tragic hero, a man with human experience, fully accepting man’s position. Ahead lies the world of labor, pain, vicissitude, and trials. Paradise is no longer inhabitable for this experienced man, but the real world is, and Adam faces it with God as his guide.