This document provides a detailed summary of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost in 3 paragraphs. It begins by introducing the poem, its publication history, and Milton's purpose of justifying God. The second paragraph discusses the poem's structure, characters, and their roles in the story. Major characters summarized are Satan, Adam, Eve, the Son of God, God the Father, Raphael, and Michael. The final paragraph outlines some of Milton's key motivations and themes in the poem, including the geography of heaven/hell/earth, the importance of conversation and contemplation, and obedience to God.

1. Subject =
poetry
Submitted to =
Dr Ali khan
Submitted by =
Muhammad maaz
Roll num =
56096
Semester
3rd
Assignment num = 4
Mid term assignment

2. Paradise lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English
poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten
books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674,
arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor
revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's major work, and it helped
solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time. The
poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam
and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Milton's purpose, as stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men.
Composition
Gustave Doré, The Heavenly Hosts, c. 1866, illustration to
Paradise Lost.
In his introduction to the Penguin edition of Paradise Lost, the Milton scholar
John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published Paradise
Lost in 1667. The biographer John Aubrey (1626–97) tells us that the poem was
begun in about 1658 and finished in about 1663. However, parts were almost
certainly written earlier, and its roots lie in Milton's earliest youth." Leonard
speculates that the English Civil War interrupted Milton's earliest attempts to
start his "epic [poem] that would encompass all space and time.
Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic. Since
epics were typically written about heroic kings and queens (and with pagan
gods), Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary Saxon or
British king like the legend of King Arthur.

3. Having gone blind in 1652, Milton wrote Paradise Lost entirely through dictation
with the help of amanuenses and friends. He also wrote the epic poem while
he was often ill, suffering from gout, and despite suffering emotionally after the
early death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, in 1658, and the death of
their infant daughter.
Structure
In the 1667 version of Paradise Lost, the poem was divided into ten books.
However, in the 1672 edition, the text was reorganized into twelve books.In later
printing, “Arguments” (brief summaries) were inserted at the beginning of each
book.
Milton used a number of acrostics in the poem. In Book 9, a verse describing the
serpent which tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden spells
out "SATAN" (9.510), while elsewhere in the same book, Milton spells out
"FFAALL" and "FALL". Respectively, these probably represent the double fall of
humanity embodied in Adam and Eve, as well as Satan's fall from Heaven.
Characters
Satan
Satan, formerly called Lucifer, is the first major character introduced in the poem.
He was once the most beautiful of all angels, and is a tragic figure who famously
declares: "Better to reign in Hell thanv serve in Heaven." Following his failed
rebellion against God, he is cast out from Heaven and condemned to Hell.
Satan's desire to rebel against his creator stems from his unwillingness to be
subjugated by God and his Son, claiming that angels are "self-begot, self-
raised," and thereby denying God's authority over them as their creator.
Satan is deeply arrogant, albeit powerful and charismatic as his persuasive powers
are evident throughout the book; not only is he cunning and deceptive, but
he is also able to rally the fallen angels to continue in the rebellion after their

4. agonizing defeat in the Angelic War. He argues that God rules as a tyrant and
that all the angels ought to rule as vgods. Though commonly understood to
be the antagonizing force in Paradise Lost, Satan may be best defined as a tragic
or Hellenic hero. According to William McCollom, one quality of the classical
tragic hero is that he is not perfectly good and that his defeat is caused by a tragic
flaw, as Satan causes both the downfall of man and the eternal damnation of his
fellow fallen angels despite his dedication to his comrades. In addition, Satan's
Hellenic qualities, such as his immense courage and, perhaps, lack of completely
defined morals compound his tragic nature.
Satan's status as a protagonist in the epic poem is debated. The Milton
characterizes him as such, but Satan lacks several key traits that would otherwise
make him the vdefinitive protagonist in the work. One deciding factor that
insinuates his role as the protagonist in the story is that most often a protagonist
is heavily characterized and far better described than the other characters, and
the way the character is written is meant to make him seem more interesting or
special to the reader. For that matter, Satan is both well described and is
depicted as being quite versatile in that he is shown as having the capacity to
do evil while the retaining of his characteristic of the sympathetic qualities
and thus it is this complex and relatable nature that makes him a likely
candidate for the story's overarching protagonist.
By some definitions a protagonist must be able to exist in and of themselves and
the secondary characters in the work exist only to further the plot for the
protagonist.[18] Because Satan does not exist solely for himself, as without God
he would not have a role to play in the story, he may not be viewed as the
protagonist because of the continual shifts in the perspective and relative
importance of characters in each book of the work. Satan's existence in the
story involves his rebellion against God and his determination to corrupt the
beings he creates in order to perpetuate evil so that there can be a discernible
balance and justice for both himself and his fallen angels. Therefore, it is more
probable that he exists in order to combat God, making his status as the
definitive protagonist of the work relative to each book. Following this logic,

5. Satan may very well be considered as an antagonist in the poem, whereas God
could be considered as the protagonist instead.
Satan's status as a traditionalb hero in the work is similarly up to debate as
the term "hero" evokes different meanings depending on the time and the
person giving the definition and is thus a matter of contention within the text.
According to Aristotle, a hero is someone who is "superhuman, godlike, and
divine" but is also human.[19] A hero would have to either be a human with
God-like powers or the offspring of God. While Milton gives reason to believe
that Satan is superhuman, as he was originally an angel, he is anything but
human. However, one could argue that Satan's faults make him more human than
any other divine being described in Milton's work as Torquato Tasso and
Francesco Piccolomini expanded on Aristotle's definition and declared that to be
heroic one has to be perfectly or overly virtuous.[20] In this regard, Satan
repeatedly demonstrates a lack of virtue throughout the story as he intends to
tempt God's creations with evil in order to destroy the good God is trying to
create. Therefore, Satan is not a hero according to Tasso and Piccolomini's
expanded definition. Satan goes against God's law and therefore becomes
corrupt and lacking of virtue and, as Piccolomini warned, "vice may be mistaken
for heroic virtue."[19] Satan is very devoted to his cause, although that cause is
evil but he strives to spin his sinister aspirations to appear as good ones. Satan
achieves this end multiple times throughout the text as he riles up his band of
fallen angels during his speech by deliberately telling them to do evil to explain
God's hypocrisy and again during his entreaty to Eve. He makes his intentions
seem pure and positive even when they are rooted in evil and, according to
Steadman, this is the chief reason that readers often mistake Satan as a hero.
Although Satan's army inevitably loses the war against God, Satan achieves a
position of power and begins his reign in Hell with his band of loyal followers,
composed of fallen angels, which is described to be a "third of heaven." Satan's
characterization as the leader of a failing cause folds into this as well and is
best exemplified through his own quote, "to be weak is to be miserable;
Doing or Suffering," as through shared solidarity espoused by empowering

6. rhetoric, Satan riles up his comrades in arms and keeps them focused towards
their shared goal.
Similar to Milton's republican sentiments of overthrowing the King of England
for both better representation and parliamentary power, Satan argues that his
shared rebellion with the fallen angels is an effort to "explain the hypocrisy of
God," and in doing so, they will be treated with the respect and
acknowledgement that they deserve. As scholar Wayne Rebhorn argues, "Satan
insists that he and his fellow revolutionaries held their places by right and even
leading him to claim that they were self-created and self-sustained" and thus
Satan's position in the rebellion is much like that of his own real world creator.
Adam
William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve, 1808 (illustration of Milton's
Paradise Lost)
Adam is the first human being created by God. Finding himself alone, Adam
complains and requests a mate from God, who grants his request and creates
Eve to be Adam's conjugal companion and spouse. God appraises Adam and
Eve most of all his creations, and appoints them to rule over all the creatures of
the world and to reside in the Garden of Eden. Adam is more gregarious than
Eve, and yearns for her company. His complete infatuation with Eve, while pure of
itself, eventually contributes to his deciding to join her in disobedience to
God.Unlike the biblical Adam, before Milton's Adam leaves Paradise he is
given a glimpse of the future of mankind by the Archangel Michael—including
a synopsis of stories from the Old and New Testaments.
Eve
Eve is the second human created by God, who takes one of Adam's ribs and
shapes it into a female form of Adam. Not the traditional model of a good wife,
Milton's Eve is often unwilling to be submissive towards Adam. She is the more
intelligent of the two and more curious about external ideas than her husband.
Though happy, she longs for knowledge, specifically for self-knowledge. (Her

7. first act in existence is to turn away from Adam to look at and ponder her own
reflection.) Eve is beautiful and though she loves Adam she may feel suffocated by
his constant presence.[citation needed] In Book IX, she convinces Adam to
separate for a time and work in different parts of the Garden. In her solitude,
she is tempted by Satan to sin against God by eating of the Tree of
Knowledge. Soon thereafter, Adam follows Eve in support of her act.
The Son of God
The Son of God is the spirit who will become incarnate as Jesus Christ,
though he is never named explicitly because he has not yet entered
human form. Milton believed in a subordinationist doctrine of Christology that
regarded the Son as secondary to the Father and as God's "great Vice-regent"
(5.609). Milton's God in Paradise Lost refers to the Son as "My word, my
wisdom, and effectual might" (3.170). The poem is not explicitly anti-trinitarian,
but it is consistent with Milton's convictions. The Son is the ultimate hero of the
epic and is infinitely powerful—he single-handedly defeats Satan and his followers
and drives them into Hell. After their fall, the Son of God tells Adam and Eve
about God's judgment: He, the Son, volunteers to journey into the World and
become a man himself; then he redeems the Fall of Man through his own
sacrificial death and resurrection. In the final scene, a vision of Salvation through
the Son of God is revealed to Adam by Michael. Still, the name Jesus of
Nazareth, and the details of Jesus' story are not depicted in the poem,[23]
though they are alluded to when Michael explains that "Joshua, whom the
Gentiles Jesus call," prefigures the Son of God, "his name and office bearing" to
"quell / The adversarie Serpent, and bring back [...] long wander [e]d man / Safe
to eternal Paradise of rest.
God the Father
God the Father is the creator of Heaven, Hell, the world, of everyone and
everything there is, through the agency of His Son. Milton presents God as
all-powerful and all-knowing, as an infinitely great being who cannot be

8. overthrown by even the great army of angels Satan incites against him. Milton's
stated purpose for the poem is to justify the ways of God to men, so he
portrays God as often conversing about his plans and his motives for his actions
with the Son of God. The poem shows God creating the world in the way
Milton believed it was done, that is, God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all
the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of Himself, not out of
nothing.[25] Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God over all
things that happen derives from his being the "author" of all creation. The Satan
tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-
creation, but he admits to himself the truth otherwise, and that God "deserved
no such return/ From me, whom He created what I was.
Raphael
Raphael is the archangel whom God sends to warn Adam of Satan's infiltration of Eden and to warn that
Satan will try to curse the pair. Raphael also discusses at length with the curious Adam some detailsv
about the creation and about events of that transpired in Heaven.
Michael
Michael is a mighty archangel who fought for God in the Angelic War. In the first battle, he wounds
Satan terribly with a powerful sword that God fashioned to cut through even the substance of
angels. After Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, God sends the angel
Michael to visit them in the garden. Before he escorts them out of Paradise, Michael shows them
visions of the future that disclose an outline of Bible stories from that of Cain and Abel in Genesis
through the story of Christ Jesus in the
Motives
Light and Dark
Opposites abound in Paradise Lost, including Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, and good and evil.
Milton’s uses imagery of light and darkness to express all of these opposites. Angels are physically
described in terms of light, whereas devils are generally described by their shadowy darkness. Milton
also uses light to symbolize God and God’s grace. In his invocation in Book III, Milton asks that he be

9. filled with this light so he can tell his divine story accurately and persuasively. While the absence of light
in Hell and in Satan himself represents the absence of God and his grace.
The Geography of the Universe
Milton divides the universe into four major regions: glorious Heaven, dreadful Hell, confusing Chaos,
and a young and vulnerable Earth in between.The opening scenes that take place in Hell give to the
reader immediate context as to Satan’s plot against the God and humankind. The intermediate
scenes in the Heaven, in which God tells the angels of his plans, the provide a philosophical and
theological context for the story. Then, with these established settings of good and evil, lightn
and dark, much of the action occurs in between on Earth. The powers of good and evil work against
each other on this new battlefield of Earth. Satan fights God by
tempting Adam and Eve, while God shows his love and mercy through the Son’s punishment of Adam
and Eve.Milton believes that any other information concerning the geography of the universe is
unimportant. Milton acknowledges both the possibility that the sun revolves around the Earth and that
the Earth revolves around the sun, without coming down on the one side or the other. Raphael asserts
that it does not matter which revolves around which, demonstrating that Milton’s cosmology is based
on the religious message he wants to convey, rather than on the findings of contemporaneous science
or astronomy.
Conversation and Contemplation
One common objection raised by readers of Paradise Lost is that the poem contains relatively little
action. Milton sought to divert the reader’s attention from heroic battles and place it on the
conversations and contemplations of his characters. The Conversations comprise almost five complete
books of Paradise Lost, close to half of the text.the Milton’s narrative emphasis on conversation
conveys the importance he attached to conversation and contemplation, two pursuits that he
believed were of fundamental importance for a moral person. As with Adam and Raphael, and again
with Adam and Michael, the sharing of ideas allows two people to share and spread God’s message.
Likewise, pondering God and his grace allows a person to become closer to God and more obedient.
Adam constantly contemplates God before the fall, whereas Satan contemplates only himself. After
the fall, Adam and Eve must learn to maintain their conversation and contemplation if they hope to
make their own happiness outside of Paradise.

10. The Importance of Obedience to God
The first words of the Paradise Lost state that the poem’s main theme will be the“Man’s first
Disobedience.” Milton narrates the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, explains how and why it
happens, and places the story within the larger context of Satan’s rebellion and Jesus’ resurrection.
Raphael tells Adam about Satan’s disobedience in an effort to give him a firm grasp of the threat that
Satan and humankind’s disobedience poses.In essence, Paradise Lost presents two moral paths that
one can take after disobedience: the downward spiral of increasing sin and degradation, represented
by Satan, and the road to redemption, represented by Adam and Eve.
While Adam and Eve are the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all God’s creation to
disobey. His decision to rebel comes only from himself—he was not persuaded or provoked by others.
Also, his decision to continue to disobey God after his fall into Hell ensures that God will not forgive him.
Adam and Eve, on the other hand, decide to repent for their sins and seek forgiveness. Unlike Satan,
Adam and Eve understand that their disobedience to God will be corrected through generations of
toil on Earth. This path is obviously the correct one to take: the visions in Books XI and XII demonstrate
that obedience to God, even after repeated falls, can lead to humankind’s salvation.
The Hierarchical Nature of the Universe
Paradise Lost is about hierarchy as much as it is about obedience. They layout of the universe—
with Heaven above, Hell below, and Earth in the middle—presents the universe as a hierarchy based on
proximity to God and his grace. This spatial hierarchy leads to a social hierarchy of angels, humans,
animals, and devils: the Son is closest to God, with the archangels and cherubs behind him. Adam and
Eve and Earth’s animals come next, with Satan and the other fallen angels following last. To obey God
is to respect this hierarchy.
Satan refuses to honor the Son as his superior, thereby questioning God’s hierarchy. As the angels in
Satan’s camp rebel, they hope to beat God and thereby dissolve what they believe to be an unfair
hierarchy in Heaven. When the Son and the good angels defeat the rebel angels, the rebels are punished
by being banished far away from Heaven. At least, Satan argues later, they can make their own
hierarchy in Hell, but they are nevertheless subject to God’s overall hierarchy, in which they are ranked
the lowest. Satan continues to disobey God and his hierarchy as he seeks to corrupt mankind.
Likewise, humankind’s disobedience is a corruption of God’s hierarchy. Before the fall, Adam and Eve
treat the visiting angels with proper respect and acknowledgement of their closeness to God, and Eve
embraces the subservient role allotted to her in her marriage. God and Raphael both instruct Adam
that Eve is slightly farther removed from God’s grace than Adam because she was created to serve
both God and him. When Eve persuades Adam to let her work alone, she challenges him, her superior,
and he yields to her, his inferior. Again, as Adam eats from the fruit, he knowingly defies God by
obeying Eve and his inner instinct the instead of God and his reason. Adam’s visions in Books XI and XII

11. show more examples of this disobedience to God and the universe’s hierarchy, but also demonstrate
that with the Son’s sacrifice, this hierarchy will be restored once again.
The Fall as Partly Fortunate
After he sees the vision of Christ’s redemption of humankind in Book XII, Adam refers to his own sin as a
felix culpa or “happy fault,” suggesting that the fall of humankind, while originally seeming an
unmitigated catastrophe, does in the fact bring good with it. Adam and Eve’s disobedience allows
God to show his mercy and temperance in their punishments and his eternal providence toward
humankind. This display of love and compassion, given through the Son, is a gift to humankind.
Humankind must now experience pain and death, but humans can also experience mercy, salvation, and
grace in ways they would not have been able to had they not disobeyed. While humankind has fallen
from grace, individuals can redeem and save themselves through continued devotion and obedience
to God. The salvation of humankind, in the form of The Son’s sacrifice and resurrection, can begin to
restore humankind to its former state. In other words, good will come of sin and death, and
humankind will eventually be rewarded. This fortunate result justifies God’s reasoning and explains
his ultimate plan for humankind.
Critical Essays Major Themes in Paradise Lost
Introduction
Modern criticism of Paradise Lost has taken many different views of Milton's ideas in the poem. One
problem is that Paradise Lost is almost militantly Christian in an age that now seeks out diverse
viewpoints and admires the man who stands forth against the accepted view. Milton's religious views
reflect the time in which he lived and the church to which he belonged. He was not always completely
orthodox in his ideas, but he was devout. His purpose or theme in
Paradise Lost is relatively easy to see, if not to accept.
Milton begins Paradise Lost by saying that he will sing, "Of Man's First Disobedience" so that he can
"assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men" . The purpose or theme of Paradise
Lost then is religious and has three parts: 1) disobedience, 2) Eternal Providence, and 3) justification of
God to men. Frequently, discussions of Paradise Lost center on the latter of these three to the
exclusion of the first two. And, just as frequently, readers and those casually acquainted with
Paradise Lost misunderstand what Milton means by the word justify, assuming that Milton is rather
arrogantly asserting that God's actions and motives seem so arbitrary that they require vindication and
explanation.
However, Milton's idea of justification is not as arrogant as many readers think. Milton does not use the
word justification in its modern sense of proving that an action is or was proper. Such a reading of justify
would mean that Milton is taking it upon himself to explain the propriety of God's actions — a

12. presumptuous undertaking when one is dealing with any deity. Rather, Milton uses justify in the sense
of showing the justice that underlies an action. Milton wishes to show that the fall, death, and salvation
are all acts of a just God. To understand the theme of Paradise Lost then, a reader does not have to
accept the Milton's ideas as a vindication of God's actions; rather the reader needs to understand the
idea of justice that lies behind the actions.
Disobedience
The first part of Milton's argument hinges on the word disobedience and its
opposite, obedience. The universe that Milton imagined with Heaven at the
top, Hell at the bottom, and Earth in between is a hierarchical place. God
literally sits on a throne at the top of Heaven. Angels are arranged in groups
according to their proximity to God. On Earth, Adam is superior to Eve;
humans rule over animals. Even in Hell, Satan sits on a throne, higher than the
other demons.
This hierarchical arrangement by the Milton is not simply happenstance. The
worldview of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the Restoration was that all of
creation was arranged in various hierarchies. The proper way of the world was for
inferiors to obey superiors because superiors were, well, superior. A king was king
not because he was chosen but because he was superior to his subjects. It was,
therefore, not just proper to obey the king; it was the morally required.
Conversely, if the king proved unfit or not superior to his subjects, it was
morally improper to obey him and revolution could be justified.
God, being God, was by definition superior to every other thing in the universe
and should always be obeyed. In Paradise Lost, God places one prohibition on
Adam and Eve — not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. The prohibition is not
so much a matter of the fruit of the tree as it is obeying God's ordinance. The
proper running of the universe requires the obedience of inferiors to their
superiors. By not obeying God's rule, Adam and Eve bring calamity into their lives
and the lives of all mankind.
The significance of obedience to superiors is not just a matter of Adam and Eve
and the Tree of Knowledge; it is a major subject throughout the poem. Satan's
rebellion because of jealousy is the first great act of disobedience and

13. commences all that happens in the epic. When Abdiel stands up to Satan in Book
V, Abdiel says that God created the angels "in their bright degrees" (838) and
adds "His laws our laws" (844). Abdiel's point is that Satan's rebellion because of
the Son is wrong because Satan is disobeying a decree of his obvious superior.
The Satan has no answer to this point except sophistic rigmarole.
Further instances of the crucial importance of both hierarchy and obedience
occur in both large and small matters. The deference with which Adam greets
Raphael shows the human accepting his position in regard to the angel. The image
is one of the proper manners between inferior and superior. Eve's normal attitude
toward Adam reflects the same relationship.
The crucial moment in the poem results from disobedience and a breakdown of
hierarchy. Eve argues with Adam about whether they should work together or
apart, and Adam gives in to her. The problem here lies with both humans. Eve
should not argue with her superior, Adam, but likewise, Adam, should not yield
his authority to his inferior, Eve.
When Eve eats the fruit, one of her first thoughts is that the fruit "may render me
more equal" (IX, 823) to which she quickly adds, "for inferior who is free?" (IX,
826). Her reasoning, from Milton's point of view, is incorrect. Freedom comes
precisely from the recognizing one's place in the grand scheme and obeying the
dictates of that position. By the disobeying God, Eve has gained neither equality
nor freedom; she has instead lost Paradise and brought sin and death into the
world.
Likewise, when Adam also eats the fruit, he disobeys God. Further, he disobeys by
knowingly putting Eve ahead of God. Disobedience and disruption of the correct
order result in sin and death.
Finally, in the last two books of the epic, Milton shows example after example of
people who ignore the responsibilities they have and try to either raise
themselves above God or disobey God's commands. The result is always the same
— destruction.

14. The first part of Milton's purpose in Paradise Lost then is to show that
disobedience leads to a breakdown of hierarchical or social order with disastrous
consequences. Some have argued that Milton puts himself in a contradictory
position in Paradise Lost, since he supported the overthrow of Charles I. In his
political writings, Milton makes it clear that obeying an inferior is equally as bad
as disobeying a superior. In the case of a king, the people must determine if the
king is truly their superior or not. Thus, Milton justifies his position toward Charles
and toward God.
Eternal Providence
Milton's theme in Paradise Lost, however, does not end with the idea of
disobedience. Milton says that he will also "assert Eternal Providence." If Man had
never disobeyed God, death would never have entered the world and Man would
have become a kind of lesser angel. Because Adam and Eve gave in to
temptation and disobeyed God, they provided the opportunity for God to show
love, mercy, and grace so that ultimately the fall produces a greater good than
would have happened otherwise. This is the argument about the fall called felix
culpa or "happy fault."
The general reasoning is that God created Man after the rebellion of Satan. His
stated purpose is to show Satan that the rebellious angels will not be missed, that
God can create new beings as he sees fit. God gives Man a free will, but at the
same time, God being God, knows what Man will do because of free will. Over
and over in Paradise Lost, God says that Man has free will, that God knows Man
will yield to Satan's temptation, but that he (God) is not the cause of that yielding;
He simply knows that it will occur.
This point is theologically tricky. In many ways, it makes God seem like a cosmic
prig. He knows what Man will do, but he does nothing to stop him because
somehow that would be against the rules. He could send Raphael with a more
explicit warning; he could tell Gabriel and the other guards where Satan will
enter Eden; he could seal Satan up in Hell immediately. He could do a number of
things to prevent the fall, but he does nothing.

15. From the standpoint of the fictional drama, a reader may be correct in faulting
God for the fall of Adam and Eve. From a theological / philosophical standpoint,
God must not act. If Man truly has free will, he must be allowed to exercise it.
Because of free will then, Adam and Eve disobey God and pervert the natural
hierarchy. Death is the result, and Death could be the end of the story if Paradise
Lost were a tragedy.
Justification of God's Ways
Eternal Providence moves the story to a different level. Death must come into the
world, but the Son steps forward with the offer to sacrifice himself to Death in
order to defeat Death.Through the Son, God is able to temper divine justice with
mercy, grace, and salvation. Without the fall, this divine love would never have
been demonstrated. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, mercy, grace, and
salvation occur through God's love, and all Mankind, by obeying God, can
achieve salvation. The fall actually produces a new and the higher love from
God to Man.
This idea then is the final point of Milton's theme — the sacrifice of the Son
which overcomes Death gives Man the chance to achieve salvation even though,
through the sin of Adam and Eve, all men are sinful. As Adam says, "O goodness
infinite, goodness immense ! / That all this good of evil shall produce, / And evil
turn to good" (XII, 469-471). The fall of Man, then, turns evil into good, and that
fact shows the justice of God's actions, or in Milton's terms, "justifies the ways of
God to men."
John milton
John Milton (1608–1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as
the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and
prose defences of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and
American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political
development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution

16. is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go
on to create Paradise Lost—but would first justify the killing of a king.
Biographers of Milton have always struggled to explain how the young poet
became a notorious defender of regicide and other radical ideas such as freedom
of the press, religious toleration, and republicanism. In this groundbreaking
intellectual biography of Milton’s formative years, Nicholas McDowell draws on
recent archival discoveries to reconcile at last the poet and polemicist. He
charts Milton’s development from his earliest days as a London schoolboy,
through his university life and travels in Italy, to his emergence as a public
writer during the English Civil War. At the same time, McDowell presents fresh,
richly contextual readings of Milton’s best-known works from this period,
including the “Nativity Ode,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” Comus, and
“Lycidas.”
Challenging biographers who claim that Milton was always a secret radical, Poet
of Revolution shows how the events that provoked civil war in England combined
with Milton’s astonishing programme of self-education to instil the beliefs that
would shape not only his political prose but also his later epic masterpiece.
Paradise Lost Summary
Paradise Lost opens with Satan on the surface of a boiling lake of lava in Hell
(ouch!); he has just fallen from Heaven, and wakes up to find himself in a
seriously horrible place. He finds his first lieutenant (his right-hand man), and
together they get off the lava lake and go to a nearby plain, where they rally the
fallen angels. They have a meeting and decide to destroy Adam and Eve (God's
children and precious science experiment) in order to spite God. Satan volunteers
for the job and leaves Hell to go look for Adam and Eve.
The scene then shifts to Heaven (Book 3), where God talks about how he can see
what Satan is planning. He knows everything all the time. He has a conversation
with His Son, says he knows that Satan will tempt mankind and that Adam and

17. Eve will eat the fruit of the Forbidden Tree.He needs to know if anyone will
intervene on man's behalf. The Son volunteers, which makes God and all the
angels in Heaven very happy.
The scene shifts again, this time to Eden. Satan has reached the Garden, and we
see Eden and Adam and Eve for the first time through his eyes. We watch Adam
and Eve hang out together for a while, before going into their hut to go to bed
and make love. Meanwhile, God has sent out a search party to get Satan out of
the Garden, which is easy as pie. The next day, God sends the angel Raphael to
talk to Adam and Eve about Satan and whatever else they might want to know.
About a week after Adam's chat with Raphael, Satan returns to the Garden,
disguises himself as a serpent (snake), and convinces Eve to eat the Forbidden
Fruit. She in turn convinces
Adam to have a taste. After that, they have steamy, lustful sex for the first time.
As a result of Adam and Eve's sin (eating the Forbidden Fruit), the gates of Hell are
now wide open for Sin and Death (who are actual characters in this poem) to
build a bridge from Hell to earth. Satan returns to Hell triumphant, but he and his
angels are eventually turned into serpents as punishment for Satan's evil deed.
As for Adam and Eve's punishment, God makes them leave the Garden of the
Eden. He also introduces death, labor pains, and a bunch of other not-so-fun stuff
into the world. Before they leave Paradise, however , God sends the angel
Michael down to give Adam a vision of the future. After his history lesson,
Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden in what is one of the saddest moments in
English literature