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PARADISE LOST LINKS:
SparkNotes -- helpful Study Guide
A partial
Outline of the Text from Mary Ann Andrade, Collin County Community College
Images of Paradise Lost
from William Blake and others:
Study Guide: The Fall:
Books 9-10 (Prof. Desmet-UGA)
Backgrounds for Paradise Lost:
MILTON’s CHRISTIAN CONTEXT —
The moral assumptions that govern
Milton’s universe:
1. God is good, and created the universe wholly out of himself, not from
the void (heresy).
2. Therefore, the universe is an infiinite circle of goodness.
3. Goodness must include and derive from free will.
4. No created being can escape the universe without then becoming, by
definition no-thing, a not-being.
5. Evil, because it is a thing, arises like all other things from goodness/free
will. It must either (1) destroy itself (leave the universe, become no-thing)
or (2) become good (part of the universe of created things)
If Milton’s purpose in Paradise Lost is
“To justify the ways of God to Man,” it implies the following questions:
1. Why is there sin and suffering in the world?
2. We know free will exists, but how does it operate in the fallen universe?
3. What is our responsibility as humans to the world?
4. Why are human relationships (especially between men and women) so
troubled?
MILTON’S CLASSICAL LITERARY CONTEXT —
The aesthetic traditions that govern
epic are:
1. It is the most privileged form (see Spenser).
2. Opens with statement of purpose and theme, usually the deeds of the great
involved in a significant (historically known) struggle.
3. Also begins with an invocation of the appropriate Muse.
4. Must set up the dramatic situation, then enter it in medias res.
5. The epic hero is introduced as early as possible, and in his own
words. His qualities usually are: strong, intelligent, resourceful,
self-reliant, nationalistic, larger-than-life, and importantly engaged in the
epic struggle.
6. Epic similes and epic catalogs develop the global scope
and wider implications of the action.
7. A visit to the underworld somewhere in the action connects the action
to supernatural or religious contexts.
SYNTHESIS: Can an epic (a pagan form) be made Christian within Milton’s moral universe?
A BRIEF Synopsis of BOOK 4, lines 1-775:
lines 1-31: Satan arrives on earth (after being cast down to Hell by God), bringing Hell with him in the sense that he carries his resentment and hatred of God and God’s creation with him.
32-41: Satan pauses to argue with himself about whether to proceed with his plan to ruin God’s creation. The sight of the sun reminds him of the glory of heaven he has lost by defying God
42-49: He admits that God did not deserve his defiance.
49-60: But, he rationalizes, only an angel of inferior quality could have accepted the burden of gratitude God has placed on all his angels.
60-68: He acknowledges that his ambition is his own fault, that God created all angels with equal knowledge of their duty and with equal free will to act on that knowledge.
69-72: He resolves, perversely, to curse the love of God that is “dealt equally to all.”
73-92: He succumbs to despair: “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.” His reasoning is that the only way out of Hell is through submission and repentance, and his “dread of shame” won’t let him do that.
93-104: Even if he did repent, he argues that his nature is such and his hatred of God is so deep that such repentance would be false.
105-119: “All hope excluded,” therefore, he resolves to pursue the worst possible evil: attacking God through his most beloved creation.
120-130: Satan “smooth[s] with outward calm” his face, the first of his many subsequent deceptions. However, he is recognized by the archangel Uriel as he approaches the border of Paradise.
131-172: A physical description of Paradise, focusing on images of fruitfulness. Note the epic simile on lines 159-165 comparing Satan’s first sight on Paradise to that of human explorers encountering new worlds.
173-193: Satan notices there is only one gate to Paradise amid the tangled vegetation that surrounds it. However, he “disdains” the proper entryway and leaps over the fence like a thief.
193-204: Ironically, Satan perches on the Tree of Life “like a cormorant” or vulture, symbolizing the presence of Death in the garden.
205-22: A description of the Trees of Life and of Knowledge, with many allusions to classical descriptions of the Elysian Fields.
222-68: A description of the rivers flowing through Paradise and the life-giving moisture they bring to all kinds of vegetation.
268-87: A series of epic similes that allude to classical versions of Paradise, but that are offered to show that Paradise is NOT any of these gardens, but a far superior one.
287-355: Satan at last sees Adam and Eve, who are described in significant detail.
356-94: Satan reacts to the delightful sight of Adam and Eve with anger. Their happiness and his unwilling attraction to them only heightens his knowledge of his own loss and unworthiness. He reasons (perversely) that he loves them so much he must have them in Hell with him.
395-410: Disguised as various animals, he approaches closer to hear Adam and Eve’s conversation.
411-439: Adam explains to Eve their two easy responsibilities: caring for the Garden and avoiding the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
440-448: Eve agrees that they are happy creatures, and explains that she’s even more blessed than Adam, because she gets to enjoy him as well as the rest of creation and he has no one except God to look up to.
449-491: Eve recounts her memory of awakening (read this section carefully). She remembers being led to Adam by God.
492-537: Adam and Eve embrace, the sight of which makes Satan jealous and lonely, and even more determined to ruin the happiness he can never enjoy.
538-588: Uriel warns Gabriel (the official guard of Paradise) that the fallen angel Satan has arrived in Paradise. Gabriel promises to watch out.
576-609: Uriel returns to his post in space and we are given an angel’s-eye-view of the approaching evening.
610-658: Adam explains to Eve that as night approaches, they are supposed to rest from their minimal labors. She in turn wonders why God created stars if she and Adam are never awake to see them.
659-688: Adam gently corrects her on two points: 1) The light of the stars holds off the chaos that lives in total darkness; 2) even though humans don’t see the night, God and the angels do and they are as grateful for beauty as humans are. With this argument, we see that Adam understands more clearly the human place in the totality of creation than does Eve.
689-719: Adam and Eve’s all-natural “honeymoon bower” is described in detail.
720-738: Adam and Eve pause to pray before they retire, ritually consecrating their relationship.
738-775: Freed from the tedious chore of removing clothes, Adam and Eve experience the joy of sexual union within marriage, which Milton praises as far superior and more pleasing to God than pious celibacy.
A BRIEF Synopsis of BOOK 9:
(NOTE: When I paraphrase Satan’s and Eve’s arguments, I am not commenting on the ironic reading Milton intends the reader to give those lines. Always compare their words [and Adam’s after the Fall] to the moral absolutes that govern Paradise Lost.)
lines 1-29: Milton announces that he’s changing his tone from pastoral to tragic, because his subject now is even more serious than the Fall of Troy.
30-48: He claims that, even though he hasn’t before now written epics or romances in the style of Virgil, Homer or Spencer, his subject matter is so much more important that it alone will elevate his poem to the status of these other works.
49-98: Satan circles the earth, keeping always in its shadow, for seven nights (he had been previously chased away by Gabriel for trying to seduce Eve while she slept). On the eighth night, he returns and searches for a way to sneak back into Eden, and for a form that will allow him to enter unnoticed. He decides on the serpent.
99-134: Satan again complains that, despite his love for the beautiful earth, he is kept from it by God’s anger.
135-147: Satan notes that, when he destroys God’s creation in a single day, he will have surpassed God’s achievement, because it took him seven days to create that universe. In fact, Satan has already achieved something similar by reducing Heaven’s host of angels by almost one-half in a single day.
148 -178: Satan finds especially insulting the fact that God has “replaced” him with a mere mortal creature who gets to enjoy creation while Satan and his devils are imprisoned in Hell. This in particular deserves Satan’s revenge.
179-191: So saying, he crawls into Eden under cover of darkness.
192-204: Dawn
205-384: Eve and Adam debate her suggestion that they split up to do their gardening (this is the section for your discussion question).
385-403: Eve walks away from Adam and Milton takes this opportunity to let us see her through Adam’s eyes, and to make epic comparisons between her and other celebrated classical beauties.
404-423: Milton interjects a lament about what’s about to happen. He knows, though Eve doesn’t, that Satan has been looking for both Adam and Eve all morning, hoping though not expecting to find Eve separate from Adam.
424-458: Satan voyeuristically watches Eve tie up flowers and vines. Her beauty is described further.
459-472: Her beauty is so great that it temporarily distracts Satan from his purpose — it almost serves its Neoplatonic purpose of inspiring good in the beholder. But Satan’s hatred is too strong to hold out against the power of beauty for long.
473-493: Satan reminds himself that his only pleasure can be in destruction. He boasts to himself that his evil is so great that it can even corrupt the perfection that is Eve.
494-531: Satan approaches Eve in an erect posture (standing on his tail), but comes up to her from the side, not straight ahead. He coils and writhes around in front of her to catch her eye. His beauty is described, but is not enough to make Eve look until he starts to “fawn” on her and “lick the ground.”
532-548: After he catches her attention with this action, he speaks words of flattery.
549-566: Eve hears the words but first remarks on her surprise at hearing an animal speak — she had thought God only gave that power to humans.
567-612: Satan lies and tells her that he received the power of speech by eating a certain fruit.
613-646: Eve isn’t sure she believes the serpent, and asks to see the fruit. The serpent leads her in a winding way to the Tree of Knowledge, which Eve recognizes.
647-663: Disappointed, she tells the serpent that this is the very tree they are commanded not to eat of. The serpent pretends not to understand, forcing Eve to quote explicitly the law Adam had taught her.
664-732: The serpent begins to use all the sophisticated powers of rhetoric (in contrast to the simplicity of the one Law of Eden) to praise the Tree, and to suggest that any God who would deny his creation “true knowledge” is not a real or worthy God. Using verbal tricks, he suggests that such a denial creates an impossible paradox that can only be resolved when the “goddess” Eve eats the fruit.
733-779: Eve, too easily convinced because she’s hearing what she wants to hear, examines the fruit closely and tries to paraphrase Satan’s logic. She goes further, and argues to herself that, since the serpent has not died from eating the fruit, the law must be false. Finally, she reasons that if God had not wanted them to eat the fruit, he would not have made it so attractive.
780-794: Eve plucks and eats the fruit, taking first a small bite, then greedily gorging herself on it as Earth sighs in sorrow.
795-816: She begins to praise the fruit in elaborate language as the serpent did, blasphemously calling God (as Satan does) “our great Forbidder.”
816-833: She begins to worry about how she will next approach Adam, and whether she should share the fruit with him. On the one hand, it might be pleasant to be his superior in wisdom, “for inferior who is free?” But she also realizes (a little late) that, if eating the fruit will indeed bring death, her death might result in God making another wife for Adam, which is an unpleasant thought. She resolves, “Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe.”
834-837: Before leaving, she bows and worships the tree, committing the first act of idolatry.
838-855: Meanwhile, Adam works away at weaving Eve a garland, worrying about her without knowing why.
856-887: Eve returns, happily announcing to Adam that she’s decided to share her great discovery with him because she loves him so much.
888-959: Adam realizes what Eve has done and is horrified. However, he resolves to share her fate, preferring her to any other wife God might make for him. He scolds Eve for what she’s done, but hopes that a merciful God won’t punish them too badly. Like Eve, he rationalizes that God would hardly have worked so lovingly on his Creation only to see it destroyed so easily.
960-993: Delighted, Eve praises Adam for the purity of his love for her. She assures him she wouldn’t ask him to die for her, but she doesn’t think they will die anyway.
994-1050: Adam, “fondly overcome with female charm,” eats the apple and “Nature groans” again. Adam too gorges on the fruit, and Eve joins him, sharing the sensual delight. Their delight in taste quickly turns to carnal lust, and they indulge in sexual play that is different from their married lovemaking. Afterwards, they fall into a drunken sleep.
1051-1098: They awake feeling shame and discomfort. Adam begins to complain, realizing that their new-found knowledge has stained them with a sin that will henceforth separate him from God and the angels. He suggests that they cover their private parts so that God might not see the shame that sits on them.
1099-1131: They seek out and devise coverings which, however ingenious, are inferior to their original naked beauty. They sit down to mourn their fall, but soon begin feeling all kinds of negative emotions, because “Understanding ruled not, . . . in subjection to sensual Appetite.”
1132-end: Adam scolds Eve for leaving him that morning. Eve in turn blames him for not forbidding her to leave and for thus failing to protect her. Adam whines that she’s being ungrateful for his great sacrifice, and prophesies that all men who trust women will suffer a similar fate. Milton observes at the end of the book that this “mutual accusation” seems to be eternal.
