Paradise Lost

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Paradise Lost
Where do the fallen angels find themselves after their rebellion?
The fallen angels found themselves in hell. Satan taking the form of a serpent was envious of the Creator and decided to rebel by deceiving humankind. The Creator notices the selfish plans of the rebel angels and punishes them by casting them out of heaven (25-35).
Who is their leader?
The Satan who took the form of a serpent is the leader of the rebellion. The author describes the Satan (infernal serpent) as the one “who first seduced the angels to join the revolt” (35).
The connection between the rebellion of the fallen angels and “man’s first disobedience.”After the fall of the rebelling angels, God only had hope in humanity to remain obedient. However, the serpent wanted to win over more soldiers in defying God’s rule. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had for some time agreed to obey God’s instructions carefully. The order was that both of them were not supposed to eat any fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Satan through the serpent whispers to Eve to disobey God’s order. Even though angels like Gabriel and Raphael still loyal to God tried to fight off the Satan, Eve shares with Adam her dream in which was tempted to eat from the forbidden tree. The Satan found Eve alone and convinced her to eat from the forbidden tree. Eve later convinced Adam to eat from the tree, both disobeyed God’s order, and that was man’s first disobedience.
Do you view the speaker as humble, ambitious, or some combination of these?
The speaker is ambitious, especially in the opening lines of the text.

In the first three lines, the speaker seems to blame “our grandparents” Adam and Eve, disobedience to be the reason behind “our woe” (4). The speaker also mentions that after humankind lost Garden of Eden due to disobedience, “the greater man” referring to Jesus came to save humankind again. Lastly, the ambition of the speaker is evident in lines 25-26 where he suggests to “proclaim Eternal providence….to justify God’s ways to humankind.”
Which image is the most vivid? Explain your response.
Imagery helps to read and see pictures of what authors describe in words. In the story, Paradise Lost, the author uses imagery to describe the possible experiences in Hell. The speaker narrates the place as a “dungeon” that is horrible on both sides of its wall (61). The narrator also challenges the reader with a paradox. The narrator mentions of a flame in the dungeon but without light but darkness. The reader can be challenged to imagine a flame without light. Such images can also make readers dislike going to want hell!
Summarize Satan’s words, thoughts, and behavior in each of the following scenes.
Lines (53-58): The Satan was receiving God’s punishment. The Satan is lying on “fiery gulf” and is immortal as well. It means that he will face the punishment though an everlasting pain.
Lines (106-124): The Satan addressed Beelzebub arguing that they shall never concede defeat and declared “immortal hate” against God. The Satan refuses to have a pleading knee to accept defeat. The behaviors of Satan represent what happens today where evil continues to mislead humankind.
Lines (242_270): in the last speech, Satan accepts to have lost heaven and is relocated to Hell. He says, “receive your new possessor” (253). He consoles other rebels together with Beelzebub that it is better to reign in hell than be a servant in heaven.
In what way does Beëlzebub serve as a foil to Satan?
Beelzebub is one of the strongest rebel angels, a follower and admirer of Satan. However, they differ in reasoning and practicality. For example, even though Satan enjoys immortality for the rebel angels, Beelzebub questions it. Beelzebub argues that the eternal “strength and spirit” could be meant to have them suffer forever (146-148). On the contrary, Satan thinks immortality would help them annoy God through eternity.
Why do you think Milton draws on so many different sources for his description of Satan?
Milton used biblical, mythological, and geographical allusions to compare the importance of the story to past events in the bible or other literature such as poems. For instance, using Stygian pool shows that he appreciates his writing work is going to a higher level having emerged from the pool (235).
Works Cited
Milton, John. “Paradise Lost. John Milton” in Spiritual and Devotional Writings from Paradise
Lost.