Paradise Lost

The best word to describe Milton's style in Paradise Lost is “grand.” Paradise Lost is epic poetry, and Milton elevates his style to match the seriousness and grandeur of his subject matter. Think,...

The epic is centered on a hero who determines or is majorly involved in shaping the destiny of a group of people or a community. Epic conventions are basically characteristics of such narratives...

This opening line explains that Paradise Lost will focus on the Genesis story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. "Man's first disobedience" was eating the fruit (described as an apple in...

God cast Satan out of heaven because Satan, through pride, lust, and greed, wanted to usurp God’s heavenly throne. Satan wanted to be as God at the very least, and also above God. He was full of...

Milton also tells us the subject of his poem is the original sin committed by Adam and Eve, the eating of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Because of this sin, mankind must now suffer death...

When John Milton describes hell in book 1 of Paradise Lost, he seems to be portraying a terrifying yet paradoxical place. At first, he tells us hell is a world where torment and affliction know no...

Strictly speaking, an epic is a long narrative poem on a great and serious subject. It is written in an elevated style, and has at its centre a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions the...

The quotation can be understood in several ways. It can be read as an expression of Satan's defiance of God, of a piece with his famous declaration that it is "better to rule in hell / than serve...

Milton is essentially penning an epic poem, a long narrative poem that details events which are important in the poet's culture and tells of big adventures and high drama. In ancient Greek epic...

So long as Christianity has existed, the question has been asked by believers and non-believers alike: Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen? An answer to this question by a Christian...

Milton's Paradise Lost is known for its rich use of literary devices. It is famous, for example, for its lush imagery. Imagery is describing using the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and...

Assonance can be defined as the repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words. It is largely employed as a means of...

There are two chief messages in the Adam and Eve story. The first is that humans pay a very high price for disobeying God. It is wrong to use free will and reason against God's commands, as Adam...

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different objects or ideas through linking words including “like” and “as.” Examples of similes include “She sings like an angel” and “I feel as big...

Satan's pride is the ultimate source of all his foolish actions in Paradise Lost. From a Christian standpoint the most blatant example of Satan's pride is his turning away from God. Though still...

Satan is made—superficially—attractive by Milton in a number of ways. He feels that he's been wronged by God, unfairly cast down from Heaven for daring to proclaim his independence and autonomy....

It is very interesting to analyse Satan's speech in Book I of this epic classic, especially considering the depth of the defeat that he has just been experienced before being cast out of heaven and...

When Satan reaches Hell in book 2 of Paradise Lost, he finds the gates guarded by Sin and Death. Sin is a hideous creature, “woman to the waist” and with serpentlike features. She's also constantly...

Milton engages the reader immediately with his purpose, just as Homer and Virgil do, as well as the "modern" Italian poets Ariosto and Tasso. In epic convention there is an announcement at the...

Satan and Beelzebub are alike in both being evil and opposed to God. They both want to continue the fight against him, and both are underhanded and fiendish. A main difference, however, is that...

The word “infernal” means something relating to Hell or the underworld. It comes from the word “inferno,” an old-fashioned word for “fire.” It's not hard to see, then, why Satan in Paradise Lost...

The lines in your question are especially significant in John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost (first published in 1667) because they belong in a passage that introduces firsthand the epic’s villain,...

While perhaps not intended as such by John Milton, Paradise Lost has been read as a political allegory by those seeking to link the events of the story with Milton's own political views. The war in...

Before the fall, the love that Adam and Eve share, both spiritual and sexual, is in harmony with God's desire and plan for humankind. Adam is the head of their relationship. He leads by putting...

Satan may have been cast down to Hell; he may have been plunged into the burning lake by the heavenly host. But he's still his old, defiant self. Far from being chastened by his expulsion from...

Beelzebub's name means "lord of the flies," and this second-in-command to the devil is the most competent of the swarm of vicious demons that surround Satan in hell. He is a loyal sycophant who is...

Satan uses techniques of classical rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, to compel Eve to eat the fruit. Accordingly, his appeal to Eve in book nine precisely follows the Ciceronian arrangement....

I can help you get started so you can write a note on Satan's speeches on your own. We'll use Satan's first speech in Book I (excerpt above) to orient you in terms of analysis; you can then analyze...

The humility of the speaker (Milton himself) consists chiefly of his absolute submission to the will of God. He sees himself as an instrument of God, and the specific purpose he assigns to himself...

I'm not sure that he has one. In order to have a tragic flaw, you have to be a tragic hero, and in order to be a tragic hero you need to be a fundamentally good character who is brought low by a...

There are many, many ways to contrast Paradise Lost with the other 3 epics of antiquity. The most striking difference is era; Paradise Lost is a 17th century epic poem, written in blank verse,...

The so-called “grand style” of John Milton’s epic poem is the lofty, elevated, or non-colloquial phrasing he uses to add to the dignity of the poem and imply the importance of its subject matter....

Lines 1-26 of Book I of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost are particularly important because they announce many of the most important themes of the poem as a whole. They also exhibit some of...

This quote from Book 1 of Paradise Lost clearly states the thematic focus of Satan's character. Satan and his band of rebel angel failed in the battle with God and have been cast down to the...

Paradise Lost is full of allusions. Milton had a reputation for being extremely well-read, and he wove allusions, both classical and biblical, throughout his epic poem. For example, on the...

Milton's avowed aim in Paradise Lost is to justify the ways of God to man. His emphasis, therefore, is somewhat different from that of Genesis. Milton is a humanist, albeit a Christian one, so his...

As written in the first five lines of Paradise Lost, poet John Milton's subject is the Fall of Man and then Man’s redemption through Jesus Christ. Milton immediately informs the reader that the...

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience or reader of a work of literature knows something the characters do not. In this case, we as readers are told what God has planned for Satan. God says that...

Beelzebub is Satan's right-hand man, having been the first to side with Satan against God the Father during the war of heaven which takes place before the beginning of the story. Both of them are...

The first lines of Book I of John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, refer to "the fruit / Of that Forbidden Tree whose mortal taste / Brought death into the World and all our woe..." Adam tells...

The poet William Blake once famously said—or infamously, depending how you look at it—that in his portrayal of Satan, Milton was of the devil's party without knowing it. The Romantic generation,...

It would be a mistake to see Paradise Lost on the whole as being a political allegory of England in the 17th century. Milton's epic poem deals primarily with universal themes that transcend the...

Any analysis of lines 120- 160 in Book I Paradise Lost has to center on the basic discussion between Satan and Beelzebub. I think that one of the most significant aspects of this in lines 120- 160...

Milton's Paradise Lost is packed with original, vivid, and often symbolic imagery. I have included and explained three such examples below. Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that...

Book I of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost describes Satan as utterly dismayed to be thrown form the realm of light to a place of dark and suffering [85]. Satan has been left his spirit and...

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they could ever want. They lived in a true paradise in which, thanks to God, they wanted for nothing. Life was calm, blissful, and entirely free...