Study Questions
1. Why is Book IX a central part of the epic poem?

2. What constitutes the climax of Paradise Lost ?

3. In what way is Book IX the turning point of the epic?

4. What is Adam and Eve’s tragic catastrophe?

5. How does the reader feel purged of his/her own emotional conflicts through the narrative?

6. Where has Satan been hiding for the last seven days?

7. How does Satan enter Paradise?

8. Why is Eve alone on the day of her temptation and fall?

9. According to the Serpent, what will be the effects of eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?

10. What are the effects of the fall on Adam and Eve?

Answers
1. Book IX is central to the poem because it contains the climax of the action.

2. The climax of Paradise Lost is “Man’s first disobedience” or the fall of Adam and Eve.

3. In Book IX the tone is changed to tragic. All subsequent actions will be affected by the tragic fall in Book IX.

4. Adam and Eve have lost their immortality and will be removed from Paradise.

5. The reader feels purged of his/her own emotional conflicts (sins) by empathizing with the tragic hero.

6. Satan has been traveling within the dark shadow of the Earth.

7. Satan enters Paradise through the underground fountain of the Tigris River.

8. Eve has suggested to Adam that they work separately so they can get more work done.

9. The Serpent tells Eve the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge will make her like a god.

10. Adam and Eve begin quarreling and blaming each other for their lost state.