Milton, Paradise Lost
Summary and Reading Notes--Adam
Kissel
Book
1 | Book 2 | Book 3 | Book 4 |
Book 2
1-10, Satan sits on his
throne, "beyond hope." He is "by success untaught" yet
raring to go.
Satan's
Speech #1
10-13, S not willing to give
up Heaven, since his vigor remains immortal, unable to be held within the
confines of hell.
13-24, S says that any victory will seem even greater, after their arising from
such a fall. S speaks, instead of about God, about fate and the "fixed
laws of heav'n," which created Satan before free choice [an important
lesson here]. But against mere fate, S also claims achievements due to his own
merit. God has at least yielded
him the throne of hell.
24-35, S preempts a power struggle in hell by claiming that no one can be
envied there. No one would struggle for power, because to get more of hell is
to increase in pain.
35-42, This gives more reason that they stand united in a common purpose
"To claim our just inheritance of old." Their project is to decide
the best method of prospering--"Whether of open war or covert guile."
[demons are to be united in purpose but differ in mind/method]
Moloch's
Speech
43-50, Moloch described.
Strongest "Spirit/That fought in heav'n; now fiercer by despair,"
Moloch had wanted to be like God in strength, but "rather than be
less/cared not to be at all; with that care lost/Went all his fear: of God, or
hell, or worse/He recked not."
51-53, Moloch counsels warówiles/guile is for weenies.
54-60, While they would waste time conspiring, they are putting off war and are
stuck in hell. [cf. what actually happens to the demons]
60-70, Moloch would use force and the materials at hand to fight God,
"Turning our tortures into horrid arms/Against the torturer." [no
transcendence of circumstance here]
70-72, Moloch for a minute considers the vanity of his hope to use force.
73-77, Moloch urges action, for "in our proper motion we ascend." [their
nature is to rise]
77-81, He remembers their movement downward by force.
81-92, There is nothing to lose or fear--Moloch has the courage of despair, for
nothing can be worse than hell [cf. S, 24-35], "driven out from
bliss." [again, long sentence mirrors eternity of hell]
92-94, "More destroyed than thus/We should be quite abolished and
expire./What fear we then?" [ok to just disappear and stop the pain]
94-105, "What doubt we to incense/His utmost ire?" Or, if the demons'
ethereal substance cannot be destroyed, then still hell is "at worst/On
this side nothing." At least, there may be something worthwhile in
disturbing God's peace, "Which if not victory is yet revenge."
106-08, narrator repeats: Moloch spoke for "Desperate revenge."
Belial's
Speech
108-18, Belial described. He
will speak for vice and in sophistry; he is pretty on the outside, "But
all was false and hollow." He "could make the worse appear/The better
reason" [cf. Apology 18a-19c];
"he pleased the ear."
119-28, B begins rhetorically, that he might agree to war, except that Moloch's
reasoning "grounds his courage on despair/And utter dissolution .../...
after some dire revenge."
129, "First, what revenge?" [B speaks with order and a question, as a
philosopher.]
129-34, Heaven is impregnable and well guarded.
134-42, Even their best force would not disturb God, who "All
incorruptible would on his throne/Sit unpolluted." God is "Incapable
of stain" and would quickly win.
142-51, The demons' only change must be annihilation, which would [in
opposition to Moloch] be a "sad cure" for hell: "for who would
lose,/Though full of pain, this intellectual being"? Nonbeing is horridly
"Devoid of sense and motion." "our final hope/Is flat
despair."
151-54, Furthermore, even if nonbeing were good and possible, who knows if God
would ever grant it? "How he can/Is doubtful; that he never will is
sure."
155-59, And why would God grant his enemies' wish, "whom his anger
saves/To punish endless?"
159-64, Those like Moloch think that nonbeing is better than hell, but B
challenges, saying that there is yet a worse state than their thinking
together: "Is this then worst,/Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in
arms?"
165-69, Hell certainly seemed better than God's active wrath during the war:
"This hell then seemed/A refuge from those wounds." Also, aren't they
better off now than "when we lay/Chained on the burning lake? That sure
was worse."
170-86, B imagines all kinds of worse situations--"Ages of hopeless end;
this would be worse."
187-93, B speaks against any kind of war or guile. God cannot be deceived, and
force will not succeed either. God derides their vain motions. [B is against
motion]
194-99, It's better to remain as is than to risk worse, "since fate
inevitable/Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,/The victor's will." [accepts
both fate and God's will as causes]
199-203, They can just as easily "suffer, as to do"--they are
suffering justly, at any rate.
204-14, He counsels that they "sustain and bear," so that someday God
may relent.
215-25, Perhaps the demons will become habituated to the pains of hell and find
hope in a better future.
226-28, Narrator says that Belial "with words clothed in reason's
garb"/Counseled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth,/Not peace." [i.e. true
peace is active.]
Mammon's
Speech [third advisor]
229-37, M. says it will be
impossible to defeat God, or to win back their places in Heaven by force, but
that would be the only way they could succeed--so they would act in vain to war.
237-46, It would be equally unacceptable to retake their places in Heaven
"on promise made/Of new subjection," with its "Forced
hallelujahs" [M assumes it would be impossible for them to freely love
God].
245-49, Forced worship is unacceptable because they hate God: "how wearisome/Eternity
so spent in worship paid/To whom we hate." [implication is that this
existence would yet be worse than hell (or some other yet unnamed
option)--would it really be so bad in comparison? The "torment" of
forced worship would be entirely mental. Follow theme of mind esp. into the next sentence.]
249-57, He counsels them to "rather seek/Our own good from ourselves, and
from our own/Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,/Free" [prefers
freedom to seemingly forced subjection in Heaven, "Hard liberty before the
easy yoke/Of servile pomp"--but this kind of freedom carries no
transcendence; see next sentence].
257-62, He says that the good "We can create" will be in the making
of "great things from small,/Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse."
They can "work ease out of pain/through labor and endurance" [reads
like Franklin]. This will make their merit more conspicuous.
262-68, Doesn't God sometimes seem to surround his glory with darkness
[=mystery?]?
269-70, "As he our darkness, cannot we his light/Imitate when we
please?" [e.g. the light inside Pandemonium]
270-73, Hell has some "hidden luster," anyway, which "skill or
art" can use "to raise/Magnificence." [thinking of Pand., again
not transcending the circumstances]
274-78, Echoing Belial, "Our torments also may in length of time/Become
our elements," etc. Perhaps time will change the demons, acculturating
them to hell. [theme of transformation]
278-83, Mammon (similar to Belial) counsels neither war nor sloth but peaceful
transformation.
284-98, The demons (like "hollow rocks") applaud Mammon's idea of
remaking hell, in time, "in emulation opposite to heav'n."
Speech
of Beelzebub
(299-309, in hell he is second only to Satan; his visage sports
"Deliberation Ö and public care" as the great advisor. The demons become silent.)
310-13, He addresses the
demons loftily, but then asks if now they are merely "Princes of
hell."
313-28, Though the demons think they can just ignore God, they can't: they
"remain/In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,/Under th'
inevitable curb," for God reigns always and everywhere, and will rule hell
as well.
329-35, "What sit we then projecting peace and war?/War hath determined
us" -- they cannot have mere peace when God may continue to afflict them
[seemingly] arbitrarily.
335-40, He is for revenge, to minimize God's conquests.
341-44, plan need not include an attack on Heaven.
344-45, "What if we find/Some easier enterprise?"
345-53, God had pronounced His will to create Earth and Man, weaker but more
loved than angels. [follow the comparison between man and angels--esp. Bk. 5]
354-70, [long sentence mirrors long and complex struggle of good and evil in
the world] B counsels that they turn all thoughts of revenge toward Earth,
which, unlike Heaven, may be open to them; he counsels that they test the
mettle of Man, whom they must assess, and conquer either by force or subtlety:
"here perhaps/Some advantageous act may be achieved," either "To
waste his whole creation, or possess/All as our own," to drive Man to hell
or else to "Seduce them to our party, that their God/May prove their foe,
and with repenting hand/Abolish his own works."
370-76, "This would surpass/Common revenge"; God would be disturbed,
the demons would rejoice, and Man would find "faded bliss,/Faded so
soon."
376-78, "Advise if this be worth/Attempting, or to sit in darkness
here/Hatching vain empires." [countering those who would remain in hell]
378-85, Narrator reminds us
that this was Satan's point, much earlier (1.650-56). And of course it was
Satan--from whom but Satan "could spring/So deep a malice, to counfound
the face/Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell/To mingle [cf. Ovid on
mingling] and involve, done all to spite/The great Creator?"
385-86, Narrator undercuts this great evil: "But their spite still
serves/His glory to augment."
386-89, demons agree with Beelzebub, so he continues.
390-402, He tells the demons
they have chosen well, "Great things resolved ... in spite of
fate." Perhaps they shall
rise near enough to Heaven to benefit from its light, or even one day to
return, healed.
402-04, "But first whom shall we send/In search of this new world, whom
shall we find/Sufficient?" [a question about action, but the demons are so scared that
they stay silent (preferring hell) until Satan steps forward--Satan a being of
(evil) action (417-29)]
404-13, Who shall attempt to cross "The dark unbottomed infinite
abyss"? It's tough to get through chaos.
413-16, On this one "The weight of all and our last hope relies."
417-29, [see above]. Satan as heroic adventurer-explorer.
Satan's
Speech #2 (the two
speeches frame the counsel session)
430-41, It is right to fear
the trek out of well-guarded hell.
Just outside, if one can get there, is an "abortive gulf."
442-44, Chaos is a great unknown.
445-50, But who would Satan be, as leader, if he did not attempt to get through
Chaos?
450-56, The leader undertakes as much hazard as honor.
456-66, Satan will go it alone, to find what he can find; meanwhile the demons
must make do with hell [as had been suggested above].
466-73, S, the prudent monarch, prevents response so that others will not seek
the honor of hazarded life and thereby challenge him in honor.
473-77, Demons are more afraid of S than of Chaos; they arise.
477-85, They bow in praise
to S "as a god." God has reserved to them the ability to do
externally virtuous acts, though for a bad aim, "lest bad men should
boast/Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,/Or close ambition
varnished o'er with zeal."
486-95, They are happy in their agreement, like sunshine evaporating gloom.
496, "O shame to men!"
496-505, This is a shame to men because even demons can agree together, while
men, who still have "hope/Of heavenly grace," instead choose to disagree and
"live in hatred, enmity, and strife" [cf. Hobbes?].
506-13, S seems god-like in his pomp.
514-20, The demons shout throughout hell in acclaim.
521-27, The demons pick up and go, wandering individually where they may.
528-32, They cast around for stuff to do, like hold Olympic games; they spin
their wheels.
533-46, The wild ones seek wild warlike pursuits, some out of Herculean pain.
546-51, The mild ones sing as poets and complain of fate without really doing
anything about it [dig on poets].
552-55, The songs yet "Suspended hell, and took with ravishment/The
thronging audience" [pro-poetry].
555-61, Others act as philosophers and aim for pleasant discourse about their
predicament: "In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high/Of providence,
foreknowledge, will, and fate,/fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge
absolute,/And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost." [note circularity in
syntax]
562-69, Their "vain wisdom ... and false philosophy" nevertheless
deceptively ("a pleasing sorcery") charms away the pain. Such
philosophy brings "fallacious hope" by encouraging patient investigation
("stubborn patience" like that of Socrates). [dig on philosophy]
570-81, Others go exploring in hell, in groups, along the four rivers.
582-95, Desc. of features in hell: Lethe separates the burning lake from the
"frozen continent" on which "cold performs th' effect of
fire." [From Lethe one
loses/forgets oneself and becomes as nothing.]
596-603, Part of the punishment is to go from extreme to extreme [no moderation
here], fire to ice and back, continually.
604-14, More punishment is to know that although they could taste Lethe's
forgetfulness during the transition, and want to, they are always prevented
from it, like Tantalus. [Continual unfulfilled desire. Desire as torment.]
614-28, All of hell, as they travel, seems to be hellish, created to be so out
of God's curse. This is "A universe of death, which God by curse/Created
evil, for evil only good, [i.e. useful only for punishment]/Where all life
dies, death lives, ..."
Satan's travels
629-35, Meanwhile S is
forming his escape plan.
636-42, S travels like a ship against a storm.
642-48, Finally S gets to the nine gates of hell, "impenetrable"
though they are.
648-66, S meets the horrible Sin, half woman and half serpent, with a belt of
hell-hounds, worse than Scylla and witches.
666-73, S meets Death, made up of shadowy un-substance.
674-76, S sidles up to them.
677-80, S speaks to them without fear, fearing no created thing, only the
uncreated God and Jesus.
Satan encounters Sin and Death
681-84, S asks who Death is,
blocking his way.
684-87, S claims superiority over Death.
688-95, D recognizes Satan as the fallen angel.
696-703, D asserts his reign over hell and commands that S return to his
punishment.
704-11, They rise up for the challenge.
711-26, They go head to head, as two storm clouds, and seem evenly matched,
till Sin breaks up the fight.
727-30, Genealogy: Satan is father to Sin and Death both. Satan incestuously made Sin the mother
of Death.
730-34, God laughs at Satan and Death destroying each other, she says.
735-45, S doesn't recognize Sin or Death, or admit his parentage, but sees that
they're detestable.
746-67, She tells the story: during the conspiracy she sprung from his head, in
his image--which he so loved that he conceived Death with her.
767-77, While she was pregnant, the war was fought, and in the general fall she
also fell and was given the key to hell's gates.
777-89, She gave birth to Death, who ripped through her entrails (which caused
her lower half to transform) and tried to destroy her.
790-802, Death raped his mother, producing the intestine-eating hell-hounds.
803-09, Death still is after her, except for that they will share a common end.
810-14, She warns Satan to avoid Death, who seems irresistible to all but God.
815-44, Satan answers "smooth" [and at length, mirroring his travels
through Chaos and the whole length of subsequent tale]: in leaving hell he aims
to free Sin and Death to dwell on earth, if it exists as planned, and prey on
the "race of upstart creatures" there.
845-49, They are glad to hear it.
850-55, Sin repeats that she holds the key and that Death is ready to protect
the gates.
856-70, Sin sees no reason to obey God, but rather would obey her father,
Satan, who will bring her to "that new world of light and bliss"
where they shall reign together.
871-89, She opens the gates with one turn of the key; they open hugely, and she
could not close them if she tried.
Chaos
890-97, The space under the
dominion of Night and Chaos opens before them in "Eternal anarchy."
898-906, That space is where opposites vie for mastery.
906-10, Chaos is umpire but creates more confusion by his decisions, while
"Chance governs all."
910-20, Satan looks warily at the expanse he must cross.
920-27, The space is extremely loud and raucous.
927-42, He embarks, meets "a vast vacuity," free-falls, then by
chance is pushed to some bog.
943-67, [long sentence mirroring chaos] He speeds through the bog undaunted,
reaching the throne of Chaos and his consort Night ("eldest of
things"), along with other monsters.
968-87, Satan aims to persuade Chaos et al. that he is no spy but a friend,
hoping for direction either to Heaven or earth--if the latter, he intends to
reduce it back to darkness and night and win it back for them--"Yours be
th' advantage all, mine the revenge."
988-92, Chaos knows indeed who S. is (cf. Odysseus, and Norton suggests Mk
1:24)
993-98, The fleeing demons had traveled through his territory, so he's well
aware of that part of the story.
998-1009, Satan had chosen the right argument: indeed, C's territory was
lessened, first by hell and then by heaven-and-earth, linked by golden chain to
Heaven--so C would be glad for S to retake it: "Havoc and spoil and ruin
are my gain."
1010-20, S rushes off in great difficulty, worse than all other travels.
1021-33, Behold, Sin and Death follow him all the way to earth--for "such
was the will of Heav'n," bridging earth and hell so that the demons can
tempt or punish mortals ("except whom/God and good angels guard by special
grace").
1034-1053, [long sentence for more travels] Satan gets to the border of Heaven
and beholds the world.
1054-55, Satan heads for the world, full of revenge.