Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost book 1 by John Milton starts off by illustrating how Adam and Eve defy God’s commands when Satan shows up as a snake and convinces Eve and Adam to eat the apple. The book then goes into detail over Satan’s demise out of Heaven.

Paradise Lost book 1 then describes Satan and his followers fall from heaven. Satan declared himself as God’s equal and let his pride and ego get ahead of him and ultimately led to his banishment from heaven. Satan and his followers were then trapped in Hell which is described as “a lake of fire.” While in hell, Satan and his right hand man Beelzebub begin to wage eternal war on God. Satan shows no remorse and even exclaims that it is “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in [Heaven].” Satan and his crew then decided to “confound the race of mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell to mingle and involve.” Satan then meets with Sin and Death and they prepare to wreak havoc on mankind.

A popular theme throughout both books is the theme of “good vs evil.” You see this theme very strongly as God, who is viewed as good, is constantly compared to Satan and his crew, who are evil. Satan however was once viewed as good when he was an angel in heaven. This ties into the other theme of “free will” that was discussed earlier in the semester. Satan was given free will and chose to go against God. Adam and Eve were also given free will and chose to fall into Satan’s temptation and disobey God. These two themes can be shown to overlap.