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Satan was supremely confident in Hell, when he was trying to impress his followers and was still convinced that he could make a “Heaven of Hell.” Now that he has reached Paradise, however, he sees that the opposite is also true – he makes a Hell of Heaven. No matter how perfect his surroundings, Satan carries Hell within himself in the form of his hatred, envy, and separation from God. Satan preempts the obvious question of why God doesn’t show mercy to the devils – they haven’t repented. Despair is one of the worst sins, as God offers no forgiveness unless his creature asks for it. Satan gives in to despair here and so condemns himself to eternal Hell, unwilling to repent and still clinging to his pride and doomed fate of suffering. Satan accepts his role as the “Adversary” (the meaning of “Satan” in Aramaic). As long as he despairs of forgiveness and refuses to submit to God, the only path left to him is suffering and hate. He then decides to make the most of this and bring others into his suffering if he can, or at least lash out in blind spite against God. Milton throws in a critique of the church of his day – he disapproved of paid clergy as more interested in wealth and earthly vanity than keeping their minds on God. Satan is associated with two predatory animals here, a wolf and a cormorant, as his transformations continue to grow less glorious. The cormorant was seen as a “sinful” animal because of its gluttonous appetite. Milton extends all his powers of language to describe the glory of the Paradise that will soon be lost. Many of Milton’s Puritan contemporaries held the human body to be inherently sinful, but Milton asserts the “naked glory” of Adam and Eve, affirming that nakedness was the proper and holy state of humans before they were corrupted by lust and shame. The “protagonists”—Adam and Eve—finally enter. Milton himself advocated a vegetarian diet, and he expands on this by portraying the pre-Fallen world as entirely vegetarian. Thus Adam and Eve’s sin also changed the nature of all animals, so that many became predators. Humans are also shown as the rightful masters of the animals, who act friendly and tame. Satan grows more distraught and less reasonable as the poem progresses. He is genuinely moved by the beauty and innocence of Paradise and Adam and Eve, but he purposefully overcomes his better nature and continues in his futile crusade of hate. The forbidden tree is first introduced and immediately associated with Adam and Eve’s lack of knowledge. Again innocence is associated with ignorance, as Adam states God’s command and then admits his own ignorance of what kind of punishment “death” is. They are supposed to be content with God’s command and not try to learn more than he has decreed. Milton begins to express his ideas about women, which generally reflect those of his time and culture. For him, women are inherently inferior to men and should “submit” to them. This passage illustrates this in several ways: Eve awakens in the shade, separated from God’s light, and she immediately becomes entranced by her reflection. This shows that she is easily distracted by vain surfaces, and also that she herself is a “reflection” of Adam – Adam was made in God’s image, while Eve was made in Adam’s image. Eve immediately obeys an invisible voice, foreshadowing how she will later be swayed by Satan’s suggestions. In Genesis, Eve is created out of Adam’s rib, and is therefore less close to God than Adam is. Eve reflects Milton’s (seemingly misogynistic) sentiments by admitting that she is inferior to Adam and submitting to his call. Milton portrays Adam and Eve’s relationship as ideal love and marriage, where the woman submits to the man who loves and cares for her. The man communes directly with God, while the woman communes with God through the man. Satan devises the plan that becomes the central conflict of the book, and the “original sin” that causes the fall of humanity. Even during peacetime, Milton’s Heaven has a martial nature that emphasizes order and hierarchy above all else. The angels entertain themselves with “heroic games,” and they are naturally arranged into orders of both proximity to God’s light and military rank. Milton critiques the elaborate rituals of the Catholic and Anglican churches by showing Adam and Eve’s worship as spontaneous and unstructured. Milton preferred a personal relationship with God and an independence of mind, rather than strict adherence to ritual and dogma. Unlike most Puritans (and other Christians), Milton did not see sex as inherently sinful. Here he shows it as both pure and holy in its pre-Fallen state, a proper expression of marital love and due obedience to God’s command to “be fruitful.” Milton follows the epic tradition by using “apostrophe” (breaking off the narrative to address someone or something in the second person). Satan assumes his lowliest shape yet, a toad, as he begins his attempts to corrupt Adam and Eve. He begins with Eve, the weaker of the two. Part of the nature and result of Satan’s disobedience is his physical appearance. In God’s hierarchy everything remains in its rightful position, never reaching too high or stooping too low. In changing shape and appearance Satan shows the effects of revolting against this order, but with this change comes a loss of power. Milton associates goodness with power, as Satan is immediately jealous of the unfallen angels and their brightness and strength. It is Satan’s evil, not his defeat, that robs him of his greatness, as all life and brightness comes from God, and Satan separated himself from God with disobedience. Gabriel seems to have greater “knowledge” of evil than Uriel, as he sees through Satan’s lies and self-aggrandizement. The personification of the good angels allows Milton to add some conflict to the side of God’s omnipotence, as the angels can be stung by Satan’s insults or tricked by him in a way that God cannot. The Scales symbolize God’s supreme power over all the universe, including the lives of both Satan and Gabriel and all the actions occurring everywhere at once. Satan seems to recognize God’s supremacy now, as he flees according to his inevitable fate. Once he tried to do battle with the omnipotent God, but now he only lashes out in spite against him – and even then he can only do harm when God allows it.