Paradise Lost by John Milton s2

Paradise Lost by John Milton Book 1 Study Questions 1. What is Milton’s main purpose or theme of his epic poem?

2. What is the setting of the opening scene of the poem?

3. Who is next in command to the archangel Satan?

4. What is Satan’s attitude in the beginning of the poem?

5. In what way does Milton’s enumeration of his fallen angels resemble Homer’s Iliad?

6. Who leads the fallen angels to dig for gold in Hell? Why?

7. What is the name of the temple that rose out of the ground in Hell?

8. According to Milton, what had many of the pagan gods been before the history of Man?

9. What are Milton’s basic sources for Paradise Lost (form and allusions)?

10. What is the plan of action for the fallen angels and their leaders at the end of Book I?

Book 2 Study Questions 1. What does Moloch propose at the devilish council?

2. How does Belial’s proposal compare to Moloch’s?

3. What is Mammon’s argument at the council? 2

4. Who is Beelzebub, and what does he propose?

5. Who volunteers to go alone to spy on God’s new creation?

6. What is the volunteer’s true motive for his seemingly sacrificial act of exploring God’s new world?

7. Who does Satan meet at the gates of Hell?

8. Where did the barking Hell-hounds originate?

9. After which classical figure does Milton pattern the character of Sin?

10. Whom does Satan meet as he travels through the vast Abyss on his way to Earth?

Book 3 Study Questions 1. What is the symbolic significance of the image of light in Book III?

2. Why is God referred to as “unapproached light”?

3. Whom does God point out to the Son as their dialogue begins?

4. Who answers God’s call for a volunteer to die for Man’s sins?

5. What is Jacob’s ladder in the biblical account?

6. How does Satan’s attitude toward God compare to Jacob’s as they each view the “stairway to Heaven”?

7. Who is Uriel? What does Satan ask of him? 3

8. Why does Satan disguise himself when he meets Uriel?

9. Why does the poet lament the fact that he finds “no dawn”?

10. Why does the poet compare himself to Homer (Maeonides)?

Book 4 Study Questions 1. What does Satan feel is his greatest fault?

2. How does Satan feel about his own free will?

3. Where does Satan (in the form of a bird) alight when he first enters Paradise?

4. What is God’s only prohibition to Adam and Eve in the garden?

5. Which mythological character does Milton allude to in Eve’s story of her first day on Earth?

6. In what forms does Satan appear in Paradise in Book IV.

7. Where do Adam and Eve sleep in Paradise?

8. How does Uriel travel from his post in the sun to Paradise when he comes to warn Gabriel about an evil spirit that is loose?

9. What does Satan tell Gabriel when he is asked why he has left Hell?

10. Why does Satan finally leave Paradise?

Book 9 Study Questions 1. Why is Book IX a central part of the epic poem?

2. What constitutes the climax of Paradise Lost ? 4

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?

Book 10 Study Questions 1. Who is sent from Heaven to judge Adam and Eve after the fall?

2. What is Adam and Eve’s punishment for their disobedience to God?

3. How does the Son judge the Serpent (Satan) for tempting Eve?

4. What do Sin and Death do to make Earth more accessible?

5. What will Eve’s descendants do to the Serpent’s offspring?

6. Who helps to bring Adam out of the depths of despair?

7. How does Death feel about his new empire on Earth? 5

8. What does Discord do on Earth after the fall?

9. What happens to Satan and his fallen angels when he arrives in Hell?

10. What happens to the fruit that is eaten by the serpents in Hell?