<p> 1</p><p>Paradise Lost by John Milton Book 1 Study Questions 1. What is Milton’s main purpose or theme of his epic poem?</p><p>2. What is the setting of the opening scene of the poem?</p><p>3. Who is next in command to the archangel Satan?</p><p>4. What is Satan’s attitude in the beginning of the poem?</p><p>5. In what way does Milton’s enumeration of his fallen angels resemble Homer’s Iliad?</p><p>6. Who leads the fallen angels to dig for gold in Hell? Why?</p><p>7. What is the name of the temple that rose out of the ground in Hell?</p><p>8. According to Milton, what had many of the pagan gods been before the history of Man?</p><p>9. What are Milton’s basic sources for Paradise Lost (form and allusions)?</p><p>10. What is the plan of action for the fallen angels and their leaders at the end of Book I?</p><p>Book 2 Study Questions 1. What does Moloch propose at the devilish council?</p><p>2. How does Belial’s proposal compare to Moloch’s?</p><p>3. What is Mammon’s argument at the council? 2</p><p>4. Who is Beelzebub, and what does he propose?</p><p>5. Who volunteers to go alone to spy on God’s new creation?</p><p>6. What is the volunteer’s true motive for his seemingly sacrificial act of exploring God’s new world?</p><p>7. Who does Satan meet at the gates of Hell?</p><p>8. Where did the barking Hell-hounds originate?</p><p>9. After which classical figure does Milton pattern the character of Sin?</p><p>10. Whom does Satan meet as he travels through the vast Abyss on his way to Earth?</p><p>Book 3 Study Questions 1. What is the symbolic significance of the image of light in Book III?</p><p>2. Why is God referred to as “unapproached light”?</p><p>3. Whom does God point out to the Son as their dialogue begins?</p><p>4. Who answers God’s call for a volunteer to die for Man’s sins?</p><p>5. What is Jacob’s ladder in the biblical account?</p><p>6. How does Satan’s attitude toward God compare to Jacob’s as they each view the “stairway to Heaven”?</p><p>7. Who is Uriel? What does Satan ask of him? 3</p><p>8. Why does Satan disguise himself when he meets Uriel?</p><p>9. Why does the poet lament the fact that he finds “no dawn”?</p><p>10. Why does the poet compare himself to Homer (Maeonides)?</p><p>Book 4 Study Questions 1. What does Satan feel is his greatest fault?</p><p>2. How does Satan feel about his own free will?</p><p>3. Where does Satan (in the form of a bird) alight when he first enters Paradise?</p><p>4. What is God’s only prohibition to Adam and Eve in the garden?</p><p>5. Which mythological character does Milton allude to in Eve’s story of her first day on Earth?</p><p>6. In what forms does Satan appear in Paradise in Book IV.</p><p>7. Where do Adam and Eve sleep in Paradise?</p><p>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?</p><p>9. What does Satan tell Gabriel when he is asked why he has left Hell?</p><p>10. Why does Satan finally leave Paradise?</p><p>Book 9 Study Questions 1. Why is Book IX a central part of the epic poem?</p><p>2. What constitutes the climax of Paradise Lost ? 4</p><p>3. In what way is Book IX the turning point of the epic?</p><p>4. What is Adam and Eve’s tragic catastrophe?</p><p>5. How does the reader feel purged of his/her own emotional conflicts through the narrative?</p><p>6. Where has Satan been hiding for the last seven days?</p><p>7. How does Satan enter Paradise?</p><p>8. Why is Eve alone on the day of her temptation and fall?</p><p>9. According to the Serpent, what will be the effects of eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?</p><p>10. What are the effects of the fall on Adam and Eve?</p><p>Book 10 Study Questions 1. Who is sent from Heaven to judge Adam and Eve after the fall?</p><p>2. What is Adam and Eve’s punishment for their disobedience to God?</p><p>3. How does the Son judge the Serpent (Satan) for tempting Eve?</p><p>4. What do Sin and Death do to make Earth more accessible?</p><p>5. What will Eve’s descendants do to the Serpent’s offspring?</p><p>6. Who helps to bring Adam out of the depths of despair?</p><p>7. How does Death feel about his new empire on Earth? 5</p><p>8. What does Discord do on Earth after the fall?</p><p>9. What happens to Satan and his fallen angels when he arrives in Hell?</p><p>10. What happens to the fruit that is eaten by the serpents in Hell?</p>