- Satan returns to the Garden of Eden the night after Raphae's departure
- His return comes 8 days after he was caught & banished by Gabriel
- He sneaks in over the wall avoiding Gabriel and the other guards
- After studying the animals in the garden, he chooses to become a snake.
- He hesitates because of his grief at not being able to enjoy his new world after being cast out
- He struggles to control his thoughts, and believes earth is more beautiful than heaven
- He is jealous of Adam & Eve and their chosen status to occupy Paradise
- He claims the excess beauty causes him to feel more torment and anguish
- He finds a sleeping serpent and enters his body
- The next morning, Adam & Eve prepare for their usual mornings labors
- Realizing that they have much more work to do, Eve suggests they work apart so they may get more work done
- Adam does not agree, fearing they will be more susceptible to Satan's temptation when alone
- Eve wants her strength tested
- After much resistance, Adam concedes
- Eve promises to return soon
- Both part ways
- Satan searches for the couple & is delighted to find Eve alone
- Coiling up, he gets Eve's attention and begins flattering her beauty, grace & Godliness
- Eve is amazed to hear him speak
- He tells her he gained speech & intellect by eating fruit off a tree in the Garden of Eden
- He flatters further by saying that eating the apple made him seek her out in order to worship her beauty
- Eve is curious about this fruit and the power it supposedly gave the snake
- Curious to know which tree, she follows him until he brings her to the Tree of Knowledge
- She recoils, telling him God has forbidden them to eat from this tree
- Satan persists, arguing that God actually wants them to
- He said God forbids it only because he wants them to show their independence
- Eve is extremely tempted & desires to know more
- She reasons that God claimed eating from this tree meant death, but the serpent "ate" and is still alive, but can think & speak.
- God would have no reason to forbid the fruit unless it were powerful, and seeing the effects makes the warning seem exaggerated
- She bites into an apple
- The earth feels wounded & nature signs in woe - humankind has fallen
- Eve's first fallen thought is to get Adam to also eat so that they may be equal
- She finds him and tells him what she did and her eyes are open now
- He is horrified because now he knows that they are doomed, but decides he cannot live without her
- Eve does not want him to remain and live with another woman - she wants him to suffer the same fate
- He eats the fruit and immediately lusts for Eve
- They run into the woods for sexual play
- Adam & Eve briefly fall asleep, but when they wake, see the world differently
- They recognize their sin and that they have lost paradise
- At first, they believe they will gain glorious amounts of knowledge, but the only knowledge they gain was of the good they lost & that the evil they brought on themselves
- They see each other's nakedness and are filled with shame
- they cover themselves with leaves
- Milton explains their appetite for knowledge has been fulfilled & their hunger for God has been quenched
- Angry & confused, they blame each other for committing the sin, while neither will admit any fault.
- Their argument continues for hours.
Themes for Paradise Lost
- The importance of obedience to God: Paradise Lost represents two moron paths a person can take after disobedience: downward spiral of increasing sin and degradation (Satan) and the road to redemption (Adam & Eve)
- While Adam & Eve are the first humans to disobey God, Satan is the first of all his creatures to disobey: his decision to rebel comes only from himself - he was not provoked by others. Satan's continued disobedience guarantees. God will not forgive him. Adam and Eve, however, decide to repent for their sins and seek forgiveness. They understand their disobedience will be corrected through generations of toil on Earth.
- Hierarchical nature of the Universe. Before the fall, Adam & Eve treat the visiting angels with respect and acknowledgement of their closeness to God, and Eve embraces her subservient roll allotted to her in marriage. God and Raphael both instruct Adam that Eve is slightly farther removed from God's grace than Adam because she was created to serve both God & Adam. When Eve persuades Adam to let her work alone, she challenges him, her superior, and he yields to her, his inferior. Again, as Adam eats the fruit he knowingly defies God by obeying Eve and his inner instinct instead of God and his reason.
- God's foreknowledge doesn't mean its his will
- Satan could've been God's scapegoat for the Fall
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