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1-Page Summary of Paradise Lost
Overview
Book I
In Book I of Paradise Lost, Milton begins his story with a description of Satan’s fall from Heaven. He describes the scene as “darkness visible,” which is ironic because it’s actually the absence of light, not darkness. Then he goes on to describe Satan waking up and getting ready for the day by walking around like an old man with a cane. After that, he wakes up his army and leads them in a speech about how they can get back into Heaven if they try hard enough, even though God has closed it off to them forever. He tells them that there are rumors about another world being created where they might live instead of Hell (Earth), so he uses this news to motivate his troops and gets them going again by building Pandemonium for their meeting place.
Book II
Book II of Paradise Lost describes the demons’ deliberations on whether to wage war against God again. Satan invites his followers to speak freely, and Moloch proposes that they fight back. Belial argues that doing so is futile, since they already lost the first battle in Heaven and should just accept their fate. Mammon suggests building a new kingdom in Hell for them to rule over instead of trying anything else. Beelzebub concludes by proposing that they seek out the truth about this new world (Earth) and if it’s true, try to seduce mankind with sin and corruption into serving them as slaves while living on Earth rather than continuing to live in Hell forever without any hope or purpose. The rest of the devils agree with this plan and decide not to waste their time being sad about what happened because there’s nothing they can do about it anymore now anyway; therefore, there’s no point in dwelling on it further but instead focus on how best to move forward from here going forward by thinking up creative solutions for problems such as figuring out ways how best how best how best…etc., etc., etc..
Book III
Book III begins with God sitting on his throne, watching Satan fly toward the world. He tells his Son about Satan’s plan to tempt humanity and how he will succeed at it. This clears God of blame because he gave humans free will, which allows them to choose good or evil, so they can’t be blamed for their actions if they choose evil. However, he also gives them grace in order to help them resist temptation; this is why Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Thus divine justice is satisfied when Christ dies on the cross for us and we are forgiven by God. Meanwhile, Satan has reached the outermost sphere of heaven where he meets Uriel (God’s regent). He transforms himself into an angel and approaches Uriel who thinks that this “angel” wants to see what was created during Creation Week (see Genesis 1-2). The deceived Uriel then directs him down through all seven spheres until finally arriving at Earth where humanity lives in Eden (the Garden of Eden).
Book IV
Book IV is about Satan’s journey to Eden. He travels there with doubt, fear, envy and despair. Soon he regains his confidence and continues on his quest for the Tree of Life in Paradise (the highest tree). While sitting on a branch of that tree, he overhears Adam and Eve talking about their daily worship activities. They are not allowed to eat fruits from the Tree of Knowledge because it will kill them if they do so. This gives Satan an idea how to destroy them both: by getting them to disobey God by eating from the forbidden fruit in order to be like him. Meanwhile Uriel has seen through Satan’s disguise as a cormorant bird (Satan had assumed this form while traveling) and warns Gabriel who promises to find him by morning when he comes out of hiding. That night, after performing their daily worship activities together Adam and Eve retire for bed where they fall asleep afterwards only for one angel each watching over them until morning arrives where Gabriel finds Satan still whispering into Eve’s ear tempting her in a dream which results in her being tempted into disobeying God which makes Lucifer all too happy since now he can get revenge against God once again since this time around it was actually God who gave him power instead of taking it away as before when Lucifer was cast down from Heaven causing him great anger towards Him ever since then but now that Lucifer finally got what he wanted thanks to having been given permission back then at least temporarily due to Him having no other choice really otherwise elsewise He would have destroyed His creation just like He did previously before creating anything at all thereby making Himself alone without any company whatsoever therefore knowing full well beforehand exactly what would happen right after giving Lucifer power thus making Him realize beforehand that His creation would turn against Him eventually resulting in His destruction or rather annihilation along with everything else meaning nothingness forevermore including even Himself meaning total nonexistence therefore wanting more than anything else ever possibly could want never ever risking such a thing happening again which is why He decided upon destroying everything first henceforth prior doing so deciding upon creating something new yet different altogether instead namely Creation 2 aka Planet Earth also known as Gaia plus its inhabitants called humans whom were made up entirely differently compared with their predecessors especially concerning intellect/reasoning abilities etc…
