271 – 282 Beelzebub urges Satan to rouse the millions of fallen angels laying on the sea of flames. 283 – 315 Satan walks toward the shore

271 – 282 Beelzebub urges Satan to rouse the millions of fallen angels laying on the sea of flames.

283 – 315 Satan walks toward the shore of fiery lake to call the angels. The similes used here in a linked sequence (a unique device in the poem) are, individually, among the most famous similes in all of Paradise Lost. The first simile likens Satan’s shield strapped across his back to an image of the moon as seen from earth through one of Galileo’s telescopes

(Galileo is the only contemporary of Milton who is explicitly referenced in the poem). The second simile (292f) describes his spear in relation to a huge tree on a Norwegian hill. The third (302f) likens the angels on the burning lake to fallen leaves and then to seaweed. Milton’s use of simile imitates Homer’s similes in the Iliad in being lengthy but that is where the similarity largely ends. As a starting point, Milton complicates the similes he uses by making them far more confusing to the reader than Homer’s. Pick ONE of these three similes and examine what difficulties you see in how it “works”. You don’t have to interpret it (though you can if you wish) but focus on what problems for interpretation you detect.

315 – 330 Satan’s

Fourth Monologue

Satan calls out to the fallen

angels on the burning lake.

How

does Satan motivate the angels to raise themselves from off the lake?

Does this brief passage shed any light on Satan’s own evolution in

the poem?

331 – 363 The

fallen angels respond to Satan’s call and fly off the lake and onto

the burning ground near him.

This sequence of lines is

significant in part because it contains a simile (338f) that derives

from the account in the Book of Exodus of Moses calling down a plague

of locusts on Egypt. Again, you may spot a confusing element in the

simile in that if the fallen angels are like locusts, who is Moses

being likened to? The logic of the simile suggests that this should

place Satan in the same role as Moses – which may complicate our

sense of how Satan is being presented. Can

you offer some way to explain how we may read this simile (338 –

346) to handle the apparent complication that it presents here?

364 – 521 The

Catalogue of the Fallen Angels

In Book 1 of the Iliad,

Homer offers a list (catalogue) of all the armies that launched from

the Greek mainland in the expedition to fight the Trojans. Milton

adapts the Homeric catalogue here to present a list of the major

fallen angels. We learn in this catalogue that these fallen angels

will become the objects of worship of pagan cultures throughout human

history.

522 – 587 The

fallen angels now assemble into formation before Satan, their battle

general.

587 – 621 Satan

is described preparing to address the troops.

This is a famous passage for

the manner in which it depicts Satan (heroically or not, you can

decide). The simile at 594 – 599 has fascinated critics. One of

the demands that many passages of Paradise

Lost impose on

readers is that multiple perspectives are possible. Use

this section of the text (587 – 621) as an opportunity to study the

idea of multiple perspectives on Satan. See if you can find some

lines that cast one perspective on Satan and some lines that cast a

quite different (even opposed) one. You may even find multiple

perspectives lurking in single words and phrases.

622 – 662 Satan’s

Fifth Monologue

Here

is Satan’s first proper speech to an audience (beyond just

Beelzebub). Satan’s challenge here is that he needs to take

demoralized troops and animate them for a new battle with God. Find

several points in this monologue where you detect some clear

strategic intention behind the words and phrasing that Satan uses.

Take note that he succeeds in eliciting from the angels a massive

show of support and solidarity at (663 – 669). Do

you have a way to explain how Satan manages to elicit such a positive

response from the angels in these lines (622 – 662)?

670 – 798

The Creation of

Pandemonium

Satan has proposed at the end

of his final monologue in this book that the angels need to have a

conference to decide how to further their war with God. What follows

in these lines is the creation of a huge palace where they can hold

their “debate” in Book 2. We learn here that there are, in fact,

huge tracts of gold under the burning ground of Hell. In short

order, a palace greater than any formed by human hands has been

completed by the fallen angels. When the palace is completed, a

sound of trumpets signals to the angels to move toward the palace.

It is not big enough, however, for all the angels (whose size is

huge). The puzzle of how they will all fit into the palace called

Pandemonium (a now popular word coined by Milton from the Greek pan meaning all and demon-ium meaning demons or devils) is handled ends Book 1. Study lines 668 – 798. Can you find any point of connection between this dramatic scene and anything we have discussed about Milton’s presentation of Hell?

Answer preview for 271 – 282 Beelzebub urges Satan to rouse the millions of fallen angels laying on the sea of flames. 283 – 315 Satan walks toward the shore

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