Page 183 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes act primarily out of love and mercy. The Son, full of compassion, praises God for his kindness
toward man, but asks how mercy can be given without destroying justice. God answers that a
suitable sacrifice must be made: someone worthy must offer to die to pay for man’s sin. The angelic
choirs are silent, but the Son immediately offers himself. He will become mortal so that God can
yield to Death and conquer Hell. God is overjoyed, even though he will be giving up his son, because
he knows that it is good to sacrifice his son for the salvation of the human race, in order for justice
and mercy to be served. Those that have faith in the Son will be redeemed, but those who do not
accept grace will still be doomed to Hell. The choirs of angels now break into a song of praise
extolling the goodness of both Father and Son, which will turn a sorrowful deed into greater glory
for both God and man.
The story returns to Satan, who lands on Earth in what is now China. There are not yet any living
things there, or any of the works of man that will eventually distract man’s mind from God. At
length, Satan sees a high-reaching structure in the distance, an enormous kingly gate in the sky
with stairs leading all the way down to Earth. This gate guards Heaven, which was at that time
visible from Earth. Flying over to it, Satan climbs up a few steps to get a better view. He sees the
new creation in all its glory, but can only feel jealousy. He does not stay put for long, though: he is
drawn by the golden sun, hanging above the green and lush land, and flies toward it. There he sees
an angel standing on a hill. To deceive him, Satan changes to a cherub, or low-ranking angel.
Recognizing the other angel as the Archangel Uriel, Satan approaches and addresses him. Satan
claims to have just come down from Heaven, full of curiosity about the new world he has been
hearing so much about, and curious about its inhabitants. Satan’s transformation and his speech are
so flawless that even Uriel cannot see through the subterfuge. The Archangel is pleased that a young
angel is showing so much zeal to find out about the world that God brought out of the Chaos from
earth, air, wind and fire. He happily points out the way to Paradise, where Adam lives. After giving
his due respects, Satan flies off with dark intentions.

Analysis

As the narrative of Paradise Lost shifts from its sustained focus on Hell and Satan and begins to
present glimpses of Heaven and God, we may feel that the story loses some of the intense interest
and appeal that it began with. The discussion in Heaven is moving and theologically interesting,
but the parts of the poem treating the evil designs of Satan are written with more potency and
rhetorical vigor. The characters in Heaven play a relatively passive role, watching the story unfold,
while Satan actively and endlessly devises his evil machinations. Moreover, the sinful, evil characters
hold our attention more easily than the pure and virtuous ones. Satan appears to be the active hero,
struggling for his personal desires, and God may seem rather dull. These observations, however,
are beside the point that Milton hopes to prove to his readers: God’s reason and grace rule the
universe and control all of those who live there.
The encounter between Satan and Uriel demonstrates Satan’s capacity for deception and fraud, as
he subverts Uriel’s role as a guardian by disguising himself as a cherub. Uriel is unable to recognize
Satan in part because he does not believe it possible that Satan would be lurking around. As a
devout and virtuous angel, Uriel is unable to recognize evil even when it presents itself right in
front of him. Through Satan’s deception of Uriel, Milton shows the significance of the sin of fraud,
or hypocrisy. Fraud is an especially damaging sin because it is invisible to others, hurting them in
ways they are not even aware of. In the Inferno, Dante maintains that fraud is the worst of all man’s
sins. Milton goes almost as far in showing that leading innocent people to evil is much worse than
leading yourself to evil.
Milton reveals his own personal theological positions in Book III. Through God’s initial speech, for
example, Milton discards the orthodox Calvinist position of predestination. Omniscient God, seeing
the fall in the future, says that men cannot blame God for their fate, or for acts of evil or bad luck,

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