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Unit 21: Paradise Lost-I (Non-detailed Study): Discussion and Analysis–II

recount events that occurred before the story began. This style of narration, referred to as in medias Notes
res (Latin for “in the middle of things”), allows the epic poem to begin with engaging scenes and
action to immediately engage our interest and attention. When the story is underway, the narrator
can confidently return to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and give us further context about the
story we are reading. Milton uses a similar tactic in Book V, throwing both Adam and us, the readers,
in the middle of the story. We, like Adam, have heard only about Heaven’s side of the war in
Heaven and about Adam and Eve’s early days. Raphael then informs us of the world’s creation and
its structures and hierarchies.

What does Eve’s dream foreshadow?

Milton uses Raphael’s story to present another of his unorthodox religious views. Milton believed
that the Son had an origin and was thus not eternal. This notion challenged traditional Christian
belief, which holds that the Son (Jesus) is coeternal with the Father —although they relate as father
and son, there was no “birth” or starting point for the divine relationship or for either of them. Since
they are two parts of the same eternal God, they must both have existed for eternity. Milton rejects
this idea with his assertion that there was a specific time when the Father begat the Son. Milton
certainly did not deny the divinity of Jesus, but his challenging belief in Jesus’ separate origin reminds
us that he was never afraid to distance himself from conventional religion, and that he trusted his
own interpretations more than those of any institution.

21.2 Book–VI

21.2.1 Summary: Prologue and Invocation

Raphael continues his story of the first conflict between Satan and the Father. Again, Raphael gestures
that he must find a way to relate the war in terms that Adam will understand. Raphael returns to
his story with Abdiel, who confronts Satan and the other rebel angels and tells them that their
defeat is imminent. He leaves the followers of Satan and is welcomed back into the ranks of God.
He is forgiven by God and praised for his loyalty, obedience, and resistance of evil. God appoints
Gabriel and Michael the leaders of Heaven’s army, which is justly made up of only as many angels
as Satan’s army.
Shortly thereafter, the two sides prepare their armies. The two armies line up in full view of each
other, waiting for the signal to attack. Satan and Abdiel square off in the middle; they exchange
insults, and then blows, and the battle begins. Both sides fight fiercely and evenly until Michael, the
co-leader of the good angels, deals Satan a blow with an unusually large and intimidating sword.
The sword slices through Satan’s entire right side, and the rebellious angels then retreat with their
wounded leader. But because angels have no bodies, says Milton, they can only be wounded
temporarily, and Satan is able to regroup for the next day of fighting. Satan easily rouses himself
and his followers for a second day of battle arguing that better weapons must yield better results.
He plans to use a secret weapon, cannons, which the rebels spend the entire night building.
Satan’s army unveils the cannons the next day and bombards the good angels. The good angels find
themselves at a disadvantage as their armor becomes a hindrance to their escape. Michael finally
provides a solution: the good angels pick up mountains and move them across the battlefield to
bury the rebel angels and their artillery. The rebel angels must slowly dig themselves out from
underneath the mountains and reassemble. Night falls, and God decides that there will be no fighting
on the third day, and that the war must now end. He sends out his Son the next day, who charges
through the enemy ranks on a great chariot and drives them from the battlefield. The Son, endowed

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