Editing Paradise Lost (section)

==Characters==
===Satan===
[[File:ParadiseLButts1.jpg|thumb|''Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels'', [[William Blake]] (1808).]]

[[Satan]], formerly called [[Lucifer#As the devil|Lucifer]], is the first major character introduced in the poem. He is a tragic figure who famously declares: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (1.263). Following his vain [[War in Heaven|rebellion]] against [[God in Christianity|God]] he is cast out from Heaven and condemned to Hell. The rebellion stems from Satan's pride and envy (5.660ff.).

Opinions on the character are often sharply divided. Milton presents Satan as the origin of all evil, but some readers interpret Milton's Satan as a nuanced or sympathetic character. [[Romanticism|Romanticist]] critics in particular, among them [[William Blake]], [[Lord Byron]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], and [[William Hazlitt]], are known for interpreting Satan as a hero of ''Paradise Lost''. This has led other critics, such as [[C. S. Lewis]] and [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]], both of whom were devout Christians, to argue against reading Satan as a sympathetic, heroic figure.<ref>{{Citation |last=Carey |first=John |title=Milton's Satan |date=1999-07-22 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511999116A014/type/book_part |work=The Cambridge Companion to Milton |pages=160–174 |editor-last=Danielson |editor-first=Dennis |edition=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/ccol052165226x.011 |isbn=978-0-521-65226-1 |access-date=2022-05-02}}</ref><ref name="A Preface to Paradise Lost">{{Cite web |title=A Preface to Paradise Lost |url=https://www.somesmart.com/book/4/a-preface-to-paradise-lost |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=www.somesmart.com}}</ref> Despite Blake thinking that Milton intended for Satan to have a heroic role in the poem, Blake himself described Satan as the "state of error", and as beyond salvation.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Damon |first1=S. Foster |title=A Blake dictionary: the ideas and symbols of William Blake |last2=Eaves |first2=Morris |date=1988 |publisher=University press of New England for Brown university press |isbn=978-0-87451-436-0 |edition=Rev. ed. with a new foreword and annotated bibliography |location=Hanover (N. H.) London}}</ref>

[[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]] argues that this conflict cannot be solved, because the character of Satan exists in more modes and greater depth than the other characters of ''Paradise Lost'': in this way, Milton has created an ambivalent character, and any "pro-Satan" or "anti-Satan" argument is by its nature discarding half the evidence. Satan's ambivalence, Carey says, is "a precondition of the poem's success{{snd}} a major factor in the attention it has aroused".<ref>{{Citation |last=Carey |first=John |title=Milton's Satan |date=1999-07-22 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511999116A014/type/book_part |work=The Cambridge Companion to Milton |page=161 |editor-last=Danielson |editor-first=Dennis |edition=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/ccol052165226x.011 |isbn=978-0-521-65226-1 |access-date=2022-05-02}}</ref>

[[C. S. Lewis]] argues in his ''[[A Preface to Paradise Lost]]'' that it is important to remember what society was like when Milton wrote the poem. In particular, during that time period, there were certain "stock responses" to elements that Milton would have expected every reader to have. As examples, Lewis lists "love is sweet, death bitter, virtue lovely, and children or gardens delightful." According to Lewis, Milton would have expected readers to not view Satan as a hero at all. Lewis argues readers far in the future romanticizing Milton's intentions is not accurate.<ref name="brown-corkscrews-2010">{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Devin |date=2010-09-08 |title=Corkscrews, Cathedrals, and the Chronicles of Narnia |url=https://www.cslewis.com/corkscrews-cathedrals-and-the-chronicles-of-narnia/ |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=Official Site {{!}} CSLewis.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Comparative religion]] scholar [[R. J. Zwi Werblowsky]] argues in his ''[[Lucifer and Prometheus]]'' that Milton's Satan is a disproportionately appealing character because of attributes he shares with the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]] [[Prometheus]]. It has been called "most illuminating" for its historical and typological perspective on Milton's Satan as embodying both positive and negative values.<ref>Alessandro Bausani, "Islam in the History of Religions", ''Problems and Methods of the History of Religions'' (Brill, 1972), p. 62.</ref> The book has also been significant in pointing out the essential ambiguity of Prometheus and his dual [[Jesus|Christ]]-like/Satanic nature as developed in the [[Christians|Christian]] tradition.<ref>Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa, "Myth into Metaphor: The Case of Prometheus", ''Gilgul: Essays on Transformation, Revolution and Permanence in the History of Religions'' (Brill, 1987), p. 311.</ref> <!-- Attribution: This paragraph was taken from revision 1282575492 of [[Lucifer and Prometheus]]. -->

===Adam===
[[Adam]] is the first human created by God. Adam requests a companion from God: {{blockquote|Of fellowship I speak<br />Such as I seek, fit to participate<br />All rational delight, wherein the brute<br />Cannot be human consort. (8.389–392)}} God approves his request then creates Eve. God appoints Adam and Eve to rule over all the creatures of the world and to reside in the Garden of Eden.

Adam is more gregarious than Eve and yearns for her company. He is completely infatuated with her. Raphael advises him to "take heed lest Passion sway / Thy Judgment" (5.635–636). But Adam's great love for Eve contributes to his disobedience to God.

Unlike the biblical Adam, before Milton's Adam leaves Paradise he is given a glimpse of the future of mankind by the Archangel Michael, which includes stories from the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]s.

===Eve===
[[File:William Blake - The Temptation and Fall of Eve (Illustration to Milton's "Paradise Lost") - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[William Blake]], ''The Temptation and Fall of Eve'', 1808 (illustration of Milton's ''Paradise Lost'').]]
[[Eve]] is the second human created by God. God takes one of Adam's ribs and shapes it into Eve. Whether Eve is actually inferior to Adam is a vexed point. She is often unwilling to be submissive. Eve may be the more intelligent of the two. When she first met Adam she turned away, more interested in herself. She had been looking at her reflection in a lake before being led invisibly to Adam. Recounting this to Adam she confesses that she found him less enticing than her reflection (4.477–480).

Eve delivers an autobiography in Book 4.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Loewenstein |first=David |chapter=The Milton Encyclopedia |date=2017|pages=273 |editor-last=Corns |editor-first=Thomas N. |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300183627-004/html |access-date=2024-01-27 |publisher=Yale University Press |doi=10.12987/9780300183627-004 |isbn=978-0-300-18362-7}}</ref>

In Book 9, Milton stages a domestic drama between Adam and Eve, which results in Eve convincing Adam to separate for a time to work in different parts of the Garden. This allows Satan to deceive her while she is alone. To tempt her to eat the forbidden fruit, Satan tells a story about how he ate it, using the language of Renaissance love poetry. He overcomes her reason; she eats the fruit.<ref name=":1" />

===The Son of God===
[[File:ParadiseLButts10.jpg|thumb|''The Judgment of Adam and Eve: "So Judged He Man"'', [[William Blake]] (1808)]]
The [[Son of God]] is the spirit who will become incarnate as [[Jesus Christ]], though he is never named explicitly because he has not yet entered human form. Milton believed in a [[Subordinationism|subordinationist]] doctrine of [[Christology]] that regarded the Son as secondary to the Father and as God's "great Vice-regent" (5.609).

Milton's God in ''Paradise Lost'' refers to the Son as "My word, my wisdom, and effectual might" (3.170). The poem is not explicitly [[anti-trinitarian]], but it is consistent with Milton's convictions. The Son is the ultimate hero of the epic and is infinitely powerful—he single-handedly defeats Satan and his followers and drives them into Hell. After their fall, the Son of God tells Adam and Eve about God's judgment. Before their fall the Father foretells their "Treason" (3.207) and that Man
{{blockquote|<poem>
with his whole posteritie must dye,
Dye hee or Justice must; unless for him
Som other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death. (3.210–212)
</poem>}}
The Father then asks whether there "Dwels in all Heaven charitie so deare?" (3.216) and the Son volunteers himself.

In the final book a vision of Salvation through the Son is revealed to Adam by Michael. The name Jesus of Nazareth, and the details of Jesus' story are not depicted in the poem,<ref>{{Harvnb|Marshall|1961|p=17}}.</ref> though they are alluded to. Michael explains that "Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call", prefigures the Son of God, "his name and office bearing" to "quell / The adversarie Serpent, and bring back [...] long wander[e]d man / Safe to eternal Paradise of rest".<ref>{{Harvnb|Milton|1674}}, [[s:Paradise Lost/Book XII#40|12.310–314]].</ref>

===God the Father===
[[God the Father]] is the creator of Heaven, Hell, the world, of everyone and everything there is, through the agency of His Son. Milton presents God as all-powerful and all-knowing, as an infinitely great being who cannot be overthrown by even the great army of angels Satan incites against him. Milton portrays God as often conversing about his plans and his motives for his actions with the Son of God. The poem shows God creating the world in the way Milton believed it was done, that is, God created Heaven, Earth, Hell, and all the creatures that inhabit these separate planes from part of Himself, not out of nothing.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lehnhof|2004|p=15}}.</ref> Thus, according to Milton, the ultimate authority of God over all things that happen derives from his being the "author" of all creation. Satan tries to justify his rebellion by denying this aspect of God and claiming self-creation, but he admits to himself the truth otherwise, and that God "deserved no such return / From me, whom He created what I was".<ref>{{Harvnb|Milton|1674}}, [[s:Paradise Lost/Book IV#40|4.42–43]].</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Lehnhof|2004|p=24}}.</ref>

=== Raphael ===
[[File:William Blake - The Archangel Raphael with Adam and Eve (Illustration to Milton's "Paradise Lost") - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''The Archangel Raphael with Adam and Eve (Illustration to Milton's "Paradise Lost")'', [[William Blake]] (1808).]]
[[Raphael (archangel)|Raphael]] is an archangel who is sent by God to Eden in order to strengthen Adam and Eve against Satan. He tells a heroic tale about the War in Heaven that takes up most of Book 6 of ''Paradise Lost''. Ultimately, the story told by Raphael, in which Satan is portrayed as bold and decisive, does not prepare Adam and Eve to counter Satan's subtle temptations{{snd}} and may even have caused the Fall in the first place.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Kimberly |date=2012 |title=Raphael's "Potent Tongue": Power and Spectacle in "Paradise Lost" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24462156 |journal=Milton Quarterly |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=205–218 |doi=10.1111/milt.12010 |jstor=24462156 |issn=0026-4326}}</ref>

===Michael===
[[Michael (archangel)|Michael]] is an [[archangel]] who is preeminent in military prowess. He leads in battle and uses a sword which was "giv'n him temperd so, that neither keen / Nor solid might resist that edge" (6.322–323).

God sends Michael to Eden, charging him:
{{blockquote|<poem>
from the Paradise of God
Without remorse drive out the sinful Pair
From hallowd ground th' unholie, and denounce
To them and to thir Progenie from thence
Perpetual banishment. [...]
If patiently thy bidding they obey,
Dismiss them not disconsolate; reveale
To Adam what shall come in future dayes,
As I shall thee enlighten, intermix
My Cov'nant in the womans seed renewd;
So send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace. (11.103–117)
</poem>}}
He is also charged with establishing a guard for Paradise.

When Adam sees him coming he describes him to Eve as
{{blockquote|<poem>
not terrible,
That I should fear, nor sociably mild,
As Raphael, that I should much confide,
But solemn and sublime, whom not to offend,
With reverence I must meet, and thou retire. (11.233–237)
</poem>}}