75 pages • 2 hours read
John MiltonParadise Lost
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1667A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Book 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 2 Summary
Satan sits on a throne while the devils deliberate their next move. Moloch, a fighter, advocates for restarting the physical war using the weapons of Hell. Since they have already been banished from Heaven, Moloch suggests that there is nothing left for them to lose and that perhaps they can injure God. Belial, unconvinced that God can’t and won’t make things worse for the fallen angels, disagrees with Moloch and essentially recommends doing nothing and getting acclimated to their new life in Hell. A third suggestion, provided by Mammon, recommends rebuilding a version of Heaven in their new Hell and recreating a powerful society that rivals Heaven.
Then Beelzebub presents an interesting option: Rumors abound that God is planning a new race called humankind, and if the devils can infiltrate this new world, they can find a more comfortable space than Hell while simultaneously getting revenge against God. The fallen angels are thrilled at the prospect and vote for this option. Beelzebub calls for a volunteer to investigate if the rumors are true and where to find this world of humankind, and Satan rises to volunteer. The fallen angels are impressed by this show from their leader, and Satan prepares to try to leave Hell. The fallen angels explore Hell and try to make it a more livable space while Satan is away.
At the gates of Hell, Satan meets the two guards, one a half-woman, half-snake monster with hounds, and the other a dark figure. The dark figure tells Satan to return to his punishment; before a fight can break out between Satan and the dark figure, the half-woman, half-snake creature tells Satan that the dark figure is his son and she is his daughter. She tells Satan that when he first thought of rebelling against God, she was born from his head as Sin. Satan impregnated her with the dark figure, revealed as Death. Death impregnated Sin with the hounds that now torture her. Before Death was born, Sin was tasked with guarding Hell’s gates, but Satan convinces her to open the gate with her key in return for including her and Death in Satan’s new society. Upon opening the gates, Sin discovers that she cannot reclose them.
Satan escapes Hell and travels through Chaos and Night. Satan falls through the abyss of these materials, but a wind takes him to Chaos and Night personified. He convinces Chaos to give him directions to Earth by vowing to create so much disorder on Earth that it will return to Chaos. As Satan approaches Earth, Sin and Death help build a bridge between Hell and Earth. From his gate in Hell, Satan was incredibly far from Heaven, but he can spot the light of Heaven from his proximity to Earth.
Book 2 Analysis
The beginning of Book 2 implies Satan’s true role as a ruler and not a democratic leader. His seat on a throne parallels God’s role, and his manipulation of the debate with his second-in-command Beelzebub demonstrates that Satan knows what he wants to do and how he’s going to do it. The debate is just a farce to pretend that Satan embodies the independence he desired from God, but in reality Satan is as in control of the devils as God is of his angels. It is also ironic that Satan and his followers treat his volunteering as a sacrifice, given that the reader knows Milton’s ultimate goal is to show how Jesus Christ saves mankind through his sacrifice. Milton is not comparing Jesus with Satan; rather, he is likely setting up a juxtaposition between good and evil. Milton uses this debate and Satan’s impending journey to imply that forms of power, such as in politics, are always corrupt because the structure is too easy to manipulate.
Notable in Book 2 is that as the devils discuss what to do next, no one ever mentions the word “God.” This could signify the deep loss of identity the fallen angels now endure, or it could imply how unknowable and unidentifiable an all-being entity like God is, even to his creations. There are nonetheless many critiques of God throughout Book 2; within the debate, each of the devils who speak criticize life in Heaven and their creator. These critiques of God explain why the fallen angels turned on God in the first place. This power struggle between parent and child, leader and follower, is universally relatable. However, these critiques also serve the opposite purpose: They vilify the devils even more by showing how irrational they are in the face of their creator. For example, Belial does not come up with a solution, he merely chooses the sin of sloth. If these are the types of attitudes that reject God, Milton asks, then is the problem really with God?
In Book 2 Milton explores the topic of free will through Satan’s journey out of Hell. Satan convinces both the guards of Hell and Chaos to help him in his journey, but if God is omnipotent, as Milton suggests, then surely God is permitting Satan to escape from Hell and find Earth. Milton implies that Satan is undergoing this journey with God’s knowledge and compliance in order to challenge notions of free will. Though Milton doesn’t yet answer the question of whether Satan is truly free now that he is independent from God, the reader is asked to wonder about their own free will as well as God’s purpose in allowing Satan’s plan to proceed. Furthermore, if God is allowing Satan to continue on his journey, then is Satan’s revenge against God truly revenge?
When Satan meets the two guards at Hell’s gates, it is revealed that Satan gave birth to Sin and Death—literally and metaphorically. This is important because Milton is suggesting that Satan has always had this darker side. The grotesque characterization of how Sin and Death were conceived (betrayal, rape, incest) reveals that both are products of error, folly, and disobedience. In other words, Milton implies that humankind could have avoided death had certain events transpired differently. But this is a challenging implication, for if Satan is God’s creation, and if God is omnipotent yet Satan can create Sin and Death, then God is the true creator of Sin and Death. The threat of disobedience is clear here: Even a thought of going against God leads to ugly sin and violent death.
Milton also implies an existential question at the very end of Book 2. When Satan finally sees the light of Heaven again, it shows him that Earth is but a spec within Chaos, thereby suggesting that human beings are incredibly small and potentially unimportant in the grand scheme of things. This smallness of Earth may signify the reason why God allows Satan to escape Hell, find Earth, and build a bridge between Hell and Earth.
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