Study Questions for Milton's Paradise Lost

• Compare the opening lines of Paradise Lost to the opening lines of the Iliad and the Aeneid.  Does this poem have an invocation of the muse?
• In Book 1, what kind of character is Satan?  Is he appealing in any way?  Does he seem heroic?  How is he described physically?  How does Satan feel about his new home?
• How is Hell described in Book 1?  Compare Milton's description of Hell to Dante's.
• Compare Milton's Adam and Eve narrative to the one we read in Genesis.  What does Milton include that the Genesis account does not?
• Read the dialogues between Adam and Eve carefully.  What is the topic of their argument?  Is their dialogue dramatic in any way?
• Does Milton include any Greek and Roman material in his treatment of this biblical story?
• Compare the description of Satan in Book 1 to the description in Book 9.  Has he changed?
• What is Adam's attitude toward mortality?
• What do Adam and Eve say about their future together?

Questions for Book 9 only

• Read the opening lines of Paradise Lost, below.  Why do you think Milton feels that it is necessary to "justify the ways of God to men"?
• How does Milton amplify the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis?
• Why do Adam and Eve have so much work to do in the Garden of Eden?
• Is Eve's argument in favor of working separately from Adam a good one?
• How does Satan react to Eve when he first sees her?  What does this response tell you about him?
• Read carefully Satan's description of the Tree of Knowledge (lines 575-598).  Why is the speech effective?
• How does Eve change after she eats the fruit?
• How does Adam respond to Eve's news?

The opening lines of Paradise Lost:

Of Man's First disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,

Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth 

Rose out of Chaos:  Or if Sion Hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd

Fast by the oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,

That with no middle flight intends to soar

Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues

Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme.

And chiefly Thou o Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first

Wast present, and with mightly wings outspread

Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss

And mad'st it pregnant:  What in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support;

That to the heighth of this great Argument

I may assert eternal providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Visit the Milton Reading Room for an interactive, annotated version of Paradise Lost.