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 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 10 Summary
The Son goes down to Paradise to confront Adam and Eve about their betrayal and fall. At first, Adam and Eve hide, but when they come out they admit to eating the fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The Son doles out punishments: The serpent will always be on his stomach instead of upright, women will endure pain during childbirth and be reliant on their husbands, and men will forever farm an inhospitable land. The Son also proclaims that enmity will forever exist between the children of Adam and Eve and the serpent, finalized by a child who will bruise the serpent on his head. Meanwhile, Sin and Death construct a smooth bridge between Hell and Earth, and Satan instructs them to wreak their havoc on Earth while he returns to Hell. Satan overexaggerates his success in dismantling Paradise, but the cheers he expects from his followers become hisses as they are all transformed into serpents. A tree just like the Tree of Knowledge sprouts, but the fruit turns to ash, punishing Satan and his followers with a facsimile of Satan’s crime.
Sin and Death begin their destruction on Earth, and Adam despairs at the sight of death and war on Earth. He wishes he could die, and when Eve finds him in such desperation, she too wishes she could shoulder all the blame. She suggests dying by suicide, but Adam tells her that she would not avoid God’s punishment. Adam and Eve decide to put their hopes in one another and in the future, because Eve is to birth children who will eventually destroy Satan. Finally accepting their own responsibility, Adam and Eve get on their hands and knees to pray to God for his mercy and forgiveness.
Book 10 Analysis
Book 10 explores the immediate aftermath of the fall. The first important symbol is the newly built bridge between Earth and Hell. Sin and Death build the bridge to be easy to travel, a literal and metaphorical message that Hell is easy to find while Heaven is much more difficult to enter. Humankind will be tempted for centuries to walk down that easier path to Hell, an obvious message that living virtuously is harder but more rewarding in the end.
Satan’s return to Hell parallels the Son’s future return to Heaven after his sacrifice in the form of Jesus. But Milton is not suggesting that the two returns are the same, because unlike the Son’s return to Heaven, Satan’s return to Hell is marked with grandiose hyperbole. It is not entirely true that the destruction of humanity was brought on by one fruit, but the exaggerated story trumps up Satan’s pride. This pride is quickly cut off when all the demons morph into snakes, now the lowliest form of animal there is. Their punishment as a reflection of their crime will continue to be the image of the consequences of Hell for the years to come. Milton therefore communicates that Hell is not a refuge for likeminded, morally corrupt people but a place of reincarnated punishment.
Meanwhile, Adam and Eve turn a corner in their character development, one that will prove to be humankind’s saving grace. Initially, Adam feels deep despair as he watches Paradise decay, prompting more inner turmoil as he wishes for death. But Adam’s despair is, according to Milton, unproductive, as is evidenced by Eve’s even deeper despair and suggestion of dying suicide. It is Adam who talks Eve out of it, and Adam who correctly points out that suicide and death are not the answer to their problems. Eve’s desire to take all the blame is a crucial step in humankind’s road to redemption; with personal responsibility comes repentance and, later, forgiveness. Now, Adam and Eve come together again because they have hope for the future. They know that one day, humankind will be forgiven, and they look to that day with positivity, believing that their punishments are not too much to endure. Interestingly, although Adam and Eve have found humanity’s way out of Satan’s fate, Adam and Satan echo one another in their existential questions about their lives. Satan’s argument for going against God was that Satan had not been asked who and how he wanted to follow. Likewise, Adam cries out that he didn’t ask to be born. Though they have a similar preoccupation with their purpose as God’s creation, they handle this issue very differently: Satan rejects God and the Son and refuses to repent, while Adam asks for mercy.
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