A Broadsheet for the Examined Mind
Dispatches, close readings, and revision notes filed under Paradise Lost.
A close guide to the climax of Paradise Lost: Eve’s proposal to work apart, Satan’s serpentine rhetoric, the eating of the fruit, Adam’s choice, and the immediate aftermath of shame, lust, and blame.
A guide to Book IV of Paradise Lost: Satan’s “myself am Hell” soliloquy, the description of Eden, Adam and Eve’s hierarchical marriage, the hymn to wedded love, and the first intrusion of evil into Paradise.
A guide to Book III of Paradise Lost: Milton’s invocation to light, God’s speech on foreknowledge and free will, the Son’s offer of substitution, and Satan’s flight to the created world.
A guide to the infernal council of Paradise Lost: Moloch’s war, Belial’s quietism, Mammon’s empire, Beelzebub’s strategy of guile, Satan’s solo mission, and the allegory of Sin and Death at the gates of Hell.
A close guide to the opening book of Milton’s epic: the invocation and its theodicy, Satan’s rhetoric of the unconquerable will, the catalogue of fallen angels, and the building of Pandemonium as a parody of divine creation.
