Chapter Characters of Paradise Lost - Study Guide by John Milton

Ithuriel and Zephon find Satan

"Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve;

Assaying by his devilish art to reach

The organs of her fancy, and with them forge

Illusions as he list…"

(IV.800-3)

At the touch of Ithuriel’s spear Satan resumes his true form, "no falsehood can endure | Touch of celestial temper, but returns | Of force to its own likeness" (IV.811-13). The loss of control over metamorphic capabilities is one of the consequences of angelic fall. God changes the devils in to serpents as punishment for their disobedience. Milton tells of this on Satan’s triumphant return to hell

"A while he stood, expecting

Their universal shout and high applause

To fill his ear, when contrary he hears

On all sides, from innumerable tongues

A dismal universal hiss, the sound

Of public scorn; he wondered, but not long

Had leisure, wondering at himself now more;

His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare,

His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining

Each other, till supplanted down he fell

A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,

Reluctant, but in vain, a greater power

Now ruled him, punished him in the shape he sinned,

According to his doom."

(X.504-17)

The Politics of Paradise Lost

As discussed above, Milton had been politically active during the years 1649-60: serving the Republic and Protectorate, writing tracts in defending the Regicide and the sanctity of the Republic. With the return of Charles II to England in 1660 the government reverted to monarchy, the very constitutional form Milton was so vehemently opposed to. A reading of The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Commonwealth reveals the extent of Milton’s disdain for monarchical forms of government. In short Milton was an ardent republican and it is unfeasible that he would remain silent under a Stuart monarchy. During the 1640s and 1650s Milton produced tracts immersed in political theory; many of the theories regarding governmental forms are incorporated into Paradise Lost. Why Milton would do this in a Christian