1. Paradise Lost Class 2--Books II-VIII
    1. Book II
      1. The Consult--
        1. general
          1. issues of deliberation and uncertainty vs. Heaven's certainty--difficulties of decision--trial and temptation--opinion swayng back and forth
          2. Parliamentary governance
        2. Satan raised--his leadership qualities
          1. Pep talk--we're better off ["surer to prposper than prosperity/ could have assured us"]because we chose this situation and because we are classless; no danger here of ambition and faction
          2. Deliberation--epic/political--vita activa
        3. *Moloch--the violent [Ajax in the Iliad]
          1. "My sentence is for open war"
          2. Big noise
          3. What could be worse
        4. Belial
          1. Pleased the ear, make the worse appear the better reason
          2. Its not so bad here--"if we can sustain and bear/Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit/His anger" 210
        5. Mammon
          1. Mammon--252--seek our own good from ourselves--"this desert soil wants not hidden lustre"271
          2. applause
        6. Beelzebub--Satan's patsy
          1. Those plans wont work--easier enterprise--pursue revenge only--mess up God's new plan for creation
          2. Who shall we send--Satan only one to volunteer--a set-up political situation 420
          3. He gets honor and praise--all this worked through manipulation and demagoguery and yet narrator admires their capacity to decide and act in concert contrasted to humans who cant resolve disagreements 500
      2. Satan encounters Sin and Death--hostile guardians of the gate
        1. Woman to waist then monstrous 650--pictures--
        2. Death --shape that had none 670
        3. *She parts them and reveals incestuous family 727
          1. Recalls her birth 755 and seduction by Satan--male procreation
          2. Pregnancy and birth of Death, who then rapes her--classical stories of Gods 790
          3. Emphasis on sexuality--either perverted here or as idealized
        4. Reconciliation
          1. promising them dominion on earth-- Opening gate 871
      3. Voyage through Chaos
        1. Universal anarchy--890-904--contrasted to Nature--the earth hanging from heaven by a golden chain [astronautical view]
    2. Book III
      1. Proem
        1. From chaos to heaven--evoked as light; Milton, the narrator lives in darkness 23--pathos and consolation
        2. Mode of composing the poem
      2. Contrast Heaven's geography and government with Hell's--345 worship and praise
        1. no doubts; truthful logic--Theological truth 210 and 285
        2. God and Son--Theological explanation
          1. Contrast this relationship with Satan, Sin and Death
          2. *Son's voluntary sacrifice--235
      3. Issue of free will anad choice--everthing leading up to the moment of choice-- most important, irreducible, self-defining moments
        1. God understands this with no difficulty, everybody else has problems with it and is therefore conflicted
        2. God is not conflicted by things that cause humans conflict
    3. Book IV
      1. Satan's inner conflict--73 to 110
        1. Effort at repentance 79
        2. evil be thou my good 110
      2. Landscape of paradise--252
      3. View of Adam and Eve
        1. Emphasis on their superiority to animals, his superiority to her--definition of gender
          1. "For contemplation he and valor formed"--vita contemplativa; vita activa 297
          2. "For softness she and sweet attractive grace" --vita voluptuosa
          3. "He for god only, she for god in him" 299

          b) Emphasis on hairdos

        2. Innocent eroticism--288-315=paradise
      4. Adam's first speech is about the prohibition--432
      5. Eve's first speech: you are superior, recollecting her birth and initial self-love 477: all about resistance and yielding
        1. "sweet reluctant amorous delay"
      6. Devil's envy and fierce desire 509
      7. Evening prayers. Connubial rites and narrator's paean to married love 736
    4. Book V
      1. Eve's dream
        1. What kind of paradise is this? Milton's interest in Innocence; what is the knowledge of good and evil? Her tears 130
        2. Satan eating fruit--many different attractions--make Gods of men; flying and dropping 87
        3. Adam's warning--Reason vs. imagination
      2. Raphael's visit
        1. warning--again freedom of choice
        2. Eve Ministers naked 444 and not part of the boys' club--though so attractive
        3. Tells Adam men may eventually become all spirit 494
    5. Book VI
      1. The War in Heaven
    6. Book VII
      1. The creation of the world by the Son--text from website
        1. Differences from Genesis
          1. Done by the Son--a Christian version of Creation, emphasizing the back story of Genesis 1
          2. Plurality of God as we turns into Son and choruses of angels--more grandiosed production
          3. Genesis has two distinct creation stories--in first male and female created equal, after the animals; in second, Adam created first, then the animals, then Eve. Milton includes prohibition in his story of sixth day, trying to reconcile two narratives
        2. Milton's elaborate natural descriptions--
          1. onomatopoetic sounds of natural processes, energies and movements;
          2. personifications of mountains rising resembling modern plate techtonic subduction, etc.
    7. Book VIII
      1. At end of long narrative about creation, Raphael's warning about not pursuing too much knowledge, but rather knowing what's right
      2. Adam wants to tell Raphael his story; his adoration of the Angel "while I sit with thee, I seem in Heaven"--who likes him too: "Nor are thy lips ungraceful Sire of Men/Nor tongue ineloquent" 218-219
      3. Wakes up alive, led to Eden by spirit, meets God, who gives him paradise 318--plus the warning, tells him to name all things
      4. First debate about Eve: Adam vs. God
        1. Adam doesn’t find "what methoght I wanted still" and argues with God that he needs partner--not solitude;
        2. In response to God's challenge, says he needs equal companion:"Among unequals what society?" 383
        3. God is amused--"A nice and subtle happiness I see/thou to thyself proposest, in the choice of thy associates'
        4. Still debates, saying I'm along, Adam answers, but you are perfect.
        5. God then relents saying he was just testing Adam
      5. Eve taken from his rib in sleep; he pursues her and she flees at first
      6. Takes her to his bower: "Here passion first I felt,/Commoiton strange" 531
      7. And disturbance: "Yet when I approach/ her loveliness, so absolute she seems/…seems wisest virtuousest, discreetest, best…Authority and Reason on her wait/Greatness of mind and nobleness thir seat/Build in her loveliest, and create an awe/About her, as a guard Angelic plact."
      8. Second debate
        1. Angel answers with contacted brow; and Adam continues to defend his love, switching then to questions about love among angels where there is no gender