Paradise Lost Summary | Chapterly

Paradise Lost by John Milton: A Complete Summary "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." Overview Paradise Lost (1667) is the most ambitious poem in the English language — an epic in blank verse that retells the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: Satan's rebellion against God, the war in Heaven, the creation of the world, the temptation of Eve, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. John Milton wrote it blind, dictating to secretaries, drawing on a lifetime of classical learning, political engagement (he served as a propagandist for Oliver Cromwell's republic), and theological passion. His stated purpose was to "justify the ways of God to men" — to explain why an omnipotent, benevolent God permits evil and suffering. Yet the poem's most compelling character is Satan. Milton's Satan is not a cartoonish villain but a tragic, charismatic figure — a fallen angel of immense intelligence and wounded pride. This has produced two centuries of debate: is Milton of the devil's party without knowing it, as William Blake famously suggested, or does the poem carefully expose the seductive logic of evil?...