Grace Kasemeier

P. 2
12/13/16

The Fall
1. Milton chooses to continue the story in the last three books in order to
wrap up his point that even though Adam and Eve sinned without their
sin humanity would not have existed. It also allows him to set up the
coming of the Messiah and the reasons for it which he will continue in
Paradise Regained. Showing Adam what the future holds both good
and bad gives Adam the right amount of humility and obedience to God
while still giving him hope to continue the human race. Without the last
three books Adam doesnt have as much knowledge of whats to come and therefore is more
hopeless.
2. Adams fault according to God is that he put Eve before God and listened to her about the
apple fully aware of the sin he was committing. He chose Eve over God and that according to
the Son and God was his sin. After the fall Adam has to devout his life to God in order to even
partly make up for his sin.
3. Satan thinks hes won because hes tainted mankind and Paradise but it only occured
because it was part of Gods bigger plan. Satan returns to his demons completely delusional
and tells them of his victory only to realize that they are all snakes and he is in fact a snake.
This shows his distance from God as he has fully committed an action that can never be
redeemed and for his eternal, this isnt clarified, punishment he will have to crawl on his belly
and be stepped on by Adam and Eves children.
4. Free will is a major point that Milton discusses early in the poem. He stressed how important
free will is to mankind and how it's part of their defining trait and to take away one mans free will
is a sin but in the last book he stresses the importance of devotion to God. Earlier he raised the
question of which one takes precedence and in the end he clearly states which it is. He puts
devotion to God as more important than free will wrapping up his argument about free will and
stressing its important place in relationship to complete devotion and obedience to God.
5. Adam and Eve after the fall each lose all hope. Eve tries to convince Adam that suicide is
their only salvation and this makes Adam realize that what they must do is devout their lives to
God. This shows that even at their worst they choose the right path of God even when there is
very little hope of salvation. God is shown only slightly differently as he is now forgiving and
does have a form of salvation for his followers even if its only through death.
6. The last lines of the poem are a final goodbye to Adam and Eve and their paradise. It makes
me feel sad because of all the beauty thats being left behind but Milton also adds a tone of
hope a wondering about what the rest of the world holds and how everything is yet to come
because of Adam and Eves fall. It sees them going out into the world to start a life a final

conclusion of the fall to lead up to the hope that the Son of Christ brings and the salvation hell
provided in Paradise Regained.
7. Milton brings up the liberty that comes from free will by highlighting the good and bad
aspects of liberty he can ultimately say that devotion to God is more important. The fall is the
ultimate bad choice using free will but Adam and Eves desire to never again disobey God is the
ultimate good use of liberty, according to Milton. Also using the vision Michael shows to Adam
about the choices man makes because they have liberty, Milton can showcase what good and
bad decisions utilizing that liberty means. It fits the ending of the poem as it states the purpose
of mankind is to use its liberty to devote itself to God and watches the beginning of mankind go
off to do just that.