After Beelzebub takes the floor, it becomes clear that
the caucus has been a foregone conclusion. Satan lets the sides
rhetorically engage each other before he announces through Beelzebub
the plan he had all along. Satan and Beelzebub conspire to win the
argument, and do, without any of the other devils recognizing the
fraud. Satan’s volunteering to be the scout then silences all possible
dissent, since he is heralded as the leader of Hell. Here again
is a parody of Hell mimicking Heaven: Satan offers to sacrifice
himself for the good of the other devils, in a twisted imitation
of Christ. The parallel is made even more blatant when Sin cries
out to Satan at the gate of Hell: “O father, what intends thy hand
. . . against thy only son?” (II.727–728). Sin’s
statement foreshadows how God will send his only Son to die, for the
good of the humankind. Satan believes he is free, and both Belial and
Mammon celebrate the freedom of the devils even in Hell, and yet we
see that they have no power to do anything except distort Heavenly things,
twisting them into evil, empty imitations.
Satan’s encounter with Sin and Death is an allegory,
in which the three characters and their relationships represent
abstract ideas. Sin is the first child of Satan, brought to life
by Satan’s disobedience. Since Satan is the first of God’s creations
to disobey, he personifies disobedience, and the fact that Sin is
his daughter suggests that all sins arise from disobedience and
ingratitude toward God. To those who behold her birth, she is first
frightening but then seems strangely attractive, suggesting the
seductive allure of sin to the ordinary individual. Sin dwells alone
and in utter torment, representing the ultimate fate of the sinner.
That Death is Sin’s offspring indicates Milton’s belief that death
is not simply a biological fact of life but rather a punishment
for sin and disobedience, a punishment that nobody escapes.
