Summary
Book III opens with a second invocation to his muse, this
time addressed to “holy light” (III.1). Milton
asks that the heavenly light shine inside him and illuminate his
mind with divine knowledge so that he can share this knowledge with
his readers.
The scene shifts to Heaven, where God has been watching
all of the events in Hell with his Son sitting at his right hand.
He sees Satan flying up toward the new Earth and the parents of
mankind. At the same time, he sees everything that will happen because
of it, perceiving past, present, and future simultaneously. He sees
that man will fall, of his own fault, because God gave him free
will—yet without that will, man would not be capable of sincere
love. Man would merely go through the motions. While it would be
just to punish man for his own actions, God determines that he will
act primarily out of love and mercy. The Son, full of compassion,
praises God for his kindness toward man, but asks how mercy can
be given without destroying justice. God answers that a suitable
sacrifice must be made: someone worthy must offer to die to pay
for man’s sin. The angelic choirs are silent, but the Son immediately
offers himself. He will become mortal so that God can yield to Death
and conquer Hell. God is overjoyed, even though he will be giving
up his son, because he knows that it is good to sacrifice his son
for the salvation of the human race, in order for justice and mercy
to be served. Those that have faith in the Son will be redeemed,
but those who do not accept grace will still be doomed to Hell.
The choirs of angels now break into a song of praise extolling the
goodness of both Father and Son, which will turn a sorrowful deed
into greater glory for both God and man.
The story returns to Satan, who lands on Earth in what
is now China. There are not yet any living things there, or any
of the works of man that will eventually distract man’s mind from
God. At length, Satan sees a high-reaching structure in the distance,
an enormous kingly gate in the sky with stairs leading all the way
down to Earth. This gate guards Heaven, which was at that time visible
from Earth. Flying over to it, Satan climbs up a few steps to get
a better view. He sees the new creation in all its glory, but can
only feel jealousy. He does not stay put for long, though: he is
drawn by the golden sun, hanging above the green and lush land,
and flies toward it. There he sees an angel standing on a hill.
To deceive him, Satan changes to a cherub, or low-ranking angel.
Recognizing the other angel as the Archangel Uriel, Satan approaches
and addresses him. Satan claims to have just come down from Heaven,
full of curiosity about the new world he has been hearing so much
about, and curious about its inhabitants. Satan’s transformation
and his speech are so flawless that even Uriel cannot see through
the subterfuge. The Archangel is pleased that a young angel is showing
so much zeal to find out about the world that God brought out of
the Chaos from earth, air, wind and fire. He happily points out
the way to Paradise, where Adam lives. After giving his due respects,
Satan flies off with dark intentions.
Analysis
As the narrative of Paradise Lost shifts
from its sustained focus on Hell and Satan and begins to present
glimpses of Heaven and God, we may feel that the story loses some
of the intense interest and appeal that it began with. The discussion
in Heaven is moving and theologically interesting, but the parts
of the poem treating the evil designs of Satan are written with
more potency and rhetorical vigor. The characters in Heaven play
a relatively passive role, watching the story unfold, while Satan
actively and endlessly devises his evil machinations. Moreover,
the sinful, evil characters hold our attention more easily than
the pure and virtuous ones. Satan appears to be the active hero,
struggling for his personal desires, and God may seem rather dull.
These observations, however, are beside the point that Milton hopes
to prove to his readers: God’s reason and grace rule the universe
and control all of those who live there.
The encounter between Satan and Uriel demonstrates Satan’s capacity
for deception and fraud, as he subverts Uriel’s role as a guardian
by disguising himself as a cherub. Uriel is unable to recognize
Satan in part because he does not believe it possible that Satan would
be lurking around. As a devout and virtuous angel, Uriel is unable
to recognize evil even when it presents itself right in front of him.
Through Satan’s deception of Uriel, Milton shows the significance
of the sin of fraud, or hypocrisy. Fraud is an especially damaging sin
because it is invisible to others, hurting them in ways they are
not even aware of. In the Inferno, Dante maintains
that fraud is the worst of all man’s sins. Milton goes almost as
far in showing that leading innocent people to evil is much worse
than leading yourself to evil.
Milton reveals his own personal theological positions
in Book III. Through God’s initial speech, for example, Milton discards
the orthodox Calvinist position of predestination. Omniscient God, seeing
the fall in the future, says that men cannot blame God for their
fate, or for acts of evil or bad luck, insisting that man possesses free
will, even though God can foresee what they will do. God’s speech
here contradicts the Calvinist belief, held by most of Milton’s fellow
Puritans, that the fate of every man’s soul is decided before birth.
Milton refuses to abandon his belief in free will, insisting that man
must have free will in order to prove his sincere love for God. This
balance between free will and virtue is a paradox—man is free to
choose, but only truly free when he chooses the good.
